over the years i have been to wembley about 27 times including g Britain and England games and yesterday we had about the best seats we have ever had 2 rows from the front great we said brill and then the rain came and the 7 rows from the front ran to the back we took pack a macs but still got drenched why when they rebuilt it did they not put a sliding roof on

And breathe...

I thought it was a poor crowd yesterday, number of reasons will be given by Redhall....they will miss off peoples lack of confidence in the sports governing body though!.

I was surprised at :-
a) the low number of neutrals
b) the low number of Leeds fans remaining with 10 minutes to go

My son commented re a roof when we went to the CC final in '07, given the near Billion pound cost the stadium is extremely poor value for money IMO, as it happens we always sit in the slightly more expensive seats at the front of the 2nd tier at the sides just off from halfway. Yes they are costly comparatively but the view is excellent, you don't get any hoi polloi/aggro from bell-ends with too much slosh inside them. People get up at half time and are sat back down before the action starts again.
Didn't go this year (though we live only 45mins away) as I wasn't particularly interested in either team and had better things to do so only caught the 2nd half. This year was the first time I wasn't really bothered about a CC final, think we need a Hull Rovers final to give it some spark

A repeat of the final 2 years ago and a near carbon copy of last year is not going to tempt neutrals who in the main would want neither of the sides in the last 3 finals to pick up the trophy.

You weren't bothered this year and no one outside Hull will be bothered if it's that next year

Me too but it appears to be a trend. I remember seeing practically every club shirt in the country around London 10 years ago. Now not many.

I think I saw most teams on show on Saturday and do not think that will change if anything it is the fans of SL's non finalists who are seen in less numbers, lower level clubs who run coaches or make weekends of it as the Champ/Champ 1 clubs and below do probably hold up on their figures most years.

I think it still matters to the so called Rugby League family but the higher up the tree you are the less desire you have to go if your side is not there although plenty will turn up year on year whoever is there and long may that last.

so plenty from the 2 welsh clubs and spoke to 2 they said it was their first time and after the match they said they will go again even if it does rain they loved it and said they will tell their friends

I think the only missing element of natural supporters were the coaches run by amatuer teams. Who in the last few years have arrived at wembley smashed out of their brains. Last year there was an awful atmos along wembley way.

Could be pretty confident of a sell out without any neutrals!

Us Welsh are used to the rain, thats why we built our stadium with a roof

RFL policy is to divide the heartlands, it has worked and we are weaker for it.

I go pretty much every season and have done since 1980, this season I chose not to, primarily because of the two clubs involved but there were other reaons also.
As JB mentioned, a Hull Rovers final (as unlikely as that would be right now) wouldn't need too many neutrals to be a sell out, both clubs starved of success and decently large fan bases. Passionate fans both with a serious dislike of the other makes the atmosphere special and a true derby in every sense of the word that seems to appeal to neutrals as you can guarantee some biff at least


I read some while back that fans had too much success and were bored of going to finals (first from a Saints fan a few years ago & also a Leeds fan of more recent times)
I don't understand how you can have too much success, so much so that the casual fans can't be d to turn up when your team get to a final?

What impact may the Olympics have had on the final? A good number of neutrals may have decided to spend their spare cash on attending the games instead of visiting Wembley to watch a Cup Final re-run from 2010. Missing an annual event to attend a once in a lifetime opportunity will have swayed many neutrals in my opinion.

You appear to post with a lot of certainty yet very little knowledge.

Club wembley members are assumed to have attended ALL events at the stadium irrespective of how many people turn up for particular events.

At best, of the 15000 club wembley seats I would estimate a third were occupied. If that was the case then that would mean the rest of the stadium was packed to the rafters for the attendance of circa 79000 which has been published.

There were large gaps in the upper tier. There was also enough room for and in the lower tier to move up a few rows when it belted it down.

HTH

Incl boxes club Wembley is 17000. Get used to 'facts' on here being selective, mid 60k is my guesstimate of the paying speccies, a direct consequence of RFL/SL strategy imo.

60K is a good crowd - What did it used to get at the old ground?

Do club Wembley get there tickets free? I must have missed that,.. oh and the boxes

Club Wembley is a joke and just makes the stadium look half empty - don't know who came up with the idea, but they should be shot...

Probably the person who needed money up front to help pay for it!!

Club Wembley financed the build with 10 year debentures, part of the deal was a guaranteed number of fixtures the CC final is in that guarantee - I do not know if the RFL benefited from the purchase but the attraction was the commercial benefits of England games and the soccer cup finals.

Over the 25 years prior to rebuild at the old old Wembley (standing) 14 finals had 8 gates above 90k and 6 above 80k with the highest at 99k, at the old Wembley (seated) most gates were close to capacity at 70-78k with only the one poor gate Wigan v Sheff at 61k which was effected by poor Sheff sales and the expectancy of a walk over



I hope that helps.

We didn’t go this time because of the Olympics not that we went to them, it was just that the lad who normally organises our trip found at the time of looking the hotels seemed to be bumping the prices up, so we all decided not to bother, even though the hotel prices have since come back down.

So we did the ale trail

and watched the game in the birth place of rugby league instead, you’d think they’d have a big screen.

So the crowd has stayed pretty much the same over the years.

Given the available trips to follow your team in London, Catalans, Magic weekends etc thats very good. Well done the RFL

That's an interesting spin I hadn't seen coming



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