Yep, pretty much. The very first Western Reds game at the WACA in 1995 drew 24,932 people. Most of which were RL supporters I'm pretty sure (I was about 14 at the time, so perhaps my memory is a tad distorted, but that's what I believe anyway). The big difference between then and now is the preparation work in the years prior. In the late 1980's, Rugby League was years ahead of any other sport as far as promotion goes. We had the best adverts and captured the imagination of most Australians. The NSWRL (as the comp was then run by) had Ken Arthurson & John Quayle, who seemed to know how to get people interested - even in places like Perth who didn't have a team. From then until the early 90's, games were taken to places like Perth, Auckland, Adelaide, ect, which ultimately sowed the seed for expansion. In Perth, there was at least one game per year involving different teams from 1989 until 1994. Interest was growing. I think in 1993 when the Western Reds were given the green light for kickoff in 1995, interest boomed. I remember playing juniors at the time, and every year from '93-'95, more and more kids were playing the game here.
Compare that to now. The NRL has pretty much been focussed on the heartland areas (admittedly in big part due to other sports trying to infiltrate and even take over), and it's been up to the individual clubs to organise games here. Even then, local media has almost snubbed us. I firmly believe it's because they don't want to promote anything other than their 'precious' AFL and possibly even feel threatened by us (and justifiably so! Haha!). All the groundwork in building up this WA Reds team has been done almost singlehandedly by the WARL with little assistance from the NRL & ARL.
Another couple of things that have happened since 1995 is Union got their foothold in here (meaning League & Union fans here are no longer deprived of a 'rugby' code in which to support), and the general rise in the cost of living. People just don't have as much money to throw around as they did 16yrs ago, so on a cold, wet, winter's night, plenty of people are going to decide that they'd rather stay in and save some much needed money than brave the cold. If they had a bit more money in their pockets, they might be more willing to spend it on a ticket to the footy for a few hours and have a few drinks.
