Well we've established you like to read what you want to read.

I said "Australian sports", not "Australian cities"......if you don't think the Auckland Nines which had 15 of 16 teams featuring coming from Australian can't be described as Australian sport then embarrass yourself by all means.

No just shows what we know all along, football is a bigger deal than RL in England.......but no amount of numbers can help with the obvious fact that people's interest in the FA Cup has dwindled from what it use to be. I live in the country surrounded by football mad friends and work colleagues, the obvious disinterest compared to other competitions is massive. Some may still attend the match, but I doubt many Chelsea fans are still gutted about their exit from the Cup like they will be if they exit the Champions League when that starts up again. Or had they lost the league game there.



Aww bless, another excuse for the others sports. It's the "tv schedulers" to blame. Note when games are shifted around in RL it's the end of the sport as we know it and the RFL are to blame for this happening. There is inconsiderate or poorly planned tv scheduling, then there is having the league title and FA cup decided on the same day, that's hardly bad scheduling, that's an example of how the FA Cup is thought of. As for telling us how many were at Wembley, yeah great, many were they for the CC Final too.



Damn me mentioning one final from 3 years ago, how dare I, it had no place in this argument.



It's not an opinion about what people were talking about, it's fact. I'm actually in the country, reading the papers, watching the sports news on tv, surrounded by football fans.......who progressed was a mere afterthought, the focus was how it'd effect the title race. Journalists are going on about Mourinho's war of words with Wenger, not who Man City play in the next round.

Oohhhh Australian Sports eh?
Both games are ENGLISH sports, both games were played in NEW ZEALAND CITIES and your clutching at straw (men) now.



no, actually, it's your opinion.
The only FACT that bears out in this debate (that you and your tag team partner are increasingly becoming more troll-like with each post) is that 47,013 people did care about the FA cup match enough to attend it.

Answer me this.....and as it relates to the actual topic, a YES/NO answer should suffice:

When Starbug posted


...did you, or did you not respond



as I say, I doubt I'll get a straight answer to a straight question that is 100% relevant to this particular sub debate within Billy's thread, but hey, I've asked.

47,013 people cared........filling 98% of the seats in the stadium.....regardless of YOUR OPINION!

actually, I'll answer the question of the blitzkrieg poster when he admits he is wrong......

actually, I mentioned the 2 New Zealand based events playing English sports to counter the outlandish claim that people attend games but don't care about the results.

I'm all over this particular debate my little "33 years supporting Leeds at full price" buddy......47,013 or 98% of the available capacity of the stadium DID care enough to pay to watch it.....rendering the comparison of the FA cup and Challenge Cup void.....useless and kaput!

[uBTW......by again[/u, do you mean when I predicted 360k attendance at the RLWC? Get over it pal......I predicted that probably over 18 months ago now.....there's a whole new season of SL shenanigans to rip into now......things to get excited about only to find you've been spoon fed bull......ask your mate Billy to show you how the BARB figures work again

The teams competing were 15 Australian, 1 New Zealand. Thus it can be can be called Australian, I'm not claiming about the 'birthplace' of the sport. I'm not saying RL is an Australian sport, but the NRL is an Australian sport. That to was held in Wellington doesn't change that, if the FA Cup final was held in Dubai would that make it a Middle East sport?




And you know they cared how? Because in YOUR OPINION (from the other side of the world) is that every football fan who turns up to a match cared deeply about the outcome. Maybe they're just sheep-like like your tag-team partner likes to accuse RL fans of being.



It's been explained but you won't read it properly. I did say that.....Then I moved onto another sentence talking about another reason/problem with the FA Cup. Note the full stop between what you quoted from me and the bit about Chelsea/Man City/Mourinho/Pellegrini.

Maybe you'll answer some questions from Him, or maybe how a club like Man City (who care deeply about the FA Cup according to you) couldn't even get over 30,000 just over a few years ago for an All Premiership FA Cup clash before their riches and success saw a big increase in nationwide and global fan base, meaning even the least important games get near full crowds.




47,013 bought tickets, how they felt is YOUR OPINION and isn't automatically correct no matter how much you claim.

Nice try....but I mentioned and then you hung your hat on 2 events.....16 at both, so 16 Australian and 16 NON Australian.....yet you claim them both as AUSTRALIAN SPORTS.

If Sid James were alive he could play you in "carry on failing" (babs Windsor as loiner81)





They paid to get in....47,013/98.35% of the grounds worth.....



I don't need billy to deal with you and your girlfriend.........but nice try to further deflect away from the question asked...you remember, the pertinent one to the actual topic?



I'll stop you there. You admit to agreeing with Starbug......who was discussing ATTENDANCES in the cup based on his TV viewing.


