If it was circa 8,500 that would make it the third highest gate in the competitons history, 400 higher than last year and circa 450 short of capacity for the ground so not too bad a effort for 2 part time teams taking part in a live TV game on a wet Sunday evening.

2 heartland teams with asperations to play in Super League can only get 8,500 for a cup final. Very disappointing i would say.

The Northern Rain Cup final was a very entertaining game played in front of a passionate crowd that generated a great atmosphere

Must be time for a negative thread on RLFANS then

The negative is that only 8,500 turned to watch a cup final between 2 heartland sides with asperations to play in super league.
The positive side is that it was a entertaining game in front of passionate fans.
For any team with asperations to play in Super League they must try as hard as possible to get as many fans as they can to showcase games like this. Actually i will expand on that and say that clubs like these 2 who want to play in Super League should make an effort to showcase every game they play, and show the RFL that they would be assets to Super League. Easier said than done i know, but they need to give it a very serious try.

I thought it was a bit strange that a club with the aspirations of Leigh didn't appear to have taken many more fans to todays final than my club, Batley, did last year.

Wasn't that only 500 less than the best ever attendance for the final?

Are we going to reverse back and relegate Cas, Hull KR and Widnes as their final 'only' brought that amount? (which weren't FULLY sold out just as point of order that there weren't ticket available).

What a bizzarre thread.

(no digging at the above 3 teams, just amazed at the eness of the point trying to be made)

8522 at level that is used to below 2000 crowds.

Pretty decent if you ask me, but hey lets be negative for the sake of it.

well after the club were asked to return unsold tickets to the RFL -the RFL decided to run turn off the ticket hotline - sunday night in blackpool, televised and winter weather - whay croed do you expect to see?

Without being there and without being able to see properly I can confidently announce the attendance given is definitely wrong. There was in fact only 2000 people there.

Your a Huddersfield fan, i take it? You're calling the NRC final crowd disapointing. You were 2nd in the league at one point this year and yet you only manage to get 4-5k a game.

who do you support?

a heartland team sitting in the top four with aspirations to win the SuperLeague can barely scrape that many fans at home....

well I know the truth isnt liked on here but well here goes

The RFL/Blackpool set a crowd limit of 9K, both clubs sold out their allocation of tickets and for some reason known only to the RFL they (thats the RFL) held back 1000 tickets then told anyone who rang on Friday or Saturday that they could 'pay on the door' certainly if Leigh (I can't speak for Halifax) had been allowed to sell tickets past the deadline for clubs (the RFL stipulated The morning of last Wed therefore to get the tickets back on time Leigh HAD to post them back by Mon evening) then we would have sold another 300 tickets at least.

Needs to be played on a saturday in future and they need to try and get the super league fans there to support it along with the local people of blackpool. If it could sell-out 15k each year it could become a huge event.

Lets not forget that there were super league games on also yesterday- something which some think shouldnt be the case on NRC final day. That could have cost over 1000 extra fans.

Great game, shame about the reult for me, but both clubs and fans were a credit to the game yesterday

While I agree about the original sentiment , ie yes selling around 3,500 tickets for a match like the NRC isn't really SL standard , it was a decent enough attendance for Championship clubs , and a fantastic match to top off a great weekend for those that did attend , so not a poor effort , and the clubs sold as many as they reasonably could

Quality, not quantity. I've attended plenty of big football & RL games and the atmosphere was up there with the best of them.

We don't need SL fans to attend the NRC final , we do need more fans to attend normal Championship and NRC matches , hopefully with no TV Thursday matches next season the Championship clubs will get some central help in achieving that aim

Terrific game,great entertainment good crowd,just more trolling from a couple,who the admin on here seem to like to encourage - blame the admin,not the trolls.

Personally though,I think Salfords new ground would be ideal for the Northern Rail Final - right size,good location,would help Salford a little,keeps money in the game,rather than giving it to football.

But it would remove the weekend away aspect of the game , although I can see the GF s being held there and at Saints in the future , in fact I expect the Championship GF s to take on a ' tour ' in the future as each new SL stadium gets it in turn

Crap thread.

Noisy crowd of passionate supporters, entertaining game, full of twists and yet the
attendance is being moaned about?!

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that, a little ironic to say the least.

from a halifax perspective they were saying the same thing exactly, and the RFL ticket hotline was not working

Strange thread to say the least. We can all sit around our keyboards having a go at each others gates, and it would be too easy to do so. So why do it? Look at the positives for a change.
To me it was all positives for a competition that is growing year on year and is starting to be an accepted worth while trophy to win at our level. Its still in its infancy as a competition, and together with the format of being staged in Blackpoo and the enthusiasm of those RL fans that went and the seriousness the clubs take this competition is becoming an event we now look forward to each year.
Excellent win by the mighty Leythers as well!!!!

Sorry Fax fans, had to be said.

Take a look at who started the thread.

Morons shouldn't be humoured.

Great game, great atmosphere - a bigger crowd would have been nice, but I'd call the final a great success.