Oh dear.

Epic Fail.

The empty seats were in the Leeds end. 12k empty seats, most of that was club wembley middle tier, the rest were pretty much all at the Leeds end.

Not like me to agree with anything to do with Wigan, but yes dude above me is right thats exactly how it looked to me

I doubt there was 55,000 on so where the RFL got the figure of 78,000 from is anyones guess .

Embarrassing for 2 of the so called best supported teams in the SDL on top of the annual pilgrimage from fans of other clubs , or is it people are p1shed off with the same 4 teams in the finals shake up , so it's about time that promotion and relegation was brought back and the sky millions spread out a bit further than the hypocritical self proclaimed elite to freshen things .

And I think playing the Aussies at Wembley will struggle to get 30,000 on and will make the game a laughing stock .

Why are we the RL public forced to make the trek to the bollox design of a stadium that is Wembley for our big matches and if so who voted for it ? , or have we been roped in as a cash cow to help pay for the pig in a pork ?

Why the final has to go to that ehole I don't know but the £70 million Millenium Stadium a purpose built Rugby stadium where the sun shines on all the pitch in a Rugby friendly city or persist with this £750 million white Elephant where 3/4 of the pitch is in the shade in a city that cares sod all about Rugby but a lot about taking all your money .

There were a lot of empty seats at both ends at kick off but the usual late commers seemed to file most of them filed up. The club wembley seats were as always virtually empty - The RFL really should do something about that.

Aside from that the crowd was pretty good - we are in the middle of one of the toughest financial climates in history afterall.

Oh and there were two almost completely empty blocks in the upper tier of the Wigan end so I'm a bit doubtful of this 30k figure people keep banding around (I'm not saying there weren't equally empty blocks in the leeds upper teir - there were probably 3-4 blocks)

The Club Wembley thing is a joke for any sporting event, I've even seen them be empty for England internationals. Very bad idea from Wembley IMHO.

Problem with Wembley is the extortionate price for tickets, no discounts for kids and a very expensive day out! RFL really need to reduce ticket prices for the future and not just through discounts, but actual reductions in price and make it once again a family day out.

I went for £10 and was sat with loads more who only paid £10 wigan and Leeds supporters

Actually the Wigan fans far outweighed the Leeds fans. Shame really as there was very little atmosphere outside the Greyhound pub before the match as well. The place didn't really get going till the last 8 minutes

For the Swansea v Reading play off final any Club Wembley member who did not want to go was allowed to sell their ticket back and Swansea took up about 75% of them and Reading 25% so there were very few empty seats that day.

oh dear, wheres your dig at Leeds, who took even less then Wigan? I love how upset so many people are that Wigan have won the Challenge Cup.

I was in the Wigan end and it was clearly obvious that Leeds left more fans at home!

Do you not think its funny that a poster who wanted to have a go at the crowd decides to criticise Wigan despite the fact they had more fans in the ground? This is exactly the problem with many threads this morning, the single minded and bitterness attitude towards Wigan.

BOTH sides had empty seats. Leeds had a few very valid reasons, we've lost our previous 4 CC finals, we got embarrassed last season and we've not beaten any of the top 4 this season, that's why a lot of Leeds fans stayed away because the writing was very much on the wall.
What excuses did Wigan have? Current champions, flying in the league, best form of their SL history. Leeds and Wire both sold their allocation last season, Wigan should be embarrassed that they couldn't on their first new Wembley appearance.

The Rules for Club Wembley are that if you DON'T want to use your ticket you can GIVE it back to Wembley for resale. IF ( and only if ) they sell it they keep 25% of the value and give you the balance. As most of these tickets are corporate, what happens is that the owners hold on until the last minute in case any customers/staff claim them. By then - if they are not taken - it's too late for Wembley to sell them on hence the empty seats.

I still think Club Wembley is a bad idea as it will always leave crowds looking thin, especially for non wendyball occasions.

Not sure why an excuse is needed, there wernt that many. Far far more in the Leeds end, its not Wigan's job to fill the Stadium, but they certainly contributed the most. Good effort at trying to turn the argument round though.

Right that makes sense though I guess Wembley sold the tickets on to Reading and Swansea en mass with them having to pay for them if they were sold or not which would not be an option for many events there.

Agree it is a bad idea but I guess that that sort of funding up front helped build the stadium. In some ways the old Olympic Gallery was much better as right at the back you never saw how much of the corporate seats were being used and it did not look bad on TV.

What was last seasons attendance?.

85,217

Do people not think that due to the current financial climate that many neutrals wont of bothered attending?.

Just a thought.

I thought there seemed less other clubs shirts around than last year and I still think as a neutral you want a side to get behind in the way everyone bar Wigan fans would have wanted Sheffield Eagles to win in 1998, London to beat Leeds or Catalans to beat Saints etc and that element was never there this time.

The novelty factor of "new Wembley" is going and with the "big 4" clubs having all played there now it will be interesting to see how the gates hold up in future years especially if there is a run of finals with the same few teams getting there.

Only around 2k more than the 2009 final and 7k down on last year.

Yeah, what a stupid idea to sell thousands of tickets at a huge premium, well in advance of any event...

If people don't want to take up their seats, seats that they have already paid for, it is up to them.

If these seats have already been payed for,do they count on the attendance figure?

population of leeds, around 770,000 so absolutely shocking support, combination of glory supporters and arrogance.

I think so otherwise the last 3 years attendances would have been much lower.