I understand why people think that, and obviously given their proximity to Warrington there would have been a bigger crowd and better atmosphere if the game today was at Eastlands or Anfield, but not all finals will be as poorly attended as that one. Wembley weekend might not be what it once was, but once you accept that and permanently downgrade it to a smaller ground in the north you take the first step on the slippery slope towards the Challenge Cup being scrapped altogether I think.

The RFL will though, it's quite expensive to hire Wembley, are you aware of this ?

Daily Mirror's 5 points seem fair: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-le ... p-13138275

Daily Mirror's 5 points seem fair: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-le ... p-13138275

The RFL won't care, they've probably more than covered their costs and their cut of the gate. The majority of the ticket sales are split between the two clubs.

Moving the final from Wembley would be admitting that we've given up.

The answer to the Challenge Cup falls on the RFL and the clubs to drag the sport out of this malaise. If we genuinely have an audience that won't pay £20 for a cup fixture, then we're talking to the wrong audience.

I dont understand why large numbers of Catalans regular home support weren't there. I've heard people say flights were expensive, but they live in Perpignan, not Parramatta. They could have travelled by coach or any number of other method. Hundreds of Liverpool fans travelled by coach to Kiev in May to avoid paying £1000 to fly! I realise Catalans don't have that sized support as no RL club does, but comparing like for like and putting the shoe on the other foot, if that game today was in Barcelona I reckon Wires would have had at least double the number that Catalans had today as an absolute minimum. I understand why they obviously don't come across every other week for Super League away games, but today was the biggest in their history. If I went to their home games regularly I would absolutely not have wanted to miss today.

Yeah, the RFL only lost 2 million quid last season.

Time to move the C.C back to May & maybe to consider the Olympic Stadium, a full stadia over what was witnessed today is preferable to that catastrophe !

Separately to the attendance, well done to Catalans on both today's triumph & more generally their upwards turn from last year's low, best team won !

The final should definitely be moved to earlier in the season. Nine hours on the Megabus because of there being no trains into Euston in order to watch that performance really hasn't helped my mood. At least if the trains were running I'd be home by now and it's a regular thing on August Bank Holiday weekend. As a team we also have a short turnaround (which in itself is out of order as there's no way either team playing today should be playing on Thursday) to get over our disappointment and lift ourselves for a vital Super 8s match. At least in May a Super League defeat after the final might not be as costly with more games ahead to make it up.

Playing on a Bank Holiday weekend in August is madness. It's a time when families will want to do things together and in many cases will be on holiday.

Given that the RFL don't receive the gate receipts from the final, I fail to see how that's relevant. The only people who have 'lost out' from a smaller crowd are Simon Moran and Bernard Gauch, although I doubt the latter is too bothered about that.

What's more puzzling is why someone would spend their time counting the pixels on their TV screen to "prove" that the announced attendance was wrong, rather than enjoying one of the better finals we've had for some time.

But I get it; you don't like Catalans because they threaten to set standards that your club will never reach, and that upsets you. There there.

Moving to another stadium would be catastrophic. Should concentrate on selling the game. The first question should be why in reality, rather than speculation, less neutrals seem to go these days? I suspect it's because the playing and spectator base of the game has shrunk a lot since WW2 and a lot if the people who went every year come what may have now got too old / passed away and the numbers just aren't coming through to replace them. That and the fact that the game outside SL us not taken seriously enough and marketed at all.

What standards are those love ? And where did you buy your crystal ball from "Mr Know It All". I bet it's horrible being your wife/husband, because they will always be wrong !

Standards that result in getting to major finals, winning major trophies and playing in front of respectable crowds.

As for my wife, she seems happy enough. Certainly happier that you seem to be after today's final.

As for the Mr Know it All jibe, you really shouldn't let your insecurities show so much. Try to work on that.

Admittedly the recent benchmark hasn't been set very high, but it was an enjoyable final to watch compared to some of the more recent efforts.

I'm fine thanks, my football team Hartlepool United beat Dagenham & Redbridge 2-1 today. Two wins in a row now !


Last season they were skint, and now it's Leigh Centurions turn ! Not easy being a fan of 'smaller clubs'.

Cup final has to stay at Wembley. Makes our game look tacky and cheap if we move it up north. For me the solution is simple, move it back to may and build the event

It's not rocket surgery , everybody used to go to't cup final , now they go to magic,Bash , Cats Toulouse and the GF , we see people on here saying we need more ' events ' , but fans will only go to a certain amount , we aren't affluent union followers ( generally )

We will never fill Wembley again

The RFL should allocate 5,000 tickets to every club in SL, the championship and Championship with another 5,000 tickets to Barla......simply put, whomever sells their allocation first gets to keep all that revenue whilst every ticket sold would carry a 20% commission......£250,000. If a club wants to add a ticket to their ST offering, then so be it.....but the upshot would be if all those clubs and barla sold only 2,000 each, we'd have 78,000 tickets gone before the cup started!

Bottom line is I'd rather watch my team at Blackpool than 2 other clubs at Wembley

The Challenge cup has always been about the neutrals......at least all the ones I've been to have. Great atmosphere, banter, chatting with old mates and a game of RL.....

We need to sell the challenge cup final to Londoners, people want to attend big events at big name venues, we should aim to have 30,000 locals at next years final and allocate a marketing budget to fit. Perhaps the problem is the gate money going to the two clubs in the final, the RFL don’t have the motivation to do this.

some said there would be more at the cup final because catalans were in it

Yes it is/used to be , I've been to a few and enjoyed them immensely , but since then I've had ' event ' games including my club to attend as an option , plus the years of licencing which upset many , myself including