There is every chance of getting 50k down on Staurday. How can the potential for the biggest international Test crowd anywhere in the world for 16 years be a failure?

This Test at Wembley is not just about making this year a success its about building momentum for 2013, to make sure we can get good crowds in bigger stadiums throughout the comp.

If we're going to change the trend of RL fans' apathy towards internationals we need to start now, not in 2013. The RFL couldn't just rock up in 2013, with an expensive pricing scheme, no offers and try to sell every seat in all of the nations biggest stadiums.

yes i know but i am bitter that we had a good RL international product and the idiots that run the game choose to **** it all up.

I think 40k in a 87k stadium is not good. Trust me i love going to Wembley to watch GB/Au and i've been twice and we've won both times but i think the jump from JJB 25k to a 87k stadium was just nuts. Why not City of Manchester stadium and that would have been a good starting point for a step to a bigger venue.

Not the current establishment though. If it wasn't for Lewis we wouldn't have IRL at all

Because i would say 80% of tickets sold are heavily discounted or free, that is not a success when you have 80k at a cup final and 70k at old trafford. We have a huge fan base and we will get 40-45k on Saturday, that is not good in my book. They should have gone to medium sized venue up north that holds 40k, that would be a good move in the right direction.

Quote ="Craig_UK"yes i know but i am bitter that we had a good RL international product and the idiots that run the game choose to **** it all up. I think 40k in a 87k stadium is not good. Trust me i love going to Wembley to watch GB/Au and i've been twice and we've won both times but i think the jump from JJB 25k to a 87k stadium was just nuts. Why not City of Manchester stadium and that would have been a good starting point for a step to a bigger venue.'" But, its not DW to Wembley, its DW and Toulouse to Wembley because its a double header. Rather than hire two grounds they've hired one. Read this article on attendances; www.internationalrugbyleague.net/fansblog.htm Going to CoMS first would be pointless if the aim is to have matches at Wembley in 2013.

Quote ="Craig_UK"yes i know but i am bitter that we had a good RL international product and the idiots that run the game choose to **** it all up. I think 40k in a 87k stadium is not good. Trust me i love going to Wembley to watch GB/Au and i've been twice and we've won both times but i think the jump from JJB 25k to a 87k stadium was just nuts. Why not City of Manchester stadium and that would have been a good starting point for a step to a bigger venue.'" But, its not DW to Wembley, its DW and Toulouse to Wembley because its a double header. Rather than hire two grounds they've hired one. Read this article on attendances; www.internationalrugbyleague.net/fansblog.htm Going to CoMS first would be pointless if the aim is to have matches at Wembley in 2013.

We couldn't even fill DW for the same fixture. The whole attraction is to go to Wembley for which fans of many clubs have not experienced, or maybe never will, following their club side.

I agree with this, I have not been to Wembley for rl in my lifetime as too young to see my club at Wembley so this gives me an opportunity to see the best players in the world play at the best venue in the world infront of the biggest crowd I will have been apart of.

and like i said in a previous post, the GB v Aus games USED to be a big event at big stadiums, they then decide to downgrade it and move to small grounds, giving the lack of "event" type feel. Why not go to a 40k stadium first, sell that out and get a good result, build confidence for going to a monster stadium ala Wembley.

Which stadium would you play it at though? No football clubs would let you play RL on their pitches in November.

Exactly!

Quote ="Chorlton RL" Read this article on attendances; www.internationalrugbyleague.net/fansblog.htm '" I would have but fell asleep after the first paragraph. Look at attendances for the 1990 & 1994 tours, impressive stuff, RL powers then decided to downgrade international fixtures, this article looks at attendances when all the damage had been done.

Quote ="Chorlton RL" Read this article on attendances; www.internationalrugbyleague.net/fansblog.htm '" I would have but fell asleep after the first paragraph. Look at attendances for the 1990 & 1994 tours, impressive stuff, RL powers then decided to downgrade international fixtures, this article looks at attendances when all the damage had been done.

Union get 40,000 for a game at wembley its a success we might get 50,000 and its a fail.

If we held these at two different grounds we would be lucky to get 30,000 in total.

Why? They let us play in October and last time i looked Elland Rd was a football stadium and that is being used in Nov, doh!

Beacuse it would only attract 15-20k ala DW in 2009. The final between the same sides didn't even sell out!!

You always get one who will moan at progress

It won't be 50k. They had sold 34k at the weekend. Crowd will be around 40k I would assume. Whilst better than 20,000 at the DW, it is still a poor crowd for what should be a massive game.

It's 'good' for the sport in it's current state, but the current state of the sport isn't 'good'. The key is that the team perform well enough to give the RFL an opportunity to build on it for the World Cup.

Progress? You are having a laugh!

We had a strong international in the 80/90's then they decide to screw it all up.

You now tell me that struggling to give away 45k tickets to people is progress, do me a favour!

Yep

. This guys actually going to the game too.

45k+ would be fantastic and a great foundation to build upon ahead of the World Cup. Can't wait for Saturday.

It will be closer to 50k than 40k IMO and I wouldn't be surprised if we got very close to 50k.

You are not getting it are you? I said taking it to small venues damaged the status of the games, hence why nobody bothered to buy tickets. If they kept these games at large stadiums they would have got the big crowds.

Do you always compare progress to a point 30 years ago and ignore what has happened in between? Seems a strange way of doing things; progress is relative to what has gone before.

Yes we had a period of decline, but compared to recent internationals, this is very much progress. Can't you see that?

As for saying we never gave tickets away or sold them with offers in the past, are you being serious?

I would call progress 50k tickets sold at ticket price and not 40k tickets sold running around scratching for people to attend at 10 pound a ticket....but quite a lot of you buy in to the spin the RFL put on how well we are doing!

Im off back to do some work, stop kidding yourselves we have done a good job shifting 40k tickets at 10 quid, we are basically begging people to come!

Ok, would i say selling 25k at the JJB at face value is better than getting 40k at Wembley at a tenner a pop, yes i would, so i don't think it is progress.

But they didn't, did they! I agree that damage has been done, but there's not alot we, or the RFL, can do about that now.

They're making changes and taking International RL to the best stadium in the World. Embrace it and let it build from here. Who cares if tickets are discounted, I care about how many people are actually at Wembley watching international RL, rather than how much revenue the RFL brings in.

They have been selling tickets for months (Including the £10 offer period) and only sold 34,000 in total. How will they sell 16,000 in a week? I hope they manage it, the more the better.