THE Championship held its Summer Bash over the weekend at York’s LNER Community Stadium.
After the days of Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road, the enthusiasm for both Leeds Rhinos’ Headingley in 2022 and York’s LNER Community Stadium in 2023 wasn’t exactly the greatest.
And that apathy was reflected in the attendance figures as 6,741 people turned up over the two days with 3,793 flocking to North Yorkshire on the first day and 2,948 on the second day.
Cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, the Summer Bash made its return in 2022, but the numbers have dwindled since Blackpool was chalked off as the host.
In fact, the concept actually brought in more fans last year with 10,763 making the trip to Leeds and just 6,741 this year.
To put that into perspective, 15,070 fans made the trip to Blackpool back in 2019, highlighting the difficulty of attracting fans to the concept away from the north-west coast.
It remains to be seen what direction the RFL will go in now it has been made clear that Championship fans are staying away when the event is not at Blackpool.
With IMG also planning to scrap Super League’s Magic Weekend down the line, there are question marks over the Summer Bash, too.