Irrelevant. the attendance door wasn't shut because you used a full stop.......attendances were still by association (no pun intended) still on the table.
The rest of your comments about City/Chelsea were objective.....47,013 disagree with you and paid to do so!



The FA cup may well be in the eyes of many, not as important as the Premiership and the Champions League, but it is no way, in any way shape or form, as terminally in decline as the Challenge cup. To say that is makes you and your ilk nothing short of apologists for the RFL....knock down Nigel posters must adorn your bedroom wall.....4 of them...one for each wall....with a bit of ceiling covered too!


...the truth will set you free.


nah...I bet they were all lunatic masochists who bought the tickets not caring who won...I bet some of them were millwall fans just buying up Chelsea's allocation to spite their hated rivals

If the RFL's audience figures don't correspond with BARB's officially published figures, then whose figures do they correspond with?

Be fair Bill. Knock-Down Nigel's bumper book of Spin has delivered so much in the way of Legacy from the RLWC, surely the odd "mistake" can be expected



BTW.....BARB take the entire viewing figure for the programme and create their own average. This is the industry standard figure that is accepted by agents and advertisers alike. The RFL did nothing wrong except compare the BARB averaged figure from 2013 with the "raw" data from 2014......if they had waited a couple of weeks then they would have been accurate/precise, but they got ahead of themselves and now they look stupid.

at Least the adjusted average figure makes the TV deal starting in 2017 but agreed no look a little better than it did before

Nice try yourself, you tried to make out that I was saying Wellington was an Australian city, I clearly didn't. At least you haven't descended into childish lines to deflect away from your lack of decent argument and knowledge of the current state of English football.



Oh wait, scrap that.





Bless you thinking everyone paid to get in. Interesting how you and Billy think everyone who enters a RL match does so on a discounted ticket (oh apart from Bill who ALLEGEDLY bought all his full price but then brags about get cheap tv contracts and plane flights

)




You asked me one question that you wanted a yes/no answer to. I replied "I did say that".......now granted that's not a word-for-word a "yes", but it's a pretty clearly saying yes. A man of your claimed intelligence should've got the jist of that surely?

So whose deflecting by claiming I didn't answer questions?

Go back and double check if you like, it's still there........now how about the questions you've been asked?



Yes and as explained before, but you're struggling to understand I went on to mention something else.



Note, something isn't irrelevant just because you don't want it to be because you've based your original argument on something else.



Really? You asked them all if they disagreed with me?



Sorry must have missed the bit where I said the CC was doing great or the RFL were amazing, or mentioned Nigel Wood. Truth is the CC isn't as important as it was, I've never claimed it to be, it's you here that is hopelessly defending a cup competition, not me.

The FA Cup isn't in decline no.......just got Premiership managers saying they wish they didn't have to compete in it lol.

I've no idea, why not ask them?
And that's not what i asked you though is it?

Oh dear, you've just reinforced everything I said about you at the bottom of page 12 of this thread.

Nicely done

Quote ="William Eve"[size=150=#FF0000BREAKING NEWS!!![/size RFL discovered to be talking bollox [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/29472/records-fall-as-first-utilityHERE[/url about the record breaking, smashing all box office records figure of 353,000 viewers tuning into the Wigan V Huddersfield opening SL fixture on Sky Sports 1 on Friday 7th Feb. The actual viewing figure was 243,000 according to www.barb.co.uk which was beaten by Premier League Darts viewing figures of 284,000 the night before (Thu 6th Feb) Sky Sports 1 w/e 9 Feb 2014 000's 1 LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (SUN 1525) 1,910 2 LIVE FORD MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (MON 1900) 1,598 3 LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (SUN 1230) 1,133 4 FORD SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LIVE (SAT 1657) 697 5 FL72 LIVE - YEOVIL V LEEDS (SAT 1200) 374 6 GILLETTE SOCCER SATURDAY 09-10 (SAT 1500) 338 7 LIVE PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS/#PREMIER LEAGU (THU 1900 284 =#FF00008 LIVE SUPER LEAGUE (FRI 1900) 243 9 REAL MADRID V AT MADRID-LIVE (WED 1855) 241 10 REAL SOCIEDAD V LEVANTE-LIVE (SUN 1830) 219 ...(*Source: barb.co.uk) They also told porkies about the viewing figures for the Aviva Premiership game on BT Sport 1 which registered 75,000 viewers according to BARB as opposed to the 65,200 claimed by the RFL. BT Sport 1 w/e 9 Feb 2014 000's 1 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE (SAT 1200) 973 2 FA CUP (WED 1915) 127 =#FF00003 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (FRI 1900) 75 4 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (SUN 1955) 51 5 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (SAT 1830) 45 6 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (SUN 1200) 44 7 NBA (SAT 1506) 40 8 SERIE A (MON 1943) 29 9 GOAL! BUNDESLIGA PREVIEW (THU 2059) 24 10 FRENCH LEAGUE CUP (TUE 195icon_cool.gif 20 ...(* Source: barb.co.uk) [uTo summarise the RFL horse earlier this week.....[/u 1. The 353,000 was actually 243,000 which was less than the 251,000 viewers who tuned into the Widnes V Wakey SL opener in 2012. 2. The alleged 38% increase in viewing figures on last season's SL opener was actually 29% (243K v 188K). 3. The alleged extra 288,000 viewers tuning into Super League on 7th Feb which was alleged to be 543% higher than the alleged viewers for the Union game on the much smaller BT Sport subscription base was actually an extra 168,000 which is 324% higher (243K v 75K). 4. I expect the RFL viewing comparison to BDO Darts on Eurosport (A desperate RFL or what? Well, they are hardly going to compare the figures with Premier League Darts for obvious reasons ) are garbage as well since according to BARB, Eurosport haven't reported any viewing figures for that week. 5. RFL Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics by plenty '" the 353 is not actually 243. one is a peak figure and one is an average figure. chances are all three figures are more than likely right. like i have posted elsewhere. my take on it is... 353 is obviously the peak figure 299 might be the average from 8pm kickoff till the game finishes 243 is the average from the start of the program (730pm) till the end (10pm) just on peaks, averages (and how they work) and that city game man city v chelsea PEAKED WITH 6.01M, The full programme averaged 4.57M

