They're really not. I made the relevant argument here.
I'll just update the figures:
After week 5, we've a league average of 1,370. The final league average last year was 1,221, which seems to say we're up 12%. However, the league average after week five last year was 1,727, which means crowds are down by an astonishing 20% on last year. Caveats apply to numbers like this so early in the season, but crowds are not up by any reasonable measure.
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