Reds eclipse Broncos as Queensland's No.1 crowd pullers for first time

The fan-pulling power of rugby league's Broncos has been eclipsed for the first time in the club's 25-year history with rugby's Queensland Reds now ruling the roost as crowd favourites in Brisbane.

In a measure of just how high the Reds have soared since they limped along unloved in 2009, the state's surging Super Rugby team has won the code battle on the crowd front by finishing 2012 averaging 34,217 fans per game at Suncorp Stadium.

The Broncos were still the envy of NRL clubs around the country for drawing average crowds of 33,377 for the regular season at the same home ground. It will still stun Broncos powerbrokers that they have not headed the Reds when the league club has always felt it owned the city.

Many rated it an idle fancy when Queensland Rugby Union chief executive Jim Carmichael said in February that outdrawing the Broncos was "not only a dream but something I think about all the time".

It was the uttering of a Melbourne-raised administrator with AFL roots who didn't quite get the hold of the Broncos.

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