Quote ="William Eve"[size=150=#FF0000BREAKING NEWS!!![/size RFL discovered to be talking bollox [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/29472/records-fall-as-first-utilityHERE[/url about the record breaking, smashing all box office records figure of 353,000 viewers tuning into the Wigan V Huddersfield opening SL fixture on Sky Sports 1 on Friday 7th Feb. The actual viewing figure was 243,000 according to www.barb.co.uk which was beaten by Premier League Darts viewing figures of 284,000 the night before (Thu 6th Feb) Sky Sports 1 w/e 9 Feb 2014 000's 1 LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (SUN 1525) 1,910 2 LIVE FORD MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (MON 1900) 1,598 3 LIVE FORD SUPER SUNDAY - MATCH (SUN 1230) 1,133 4 FORD SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL LIVE (SAT 1657) 697 5 FL72 LIVE - YEOVIL V LEEDS (SAT 1200) 374 6 GILLETTE SOCCER SATURDAY 09-10 (SAT 1500) 338 7 LIVE PREMIER LEAGUE DARTS/#PREMIER LEAGU (THU 1900 284 =#FF00008 LIVE SUPER LEAGUE (FRI 1900) 243 9 REAL MADRID V AT MADRID-LIVE (WED 1855) 241 10 REAL SOCIEDAD V LEVANTE-LIVE (SUN 1830) 219 ...(*Source: barb.co.uk) They also told porkies about the viewing figures for the Aviva Premiership game on BT Sport 1 which registered 75,000 viewers according to BARB as opposed to the 65,200 claimed by the RFL. BT Sport 1 w/e 9 Feb 2014 000's 1 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE (SAT 1200) 973 2 FA CUP (WED 1915) 127 =#FF00003 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (FRI 1900) 75 4 FRENCH LIGUE 1 (SUN 1955) 51 5 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (SAT 1830) 45 6 AVIVA PREMIERSHIP RUGBY (SUN 1200) 44 7 NBA (SAT 1506) 40 8 SERIE A (MON 1943) 29 9 GOAL! BUNDESLIGA PREVIEW (THU 2059) 24 10 FRENCH LEAGUE CUP (TUE 195icon_cool.gif 20 ...(* Source: barb.co.uk) [uTo summarise the RFL horse earlier this week.....[/u 1. The 353,000 was actually 243,000 which was less than the 251,000 viewers who tuned into the Widnes V Wakey SL opener in 2012. 2. The alleged 38% increase in viewing figures on last season's SL opener was actually 29% (243K v 188K). 3. The alleged extra 288,000 viewers tuning into Super League on 7th Feb which was alleged to be 543% higher than the alleged viewers for the Union game on the much smaller BT Sport subscription base was actually an extra 168,000 which is 324% higher (243K v 75K). 4. I expect the RFL viewing comparison to BDO Darts on Eurosport (A desperate RFL or what? Well, they are hardly going to compare the figures with Premier League Darts for obvious reasons ) are garbage as well since according to BARB, Eurosport haven't reported any viewing figures for that week. 5. RFL Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics by plenty '" the 353 is not actually 243. one is a peak figure and one is an average figure. chances are all three figures are more than likely right. like i have posted elsewhere. my take on it is... 353 is obviously the peak figure 299 might be the average from 8pm kickoff till the game finishes 243 is the average from the start of the program (730pm) till the end (10pm) just on peaks, averages (and how they work) and that city game man city v chelsea PEAKED WITH 6.01M, The full programme averaged 4.57M

Is that the sound of the printer slashing his wrists?

