League is more popular because it's still tribal and was always the "working class" game - union tends to be seen as "upper class" as their base is more private school oriented at lower levels, which has really loyal support from people who have been in that system but is less "accessible" to the average punter. That's very general and I volunteer at a union club who is and always has been more working class but we are not in the elite competitions, we're basically what I think are called "ammos" in AFL parlance.I'm not really a rugby fan so this might sound like a stupid question but is there a reason why the attendance for rugby is so low? I thought it was the number 1 sport on the east coast? it seems the AFL teams there (which I thought nobody had interest in) draws 2 or 3 times more fans to the games than even the biggest clubs in rugby. I'm not trying to have a go at rugby or anything because I would like to get into watching it, but it just seems like pre-season attendance every game.