Yes, the £1m gift you sold your remaining soul for worked wonders...?

Comparing the eleven regular season games against the respective games last season (replacing Rovers with Leigh) our average is up by 420 (11,298 to 11,718).

The Rovers/Leigh attendance was 7,259 down unsurprisingly. If we'd have played Rovers rather than Leigh and had got the same attendance as last year then our average would have been 12,378.

The Salford attendance this season was down 1,249 although in 2016 it was the first home game which will have given it a boost. The only other attendance to drop was the Wigan game (and only by 327). That was the Saturday evening TV game on the same day as the Paul Heaton gig.

The Catalans and Castleford attendances were up by over 2,000 each and the Leeds attendance up by almost 5,000.

Perhaps some of the Hull fans who only go to the derby simply went to another game instead.

Cheers mate, so crowds are up slightly, add to this money from away games, which must make us a few quid and the cup run, we should be doing well this year.

please enlighten me always interested at clubs who sell there souls / identity

We've never sold anything, yes, we merged but your wonderful chairman helped make that necessary.

Yes bring them on, love em

You'd expect your crowds to be up this season after a good season on the field

Indeed although it doesn't always work like that.

whats your evidence?

You're kind of illustrating the point as to why we don't want or need the derbies back, enjoy the qualifiers and we'll enjoy Wembley and (hopefully) Old Trafford.