I would argue that in hindsight, this was one of the things the organisers got wrong.
The requirement from the Government was to play 80% of games or 22 of the Men's fixtures in the 'north', so we could have moved an extra 4 matches to places like London, Bristol, etc.
Whilst playing those games outside of the heartlands may not have drawn larger crowds, I'd argue it would have possibly helped improve the averages up north, with almost too many games taking place at the likes of Leigh, Doncaster, etc which spread an already small number of people who could afford to attend.
Anyway, what's done is done. Most important thing is we finish off strong. No one outside of this thread will care about the group crowds if anyone but Australia can win the tournament and there are good crowds at Emirates, Elland Rd & Old Trafford.