The Warrington end looked full to me, and there were other Wires in the other half too - I thought their fans showed up in bigger numbers than most clubs in recent years. Let's be honest, the majority of the genuine blank spots (if you ignore the Club Wembley nonsense) were in the upper tier at the Huddersfield end. But who is surprised about that? The Giants have a smaller following, and even within that number a large slice of fans are relatively recent. They just don't have the same latent fan base as someone like Wire etc. You can't magic something like that out of your backside at three weeks notice - looked to me that as many Hudds supporters as you could expect to be there, were there.

I for one think it is much better for the game for a team like Hudds to get what their efforts deserve this season, even if it means a few empty seats at Wembley. It is seasons like this, with trips to Wembley and imminent big play-off games, that build audiences. Let's not start moaning because the cart hasn't come before the horse, and just celebrate the real progress being made.

There were quite a few empty spaces in the more expensive parts of the ground, you could see that from the TV shots.

The neutrals aren't going because they have given up on the sport

The lower leagues are dieing fast

These fans just stop going to any event

But as long as a handful of clubs are doing great everything is hunky dory

Keep beliving its all wonderful

I give up. Are you a rugby union or football fan?

Did you not go..............

That handful seems to grow almost every year ...

Couldn't afford another trip to London mate, it wasn't do-able as a day trip sadly.

I decided to go last week and I am a neutral. I thought there would be 68,000 on so I thought 76,000 was very good. Warrington brought hordes of fans and Huddersfield were as well supported as could be expected for a team that's building after so many lean years.

Saw something on teletext about the RFL offering tickets at discounted prices if you buy now.
Pretty sure that's what it said.
There were four of us due to go this year, but the money situation sorted that out.

The challenge cup final was nearly always a sell out before SL so he has a pretty valid point.

Most people in the RL heartlands dont give a toss any more and have turned to other sports. Unfortunately the RFL in thier wisdom still seem to believe that for every heartland fan who falls by the wayside, another ten are waiting around the corner in Dublin, Barcelona, Bridgend and Southend by Sea. So where were they on saturday?

What if the CC fina was [inot[/i nearly always a sell out before SL?

Would that mean his point was [inot[/i valid?



This just isn't true.

Point on the CC attendances was that its losing its gloss and is no longer attractive to the neutral, whereas is was prior to SL. Now its a marginalised competition by the RFL who's focus is the grand final.

If you dont think people are getting disillusioned with the game in the UK you must live in a cave. The RFL focusing their efforts on a select few only serves to alienate those on the outside and those people dont go running to the nearest club as a substitute. Christ, the RFL dont even make a half attempt to please the NL clubs or BARLA and their fans so why would they give a toss about the game any more.

No, the point is that what you said was wrong - and so if that was the support for his point, it has none.

Saturday's attendance compared well with any of the pre-Sl CC finals after the configuration of Wembley was changed.

I think you've come to a conclusion, and are trying to set the facts to fit.

I think the final of the CC still has the same gloss and is still the big occasion it has been, there are many factors which probably contributed to the lower attendance this season - most notably probably the current economic climate making it harder for a lot of neutrals - but so far this is a one off drop and we will see in coming years how it works out in the long term.

If by "nearly always", you mean about 5 times spread over 3 decades, then you have a good point.



Maybe people are getting disillusioned, but it doesn't seem to stop them watching or playing in larger numbers. The huge rise in attendances at games compared to the 1990s, 1980s, 1970s or 1960s would tend to suggest the opposite. The tens of millions of pounds per year coming in to the game from Sky and from Sports England and the lottery would tend to suggest things aren't looking too bad?

Most of the Wigan finals from 88-95 sold out didn't they?

(+ both Bradford v Saints ones in 96 and 97 did IIRC).

CC final attendances for the 20 years before the Super League:

[code1976–77 80,871
1977–78 96,000
1978–79 94,218
1979–80 95,000
1980–81 92,496
1981–82 92,147
1982–83 84,969
1983–84 80,116
1984–85 99,801
1985–86 82,134
1986–87 91,267
*1987–88 94,273
*1988–89 78,000 <- Post Hillsborough?
*1989–90 77,729
*1990–91 75,532
*1991–92 77,286
*1992–93 77,684
*1993–94 78,348
*1994–95 78,550
[/code

Wigan finals from the 80s - 90s marked with a star.