Can I just remind people whether you enjoy this bickering or not, please stop avoiding the swear filter with starts of words plus **!!£££ etc.

If you are going to swear just do it and let the filter amend. Or just put in ******** and leave it to everyone's own imagination.

Alternate spellings and O**er get around's are annoying.

Alternatively the grown ups could try using a thesaurus and start being more creative with their vocabulary.

Happy Bickering!!!!!

A peak of 6 million......wow.....only another 22 million to go until they match the 28 million that watched Chelsea vs Leeds in 1970 final.

That's an interesting take on the figures and a perfectly reasonable stab by yourself at explaining away the very awkward discrepancy between the RFL's quoted figure of 353k for the Wigan/Hudds game and BARB's figure of 243k for the same fixture.

But how does the same rationale explain away the RFL's quoted figure of 62k for the Worcs/Leics RU game on BT Sport 1 with BARB's figure of 75k? Surely if the RFL were engaging in a like-for-like viewing comparison, they'd be comparing the peak viewing figure of the SL game on SS1 with the peak viewing figure of the RU game on BT Sport 1?

In other words, if the 75k BARB figure for the Union game on BT Sport 1 is only the average (in the same way 243k was for the SL game on Sky Sports 1) from the start of the program until the end, then surely the average figure during the game itself was also higher and the peak figure even higher than that?

For instance...
The 353k figure is 45% higher than 243k figure.
The 299k figure is 23% higher than 243k figure.

applying the same incremental percentage increases to the RU figures...
75k x 23% = 92k
75k x 45% = 109k (peak viewing figure?)

Regarding the RFL claim that, and I quote... [i"The opening fixture of the 2014 First Utility Super League season smashed all box office records by recording the biggest television audience for a Round 1 fixture in the competition’s 19-year history"[/i...

... the viewing figure for the opening Widnes/Wakey fixture of the 2012 season was 251k according to BARB which is higher than their 243k viewing figure for the Wigan/Hudds opener in 2014. Would it's peak viewing figure also be higher than 353k?

Despite WE's glee, the viewing figures are
Still fantastic!

Although as another poster said, all 3 figures could be correct!

To blatently ie about another sports viewing figures and indeed their own could land the RFL in hot water. So
I'm pretty certain they are correct.

why are you compairing the RFL'S 353 and BARBS 243???

if anything you should be compairing the RFL'S 299 figure with BARBS 243.

Have you heard of or do you understand the FRAGMENTATION of the media? In 1970 there was probably 1 programme on against it......

Oh no, really?

Now that you mention it I seem to recall something like that being mentioned on previous attendance/viewers threads but it was dismissed by CERTAIN posters as RFL loving excuse making.

Unless it was me, I fail to see the relevance of the above post.

How can we even be sure the BARB are accurate anyway? From what I've read in various articles etc they are out by 3-5% on a regular basis. I would personally take Sky's figure as they will be able to track a lot more accurately the amount of viewers watching there channel.

On top of these figures I doubt they take into account pubs and bars that have the games on as you cannot accurately predict the amount of people in each establishment. I am also interested in the figure, is this individual households that had the program on, because you cannot accurately represent the number of people in a household watching a channel. You've also got recorded copies watched later, plus people who stream illegally



If you took everything into account the real number would most likely be a lot larger than the figures presented.

...AND FINALLY...from someone I know who works for Sky in their IT department; the BARB cannot track things such as live tv through games consoles accurately and the Sky Go app etc. Therefore I would take anything presented here with a pinch of salt and more importantly I would choose to just ignore "William Eve".

Because 353k is the headline figure which the RFL used to compare (in percentage terms) the opening round of SL's viewing figures with Rugby Union and BDO darts.

Because BARB are the official source for TV viewing figures which drive advertising revenue rates commercial TV companies can earn.


BARB is partly owned and financed by Sky... duh!

I was on the BARB panel for two years before I moved house and all you really had was a listening device attached to your Sky box and your tv. We were told each adult represents 10,000 people which each person having a log in letter plus you could add a number of guests. I guess children represent a lower number when they are watching something. Also you are still counted as watching something up to seven days afterwards. They used to announce X Factor etc audiences on a Saturday night in the Sunday papers but the figure will be adjusted in the week for people watching it on catch up.