confirmation that Halifax's fifth round tie at Sheffield will be played on Friday, May 10 with an 8pm kick off at Don Valley Stadium,

I must say that this will ensure three things
- a complete lack of any atmosphere
- attendance struggling to get through 1000
- a financial nightmare for Fax if we win the player win bonuses will be bigger than any income and if we loose we will see income not cover expenses.

Absolute nonsense of a contest. Whole cup needs rethink.

Wont prize money go some way to covering win bonuses?

On another note theres never any atmosphere when we play Sheffield away anyway neither at the Don Valley or Bramhall Lane.

Im pleased,it wont clash with towns potential playoff final.

London away doesn't seem that bad now...

The 8pm on 10th May kick off is the best we can do to make the game accessible to Fax fans.
The Don Valley Stadium is booked for the Sheffield Half Marathon on Sunday 12th May, and they are erecting scaffolding which encroaches on the run off areas of the pitch to create the start/finish arch. That goes up on Saturday and comes down on Monday.
The Halifax RLFC Board would have preferred a Sunday afternoon or early evening kick off to make travel for supporters easier (and to avoid the clash with the Jim Gannon Testimonial event on 10th May).
Of course Howard is right that the consequence of a low attendance is a financial burden for what should be a money-spinning opportunity.
Michael Steele

It seems the Cup has taken on even more importance and is a game we need to win.
Helping us to :-
Have the opportunity to recover any losses from previous rounds
Increase media exposure and generate interest
Get a Super League side down the Shay and cause an upset
And finally..... get more ears pricked up about what a great side is developing, bums on seats, or feet on terraces for the remainder of the campaign.

Its a bad tie in financial isolation but could be a great stepping stone.

Hoping its not a costly distraction.


P.S would have prefered Rhinos at home, bumper gate, plucky loss and back to concentrating on NRC, League and GF treble. Got a cracking starting team, not sure the squad can be stretched too much by distractions and any injuries.

Get a bloody proper home you Seagulls, every game is a lottery on where it's played.

Complete joke, might as well as taken it to Mount St Marys school.

As I have said on another thread, the worse possible draw, Friday night motorway traffic, a dung heap of a stadium with 300 Sheffield "fans" chanting seagulls and that stupid over weight bird. Yes I know there are a lot of over weight birds in Sheffield, I meant the mascot.

Michael, wasn't Bramall Lane an option? Much better than Don Valley!

As usual it is just to make it difficult for us

In reply to HXSparky, the decision as to where the match is played is very much Sheffield Eagles' decision as the home team. I could speculate as to the reasons why they chose Don Valley but it wouldn't be appropriate to do so on the Forum, sorry.
Michael Steele

As an Eagles fan said, it's a good tie for the winner but how dissapointing. A day out in Sheffield is now a rush down't motorway on a Friday tea-time. I just hope it is worth it!

Howard, I'm slightly bemused by the "winning bonuses" comment, wouldn't that be offset by qualifying for the quarter finals in either an increase on the prize money as opposed to this round or the bounty of a bigger tie in the quarters against let's say Huddersfield or Bradford ? How does a club budget for such outcomes ?


I totally disagree about all the fuss currently being made about the cup needing a re-think in various media. If we'd drawn Sheffield at home & opted to host them on a sunday would we have really been any better off in terms of enhancing the cup competition ? The fact that we got paired together was rather unfortunate but I still have that cup magic inside me that hopes Workington can topple Widnes & we're good enough to go through & pair up with Workington at the Shay. Would anyone be complaining about that scenario ? ( other than the groundsmen & FCHT fans )
Stuff what the cup means, let's sneak quietly into the semi finals, make some money & make everyone take notice of little Halifax RLFC.

Certainly the further you progress in the Cup the more money you make. I am not sure what the present prize fund is, I can't find a full list on a quick scan of Internet, but the winners fund is around £100k with half that for beaten finalist and half that for semi final losers, so you can see that the amounts are not large.

Notwithstanding that a good cup run can add cash to the bank but again it is not huge. If you assume a crowd of 5000 money via the gate would be £55/£60k. After expenses and shared amounts this leaves clubs £20/£25k. Very nice to have but not a panacea for ills. In most Championship clubs it would create one years breathing space.

The modern cup does produce minor shocks, and close results, but this is much less than in soccer and indeed historically "shocks" are much less frequent than we recall. Even Sheffield's win was based upon a combination of deliberately weakened opposition (underestimating them), a good draw, injuries and one good win.

I never complain about a nice cup draw but fans will only come out in bigger numbers to watch a Super League team at the shay not another Championship side that has benefitted from a lucky draw. Super League fans certainly do not fall over themselves to see their team play a championship club, home or away.

As the Cup is now the third most important contest (after leagues and play-offs) for super League clubs and economics are not wonderful I would like to see a restructure. But -and this involves clear foresight from the RFL - this has to come after we get confirmation, or otherwise, of any changes in the Super League structure. It can't be done in isolation.

What is more important as a Fax fan is that the present Board have ensured we don't need a cup run to survive and we can sit back and enjoy the activities on the field and no worry about the finances off of it.

Perhaps Sheffield United just don't want to stage the game.

Then perhaps you should find a ground that can guarantee a day and kickoff time that is suitable for both teams and not just yourself.

Mind you we all know why Friday night has been chosen don't we, and it's nothing to do with the Sheffield Marathon.

You think it's up to me to find one, then ?

You could have asked if the Shay was available

Quite obviously I meant the club, but hey, Bu::er the paying public, it's inconvenient for us so ideal for you.
Mind you that's your (Sheffield's) attitude every time.
Spectators? Who needs them, obviously not you (Sheffield)

Crap time and day, said when I heard this draw its the worst one we could have. Hope we stuff them.

Hey Griff, what do you think about the great RFL time-keeping scandal event that took place, or didn't as it were,

at Hunslet v Catalonians at the weekend ?














There's summat to be said for loyal club enthusiasts I say

i dont see what the big issue is?!

we go to Sheffield and win then get Leeds or Wigan at home. Simples!

Yes we can win at Sheffield, but the point is it will cost us more to get there than we will receive in gate receipts, it is difficult for us to take a big following, and the top and bottom of it is that the game should/could have been played on the Sunday, at the worse with a four o'clock kick off.
It has been set up to advantage Sheffield with no regard for the paying public.

To reply to an earlier post we did in fact ask Sheffield if they'd like to swop the fixture to the shay thereby ensuring a larger crowd and more monies to share. They declined!

Mike R