jaybs wrote:
Always remember back to the season when the Aussie clubs came over and were at The Stoop, the attendances then were quite reasonable, were they perhaps the best we have had?
In terms of Super League, our best average attendance was in SL1 at the Valley at 5,699 (including 10,014 vs Wigan in Round 21). The World Club Championship games happened the year after when we were at The Stoop. All these games attracted good crowds (Canberra 7,819;Brisbane 9,846;Canterbury 6,923;Cronulla 6,239). Our SL2 average was 4,941 (including 9,166 vs Bradford in Round 22 on a day that was memorable for other reasons).
Having finished 4th and 2nd in the first 2 years of SL, our crowds dwindled along with our form over the subsequent 4 years (2 more years at The Stoop then 2 years back at The Valley) and we averaged only 3,233 by SL6.
The move to Griffin Park seemed to stabilise crowds over the next 4 seasons (a period in which we also achieved the elimination playoffs twice). By our final season at Griffin Park we averaged 4,003 for SL10 (an average of over 4,000 for the first time since SL2).
The move back to The Stoop for SL11 saw an average of 4,917 but this was clearly distorted by a 12,031 gate for the visit of Huddersfield which was a double header with the Harlequins union side.
Our crowds saw a steady decline over this spell at The Stoop reaching an average of just 2,380 by SL18. This coincided with the slide to the nether regions of the league.
The capitulation was completed by the move to The Hive for SL19 where we averaged an abysmal 1,294 and got relegated to The Championship.
Let's just say the potential of the club to average 5,000+ with a competitive SL side has slipped away over time.
