And to back up the facts from Rex are the thoughts from Steve Mascord who lays bare the lies dished up.
"I COULD hardly believe my eyes on Sunday when I saw NRL chief executive David Gallop use crowd figures to support his argument that the League was going great despite all the controversies of 2009.
That is, attendance fugures which have recently been proven to be, at best, extremely rubbery and at worst just plain fake.
At Rugby League Week we went to the annual reports of several stadia and compared the crowds listed with those announced publically.
We found that at WIN Stadium, Parramatta Stadium and Skilled Park, not one number in the periods covered by the annual reports tallied up with that which was released to the public.
And an official from Parramatta Stadium openly admitted it was "common practice" for the hirer to inflate the figures agreed upon privately with the venue. Crowd figures were only available in annual reports for six venues.
Our story alleged the that rugby league and some of its clubs were deliberately exagerating how well their business was going to create a false impression in the market place.
And yet aside from Gold Coast chief executive Michael Searle - who said there were first-year ticketing glitches at Robina - no-one bothered to deny the accusation and there was not one angry phone call from any official when the story appeared.
It's one thing for NRL officials to contend that everyone inflates their crowds, so what's the big deal (although if a club cheated the salary cap and used a similar argument I'd suggest it would get short shrift)?
But to come out less than two months later and claim that the game is flying because this year's fake crowd figures are up on last year's fake crowd figures is the height of arrogance and treats all rugby league followers like imbeciles.
And what is more nefarious is that the same dubious figures will be used to sell sponsorships in the months ahead - creating wealth for the game under false pretenses."