How many rugby league clubs can fill a stadium with just their own fans?

Souths had 27K members at their peak 3 years ago and attracted 17K to a home game vrs Cowboys so all fans bar a few were Souths so members numbers are somewhat inflated or illusory or incl non attendees and 3 game package members

They have struggled to sell out SOO even before they put the prices up - the last 5-10K tend to be free corporate tickets

The number of breaks for dropouts scrums etc require lots of replays which means a live game is full of long breaks so TV is the only option.

Bias exists on BOTH sides of the border but at least on this side the media make an effort to be impartial. You can dismiss my opinion as anecdotal but it is a truthful account and my observations by and large are based on observation of events that did occur. Hard to understand how QLDers can claim QLD are the victim in SOO after such a long run of success but if it eases your conscience then so be it. ;-)

Not sure I agree with comment that not even the 12 apostles would draw a bigger crowd at Wigan that the Roosters. In 2011 Dragons v Wigan drew 24,628 which given capacity of 25,133 stated in article is close to sell out. In 2010 Storm v Leeds drew 27,697, in 2009 Manly v Leeds drew 32,569, in 2008 Storm v Leeds drew 33,204. I wonder if the difference is that in those years the English teams felt they had a strong chance of winning and therefore fans turned out, where as the Roosters 2018 side was such a strong side that marginal fans were not as keen to go to the game as they thought their team would probably lose? In Australia I suspect the Broncos can fill their stadium week in and out and that may be it?

Yeah, cutting 7 clubs would be a sure way to increase fans...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_World_Club_Challenge

It will be next year I believe. Parramatta to me seems most logical unless squeezed out by A League. SCG used to be great but now its not really a league stadium. Depends on who wins, if its a Qld team Suncorp by all means. I'm sure the NRL will say ANZ.

That's right, probably would have got more (unless the stadium situation proved too much of a barrier). Roosters v Wigan in 2014 got 31k

Oh god.. you are one of them! First of all, the Titans didn't exist 15 years ago but lets just assume you meant 'around 15 years ago', please remember it was the Daily Telegraph that called the Queenslanders old and slow in 2015 after NSW won ONE game, in which QLD thrashed them in the decider (how good), and after game 1 2017 when NSW flogged QLD at Suncorp it was NSW papers who laughed at us and said we are getting desperate in the team we picked for game 2 and there was no way QLD were going to win (they never learn) in which QLD ended up winning that game and the next. It was also the Telegraph whose journalist literally pointed out every single decision he thought the ref got wrong in a game they lost (cant remember what year). This bias definitely occurs both sides of the border so I believe it is you with the blinkers on. I also find it very hard to believe you were almost "ran off the road" simply for displaying NSW number plates. Sure you may have got a horn and a middle finger but ran off the road?? Gross over-exaggeration. I definitely don't recall the 2 man strip.. In what game was that?? if it cost NSW a series im sure you would know the exact year and game it was in. Or, once again, youre grossly over-exaggerating. But all those years losing to future immortals has to be a conspiracy though right??

Well, what if the game was held in Sydney? They sure as hell wouldn't have attracted 21k.

The Aviva Premiership saw a combined 7.88m viewers for the 2017/2018 season on BT Sport. And the 7m that watched RL on BBC across a number of games was less than what England drew for their first week clash with Ireland in the 6N's.

That's an irrelevent arguement, for every example you bring up a QLDer could bring up a counter example that paints QLD as the victim. It doesn't prove anything other then what side of the border you side with and which bias you find more palatable.

Thanks for the clarification Meatpy.

I lived in north Brisbane for 4 years about 15 years ago. Listening to the media you would think that there were only 3 teams in the competition (Broncos, Cowboys and Titans) and you couldn't find an impartial opinion that did not lean heavily to QLD. They print/broadcast a very biased version of the truth. The Courier mail is akin to a North Korean propaganda news service. Perhaps things have evolved since then but I doubt it. Especially during SOO. When I first moved up there I still had NSW plates on my car and I was nearly run off the road a couple of times by QLDers who give me the bird or shouted out things like "go back to where you came from" and that was in January BEFORE the season had even begun. So I am speaking from personal observation over a 4 year period talking about QLD in general and about SOO from observation since it's inception and the days of "the grasshopper" Barry Gomersall who unashamedly gave QLD every advantage back at the beginning of the concept. Need I mention the Greg Inglis triple knock-on in front of Bill Harrigan to decide an origin series or the illegal two-man strip on Jarryd Hayne by JT with Inglis holding Hayne's arms to decide another series? A close mate of mine who is also a QLD supporter even agrees with me about the bias and the fact that if QLD failed to win more than their fair share of series wins the concept would fold. We will have to agree to disagree then but now that Cam Smith is no longer refereeing origins and the QLD "old guard" has moved on the pendulum has swung back to NSW. I've done "a Barry". That's the longest post I've made so far 311 words if you are counting TB. LOL

Fair enough, you're reply deserved a better response then I gave. I get what you're saying about menbers, but member levels are much less of a marker of support in the NRL then comparible sports. And bums on seats are less relient on success in the NRL then other sports as per your examples as well as the relative lack of support show to certain successful clubs. I personally don't believe member numbers represent anything other then member numbers in this arguement. But lets leave the conspiracy theories at the door, they undermine your arguement. Also, what QLD media? There's litterally one QLD based newspaper and it's very much under the Daily Telle's umbrella, everything else we get is the same coverage the NRL gets in NSW.

I sense that was a pejorative response Emcie. Surely not when I was so congenial in my reply to you. Careful now, that phrase is the calling card of bigots and can be enough to "trigger" some people with what they might even call a "micro-aggression". Fortunately, I am not that thin-skinned. If by "one of those people" you are referring to someone from NSW and south of the "North Korean" border then yes, guilty as charged. QLD media aren't exactly fair or impartial so I would research the facts fully before you rely too heavily on their maroon coloured monocle interpretation of the truth.

I’m not sure the majority of SL clubs would take the narrow view so often taken by the RFL. Then again, they’ll have to wear the losses of any team admitted to SL. You raise an important question, Steve. If one decides who gets access to the cup and pro/semi pro ranks – and the other to the premier comp – how long before the thread ties us in knots? Isn’t it feasible there’ll be SL teams that can’t play in the cup and/or Championship clubs locked out of SL? If I’m an investor in a club it’s not an attractive proposition.

Nailed it. If you look at stats early season games are normally up then when teams are no longer in final 8 contention they do start to decline. Other than finals we never have sellouts at any round 1-25 bar a few Broncos games. Some of the home and away averages are propped up by playing matches at Suncorp. Also programming matches on Thursday nights doesn't help. Rugby league is Friday- Sunday game and more so Sunday afternoons which gives clubs the opportunity to draw better crowds.

The decision to effectively snub a seemingly viable new club in Manchester, and demand certain other clubs pay a £500k bond to play in the Challenge Cup, sits with the RFL not Super League clubs. In fact, those same clubs just broke away from the RFL in large part because of exactly this sort of ‘strategic thinking’.