By Duncan Wood
July 9 2002

According to figures published over the weekend, rugby union is marginally more popular than rugby league with the paying public. Read on for details on where Bristol rank in the grand scheme of things.

According to the figures published over the weeknd, Bristol's average home attendance for the 2001-2 season was 5,319.

The club are now hoping to build on that with some attractive season ticket packages and the prospect of watching the team play Heineken Cup rugby for the first time in their history.

They will also be hoping to build on the momentum gained towards the end of last season when Bristol turned on the playing style and became the 'entertainers' of the Premiership, racking up the bonus points and claiming some impressive scalps in their march to the Zurich Premiership Final at Twickenham.

Interestingly, the average Zurich Premiership attendance was 7,490 which compares favourably to the 7,087 average gate at Super League (Rugby League) games. This despite the fact that Super League play their matches throughout the spring and summer when the weather is supposedly better!

The findings are bound to generate debate about the contrasting qualities of the respective codes. This sort of rivalry has existed for years! One interesting fact is that the Leeds rugby league side, the Rhinos, get 8764 more spectators per game than their union equivalents, the Tykes.

It's also intriguing that Sale had a fantastic season but didn't entice as many people through the turnstiles as they would have liked. Is it because they're based in "rugby league country"? Similarly, the London Broncos sit at the bottom. Is it because the capital is a union stronghold?

The average attendances in order were as follows:

Leicester Tigers	15,384
Leeds Rhinos	12,907
Bradford Bulls	12,319
Wigan Warriors	11,454
Gloucester	9,397
Northampton Saints	9,300
St Helens	8,802
Saracens	8,388
Bath	8,048
London Irish	7,254
Castleford Tigers	7,102
NEC Harlequins	6,690
Hull FC	6,520
Warrington Wolves	6,422
London Wasps	5,861
Newcastle Falcons	5,497
Bristol Shoguns	5,319
Halifax Blue Sox	4,832
Sale Sharks	4,593
Salford City Reds	4,170
Leeds Tykes	4,143
Wakefield Wildcats	3,670
Huddersfield Giants	3,667
London Broncos	3,177