Warrington travelled 40 miles
Hull travelled 71 miles
Wigan travelled 8 miles and were still within their own borough.

It rather begs the question that if the two clubs who travelled the greatest distance averaged 6,000 why on earth couldn't the alleged biggest name in Rugby League persuade more than that number to walk down the road to support them.

They averaged 5k, 1k less than Wigan. Anything else at the bottom of that barrel of yours?

Wigans fans are fatter though.

You obviously weren't looking very hard, but then again, if it suits your agenda to run down those that bothered to trawl 200+ miles with the very likely result that we saw, then fair enough.

Well as I don't know what the split for yesterday was I could make an educated guess that one of the teams were at or very close to 6000. You still haven't justified your low attendance for what was effectively a home game.

We all know its the Giants fault the crowd was low, lets look at the key reasons.

1. Warrington charged £5 for coach travel for the game on Sunday, outrageous!
2. People had to pay for a game £20 is a joke
3. The game was on TV, so why would you go. I mean look at old Trafford when Man UTD play and the game is on sky, the place is practically empty.

So to conclude, it is the fault of people of Huddersfield that two of the biggest clubs in the country could not even half fill a stadium that that the giants play in! Congratulations on filling a ground the size of wakefields (no disrespect to wakey).

Either 6k is low or it isn't mate, make your mind up.

They only had 100 more for the home game the round before.

You're right. 6000 for a home game is apalling. Full marks to those teams who travelled.

Ha ha, 6k is bad when it's Wigan, good when it's Hull.

I looked but I didn't see. If there was 200 Broncos fans in the ground I didn't see them. Like I say I saw one bloke in a London shirt all day. I'm guessing there were others I didn't see but I'd be surprised if there was more then 50.

As for the ones that did go fair play to them. It's not easy going all that way when you know your more then likely going to be on the end of the result. I've done it myself plenty, watching us in our darker days but more so watching Wigan Athletic. I also made a 200+ mile trip down to London in May expecting to get a hammering....turned out surprisingly well that one!

Do you honestly not see the difference between a team effectively playing at home and one travelling 70 miles.

6k v [uLondon[/u
5-6k v [uWarrington[/u

Is distance the only mitigating factor in your book? If we should have taken more due to the distance, you should surely have taken more due to the opposition. Ateotd Wigan have taken around 6k to semis, the average for a SL side in a semi, whether its 8 miles away v London (Leigh), 12 miles away v Saints (Warrington), or 40 miles away v Leeds (Huddersfield). At the very least, our numbers of fans don't drop off the further away the game is, nor do they drop off depending on who we play. Can you say the same?

I was surprised at the lack of Hull fans there yesterday. We practically made our last two semi finals home games against Wakefield in 2008 and Saints in 2005. I am not so sure as to why, everyone will have there own reasons but I think overall the reccession is the main reason. They is more people out of work then ever in Hull and it is also a lot more expensive to go to the match then in previous semi finals, with fuel going through the roof.

If I was a Wigan fan though, I would have gone to the semi but understand why a lot didn't. It was as good as a bye and TBH games against London are always a chore due to the lack of supporters they have.

I think the main contributor though is the decision to move it to August, bang during holiday season and the start of the football season. They should move it back to may and have the magic weekend in august IMO.

Don't quite get some fans to be honest. I understand people's financial situation can vary but I managed to get to the semi-final v London on Saturday and my Dad and I traveled up from Coventry. I would say there was a maximum of 50 London fans there. I would love for them to stay in Super League and for us to have a strong team in London, but lets face facts, their performance on Saturday was embarrassing and add into the mix 50 fans showed up its shocking!

Sorry London fans but its time to knock London Broncos on the head.

The recession is a big factor, but our poor league form will have put some people off.

I think the Final itself is ok to stay in August, but they need to sort the gap between the Quarters and the Semi's out...2 weeks leaves barely any time to sell tickets, particularly corporates (the boxes at Huddersfield seemed almost empty on Sunday) but I assume the BBC are calling the shots with the scheduling, and are trying to avoid June which is a busy month for them with Glastonbury & Wimbledon.

6k-ish diehard fans per team isn't too bad, regardless of distance travelled. The near-absence of neutrals is what the RFL should be seeking to address. The local village near where I work (location: middle of nowhere, population: est. 300) managed to attract 3k to their summer fair where the peak entertainment was probably the judging of the cake competition. If the RFL is genuinely too strapped for cash to market these occasions properly, the game should revert to its blood and thunder profile of former years which might effectively market it through word of mouth.

The noise from the Hull fans was incredible even on TV, I interrupted my wife's game of bejewelled to comment to her about it. She was less impressed than me.

The problem is we have too many 'events' for the size of fanbase in RL. Magic w/e, GF, CCup Final, World Cup. Spreading it a bit thin for me and games like this suffer.

For a cup semi final?? - Not sure why neutrals would be something to address. I can't imagine wanting to go to a semi-final if my team wasn't involved. The final is an exception due to the occasion etc etc.

Live games are better than watching on tv. I definitely would have gone to watch a great game not involving my team if priced right

I kind if agree, and even if neutrals aren't a legitimate target, surely casual fans from the community.
Have the Rugby league clubs lost touch with their local communities?

As far as neutrals go, there could have been offers for Leigh and Huddersfield ST holders to attend the semis cheap (or even FOC?), its not like they were short of space.

That's actually a great idea. If we can assume that the competing teams will bring up to 6k each, allocate them space at each end of the ground and fill the rest with ST holders with a free pass. It's better for the game to have bums on seats and better for the hosting side to have fans in the stadium. Maybe a few years down the line we can think about converting that to a nominal ticket charge for ST holders.

How many season ticket holders do Hudds and Leigh have?

[url=http://m.rlfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17381587Apparently Hudds sold 5200[/url
Assuming half that number turned up to the semi,not only is it an extra 2600 on the attendence and buying food and drink, but stick them all together - for insance in the top of the away stand above the Hull speccies. Curved stands like that look spectacular when full.

Perhaps they should have aslo looked at a couple of double headers in the quarter finals?

I do think 6pm on a Sunday was a big reason.

There's no reason it couldn't be opened up to surrounding teams' ST holders too. Hosting fans get in for free, others at a nominal charge, all under the banner of rewarding ST holders.

Edit: having said that, that might risk alienating the fans of the competing teams who may feel punished with full price tickets!