So no - it doesn't look like they all sold out.

the empty seats in the huddersfield enmd were actually general sale tickets from the rfl not our allocation but i cna see where your coming from, our support isn't the best a lot of people in and around huddersfield still very lethargic where the giants are concerned so to expect a huge following from huddersfuield was a bit silly given that most people in huddersfield would rather watch a 3rd division football team for a fiver than support fartown in a cup final.
fwiw i thought the crowd was pretty decent given we are in the worst recession of recent times and that it was a bank holiday and the last week(for some) of the summer holidays.
personally i coulnd't care if there was 50,000 there the cup final is always a wonderful occasion, i suspect most people posting negative comments are the one's who would only think of going to a cup final if their team was in the final?

The attendance was ok considering the current financial situation , and when you factor in a trip to France , many SL fans making an overnight of south wales and the magic weekend then the Challenge cup is always going to suffer

Yes there are supporters of Championship clubs that are a bit disoloutioned with things and perhaps didn't make their usual Wembley trip but not in any significant numbers to make a difference , I was offered free tickets to the match but had other things to do

Before the Catalans and the Magic weekend fans basically had normal away games and a weekend in the smoke

Now there is a lot more options and therefore choice , also many like myself having been to Wembley , have ticked that box and will probably not go again unless there is a reason to attend , When leigh get there in 2021 will be the next time I go

Also quite simply it costs alot of money, I would expect the attendances to drop slightly in the next few years but not drastically , as long as it is well attended 3/4 full and a good atmosphere and an enjoyable day for those going I dont see a problem

Just because you're too simple to understand an argument is no need to get personal.

There are 17,000 Club Wembley tickets where people have paid to have a ticket to a variety of events for 10 years. The problem we have is that a lot of these people do not take up their seats and it leaves massive gaps in prime areas.

However say 7,000 of those 17,000 Club Wembley tickets were taken up that is still a lot of fans who would not have attended that game if there were no such thing as Club Wembley. It's not unreasonable to assume that many go because they have a free ticket that would not go if they had to pay.

The RFL were given 73,000 tickets to sell and didn't sell them all meaning without Club Wembley (and of course it isn't cut and dry) that the crowd would have been less than 73,000. It's quite simple really.

Comparative to previous years though and with the current financial situation of course it isn't a bad crowd.

Am I the only one sitting here giggling at the irony of people who couldn't be d traveling to Wembley complaining about the lack of bums on seats during the course of the game?

Anybody who expects 80 thousand people to consist of only people from the two towns/cities (delete as appropriate) involved in the final is a deluded tosspot. That might happen in Football, it simply doesn't, and never has, happened in RL.

I also think it's a little harsh to be pointing at Huddersfield's alleged lack of support. The people that went (regardless of who they support actually) should all be applauded, not vilified for not cloning themselves to double the numbers.

Also, on the point of Warrington's hangers on ... I've got to be honest, I simply don't care - yes it would be nice if we needed to expand the HJ in order to accommodate over 20k fans a week - but that isn't going to happen, as far as the North West goes Warrington is a fairly affluent town (in the main), people who are in good jobs are well within their rights to travel to a game and support the team, even if they only did so by being taken in by the euphoria surrounding the semi final win.

Even if only 1% of those fans take more of an interest in the following the club in the future (every game or even only 1 or 2 games), then it's a win situation for the club.

It never ceases to amaze me the people who criticise so called hangers on. Te game needs to attract new fans for a start, but the whole point is wembley cup final days are for people who do not usally attend games but are enjoying the one off - the family outing with mum and grandma attending their first match for years, old firiends reunited... etc etc.

People need to chill and look at the bigger picture before they think 20k plus are 'hangers on' desperate for a bit of glory. There is more to their life then the result of a rugby matc.

Exactly. The people who do it are usually the ones that think turning up to every home and away game somehow makes them special and a "better" supporter than anyone else.

Every single club would have these 'hangers on.' It's inevitable that occasional watchers are going to be more attracted by a final. I'm from quite a large family and some of us will always go the game, often at different points. When it becomes a final everybody will go and even my sisters want to go.

We all do it to an extent. I don't really care about Football as much as I used to but come World Cup time I jump on the bandwagon because it's the only real time I'm interested.

How is this a point when the crowd compares well with those pre-SL?
As a sport, our expectations are rising. 7k was considered a good attendance at the forefront of SL. Last year, it was the second lowest average in the league.

76k was 14k short of capacity and nearly 10k short of the previous two New Wembley finals. It's still a tremendous attendance, but compares poorly to our new rising expectations.


Complete and utter drivel. For a start, BARLA run BARLA clubs, not the RFL.
And the Championship is getting some of the best crowds for lower league RL it's ever had. And they're on TV. And they receive money for it.

There are loads of people who are disillusioned with the RFL. But these are the kind of people that are disillusioned from reality also. The RFL cannot cater the delusional, and so don't try.