MORE people have watched regular-season Championship matches this year, according to early figures from the RFL.
While the governing body are awaiting confirmation of a couple of crowds, those already lodged total 365,665 (it’s possible the final figure could exceed 370,000).
The initial aggregate, 6.4 percent up on the previous season, delivers an average attendance of 1,955, up from 1,830 in 2022.
If the Summer Bash, held at York, is excluded, the average rises to 1,994.
Three clubs recorded an average gate of more than 3,000.
Bradford were the best watched, with their figure 3,809, while Toulouse’s was 3,252, even more impressive given three of their home matches took place away from the Stade Ernest Wallon.
League Leaders’ Shield winners Featherstone averaged 3,009.
Another two teams topped 2,000 – with Barrow up 26 percent at 2,266 and York up 15 percent at 2,037.
Sheffield, in their first full season at the revamped Olympic Legacy Park, recorded the biggest rise, of a whopping 66 percent to 1,178.
Meanwhile, the League One season ended with 2,549 watching Doncaster seal promotion with an 18-6 home win over North Wales Crusaders in the play-off final.
That was an increase of 134 percent on the 2022 final in which Swinton beat Doncaster at Heywood Road.
The RFL has confirmed the cumulative attendance across the 27 regular-season Super League rounds – including Magic Weekend in Newcastle – was 1,499,290.
That gives an average of 9,255, an increase of more than 11 percent on 2022, the highest since 2012 and the fourth-best since Super League started in 1996.
The same would apply if the Magic Weekend attendance was discounted, with an average of 9,205.
