A long time lurker who you used to occasionally post on TV audiences (back when the championship was on TV)

Here are some useful figures for some context, now regular season is finished.

Premiership total attendance 1,316,849 over 90 games.

What I would say is that actually, based on those figures, the Prem is equal to the Top14 in France in terms of attendance figures, relative to number of games (eg 90 Prem games to 180-odd Pro 14 games both garnering approx 2.5m. If anything, the Prem would see slightly more. Appreciate its all hypothetical but not the wide gulf you might expect. Obviously the size of the Prem is a contentious issue and a big part of the problem with unsustainable clubs having gone bust, and that's another whole topic of conversation.

Where you see the big difference in figures you have provided is with the respective second tier leagues. If you applied the same number of games to both leagues as per the above with the Prem/Top14 (e.g. attendance/game ratio) the Champ would be left in the dust by some 1m deficit when compared to ProD2. 

I'd suggest that in the current climate, this is where the RFU believe they can gain some ground on their French counterparts and its clear to see that they have been severely lacking in finding the right way forward for a fully pro top two tiers. Hopefully things are finally being addressed with this.

I'm a very occasional visitor to Bedford and it's always a good atmosphere (and it has rained every time).

When the train to Bletchley is switched back on, I'll make more games.

If you take out the 3 big games the average drops to 12,876. So they do bump the average up a bit.

The sad fact is that only Coventry and Bedford attract more spectators in a complete season than the top supported Premiership clubs average per game.

And bearing in mind the Premiership is virtually bankrupt as it is who on earth (other than the RFU who appear to live on a different planet) can possibly think two professional divisions is remotely feasible?   

No sport is financed purely on ticket sales.

I worked in F1 finance for over a decade so know a little about this

Championship needs to understand why rugby benefactors like it and stick with it and maximise that.

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Of course rugby isn't financed entirely on ticket sales. That's why I didn't say it was.
 

And if the Premiership has been so unable to understand why rugby benefactors like it and maximise that I really fail to see how the Championship could. But I suspect it's a line of hope popular at the RFU at the moment.

Probably because we went to electronic tickets and got accurate gate numbers.

I suspect we were getting closer to 800 before.

We did get more students, from having Jamie Benton playing.

And we got the odd Bedford fan, on days when they were travelling or were due to play Jersey.

But there definitely were new fans.

The city of Cambridge is fortunate in having Cambridge University as well as Cambridge as well as Shelford - there's keen interest in rugby. When in National 2 the Cambridge v Shelford local derby brought in over 2,000 at each meeting.

All three clubs have a knowledgeable rugby following and I'm sure some supporters have been teased out of their armchairs by the promise of seeing historic rugby clubs such as Bedford, Coventy, Nottingham and London Scottish (no offence to other clubs) facing up to their local team - as well as the current high achievers such as Ealing, Pirates & Doncaster. When in National 2 the Cambridge v Shelford local derby brought in over 2,000 at each meeting.

Whether we can follow this through into 2024/25 is another matter.

Yes the big difference isn't actually the size of the biggest clubs (Leicester/Bristol v Bordeaux or Toulouse) it is the massive difference between the number of clubs getting 2k to 8k. In England that is literrally 4 clubs (Sale, Newcastle, Bedford & Cov), whereas in France it is easily 30 clubs across Pro D2 & Nationale 1.

I've used this as an example before, but it you could add 40k regular supporters to club rugby then PRL would add 4k a week to 10 clubs, but the French would add 1k per week to 40 clubs. The RFU would add another tier to Twickenham. That broad base is what generates the TV deals and wider interest.  And with some work (its taken France 20 years) we could move towards that.

Slowly, over time, and with enforced standards off the pitch. As well as free and sporting promotion & relegation within that.

Cov/Bedford sized attendances could be achieved at Moseley, Plymouth, Cornwall, Doncaster, probably Rotherham relatively quickly, Cambridge clearly has potential, Rams could tap into the wider Reading sporting scene.

It's not happening over night but by 2035 two pro leagues with attendances 80% of what the French will be by then is an achievable growth goal.