Leeds Rhinos dominate Super League’s top 10 average attendances of all-time

Attendance figures are one of the most divisive and intriguing metrics in the eyes of so many Super League supporters.

Whether it’s up or down, a point of ridicule for some clubs or a benchmark as to a team’s standing among the game’s biggest teams, crowd figures are always a big talking point.

And Super League – well, a handful of clubs – have post enormous numbers across a whole season down the year: as the top ten average attendances in the competition’s history proves.

In fact, this list lends a major hint as to the size of one club in particular. Let’s run down the top ten – starting from the bottom and working our way up to the top.

Note: These figures are across Super League home games in a single season – and have been compiled with the help of the RFL’s official statistician, Dan Spencer.

10. Leeds Rhinos 2009: 15,312

In case you weren’t already aware, you’re going to see this name a lot over the next few minutes.

10th on the list of biggest average attendances in Super League history is Leeds Rhinos‘ 2009 campaign – which ended with them lifting the Super League title aloft at Old Trafford for the third successive year. As we’ve just said, you’re going to see and read that name a lot..

9. Leeds Rhinos 2006: 15,338

Yes, they’re up again. The second of a staggering EIGHT inclusions in this top ten, this was one of a handful of occasions that Leeds posted a monumental crowd average but didn’t end up with the Super League title.

That season, St Helens swept the board domestically: but the Rhinos still posted a big, big Headingley average attendance.

8. Bradford Bulls 2000: 15,350

A brief interlude from the Leeds Rhinos crowd rundowns! We’re going back a quarter of a century (has it really been that long?!) and hopping over West Yorkshire to find out next entry.

Bradford are a long, long way away from these sorts of crowds in the present day but there was no doubting they were one of the world’s biggest rugby league clubs for a pretty significant period in and around the early-2000s.

7. Leeds Rhinos 2016: 15,478

Back to it. Leeds actually entered this season as reigning Super League champions having won the treble the season previous.

6. Leeds Rhinos: 2015: 15,724

And as we’ve just mentioned, that treble-winning season obviously had to feature in here somewhere – given the sheer amount of storylines and subplots surrounding that squad.

One of the all-time great seasons – and a crowd average that backs up what the Rhinos squad achieved. But incredibly, that is the last time anyone averaged a figure as high as this – with the top five all further back than 2015.

5. Wigan Warriors 2007: 16,040

Our only non-West Yorkshire entry – and a peculiar one given how it came at a particularly low ebb of Wigan’s recent history. They had only just avoided relegation the season previous and only finished sixth in 2007: but the Wigan public came out in force to support their team in their hour of need.

Given the feats Matt Peet’s current crop of Warriors have racked up, is there scope for the class of 2025 to potentially threaten this figure?

4. Leeds Rhinos 2004: 16,608

An historic season for Leeds, given how it was the first time in the summer era they managed to get their hands on the league title. They were well backed – and it was the start of a golden generation of success: and the top three all feature in this period too..

3. Leeds Rhinos 2008: 16,756

Leeds, in this period, were the sport’s dominance force – with 2008 the second of three straight league titles.

2. Leeds Rhinos 2005: 17,006

2005 actually ended in defeat in the Grand Final for the Rhinos to arch rivals Bradford Bulls. But they were still posting monumental crowd figures.

1. Leeds Rhinos 2007: 17,416

And finally, the season that started their three-peat of 2007, 2008 and 2009. It was a truly spectacular time for the Rhinos, and given how all the top four feature across a five-year period, shows what a juggernaut Leeds were off the field, as well as on it.

Can they reclaim those glory days?