Since last week’s Super League Grand Final, attendances have been a hot topic no doubt spurred on by the proposed changes to rugby league in this country by IMG which were presented this week.
The Grand Final, between two of the three biggest clubs in Britain in St Helens and Leeds, posted an attendance of 60,783 which is the lowest since the 2001 decider if you exclude the last two finals which were of course impacted by the pandemic.
Some said this underlined the need for IMG whilst others stated that this was something to be celebrated in a difficult economic climate.
Either way, it was a talking point especially ahead of the World Cup which everyone wants to be a success.
Turn over to Australia, and attendances have also been a talking point with the announcement on Tuesday that the Grand Final between Penrith and Parramatta would be a sell out and earlier today the game recorded an attendance of over 82,000.
Prior to this battle, Newcastle Knights met the Parramatta Eels in the Women’s final which acted as part of a double headed between both finals.
A remarkable 42,000 fans got to the ground earlier to watch this battle as the Knights claimed their first NRLW title with a 32-12 win over Parramatta whose fans had to suffer a double loss with the men’s side losing 28-12 to Penrith after the conclusion of the women’s final.
The official figure for the women’s final was an impressive 42,921 which certainly impressed Channel 4 pundit and former Leeds Rhinos star Danika Priim:
42 THOUSAND in for the NRLW and NRL Grand Final Double header 🤯
No that’s some crowd 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 https://t.co/fjQaxJakVW
— Danika Priim (@DanikaPriim) October 2, 2022
It demonstrates just how strong and developing the women’s game is especially in Australia and hopefully the World Cup will help spur it on on both sides of the globe.
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