Something has to be done

I definitely think Smith's legacy needs to be making all clubs financially secure & improving crowds for him to be considered a success.

Expansion needs to be put on the back burners until after his first term which ends at the end of 2017.

Things that are in planning like a roof over the SFS, turning ANZ Stadium into a rectangular stadium & building a large Stadium out west are a musts if he wants to achieve the goal he set himself of average NRL Crowds of 20,000 by 2017.

 

Good crowds result in a far better product, there's no doubt in my mind. Not just the atmosphere but even though it's an overused cliche the players do lift in front of big crowds and I also have no doubt it's a large part of why they play the game.

When Crowe came out and said Burgess would've stayed in Rugby League if he was allowed to play SOO I think everyone missed the point. Sam Burgess didn't want to play in SOO, he didn't want exceptions made for him, he wanted to play on the biggest stages and compared to Rugby Union the NRL just wasn't offering that on a consistent basis.

League is a TV game and always will be but crowds will always be a massive part of the game to and given the steady path we've been on it's about time they got some attention 1) to improve the product & 2) to generate larger revenue streams for the clubs.

 

This isn't an example of a changing attitude though, it's an opinion I believe Cribb has held for a while along with quite a few other people on here.

 

10 years ago the game was averaging 13-14k a game that's risen to 15-16k a game so it definitely doesn't support your theory that people are turning away from the game if that's how far back you want to go.

 

There's been no sign off a drop off though which is my position, you're arguing that people are turning away from going to games not that support has stagnated.

Last years minor dip can be accredited to the poor form of QLD clubs especially Brisbane and to an extent also the Warriors. Crowds in Sydney were well up.