^ I mean it's not like those games contain different teams every year. Nice that you took the time to compile the stats though

Jeff - so you lost the argument at overall attendances so now you are trying to prove an ageing competition which has been superseded by a newer more vibrant concept i.e. the GF is in decline - everybody knows the CC is a second rate comp what are trying suggest? The point here is people these days would rather go and watch the league competition than a cup - a bit like soccer - maybe it is a society/cultural thing? Overall as has been proved more people are watching RL than in your halcyon days of the 1980's.

The average respect for William Eve declines -4.7% every time he posts.

Sat here with a cup of coffee, newspaper ready to read and literally laughing out loud at William Eve getting served.

My favourite bit is where he suddenly drags up Semi Final attendances because he's lost the fight on Final attendances.

PS as a could of the Wigans fans said, the attendance & the quality of the game means nothing now to them as their name is once again etched into history.

So we have opted for a stat about semi finals as the figures for the finals did not suit unless you picked a one off year.

I think the exposure as a fifth columnist is now complete.

Posting any stat as long as it gives a negAtive spin.

Why not go with the certain fact that there are more people dead than alive. So rl have already missed out on billions of potential fans that they can never get to watch rl again.

I've seen a fair few very good trolls during my time lurking around RL message boards, but they usually give themselves away in the end, in much the same way William Eve has.

I know there are some real idiots on these forums but you take the bonbon.

You are not factoring the high unemployment, the cost of the event, the cost of travel etc?

yep, and smaller communities which made a local sports team of the world etc, less entertainment choices...

Comparing that era with this is beyond pointless.

2003 71,212
2004 73,734
2005 74,213
2006 65,187
2007 84,241
2008 82,821
2009 76,560
2010 85,217
2011 78,482
2012 79,180
2013 78,137

Seriously, anyone criticising the crowd is an idiot. There really is nothing else to say.

I think they used the rug union calculator to count the crowd or does Wembley hold 120,000?

You could see 40,000 empty seats? Yeah you're right, this years attendance is shocking compared to last years 79k, which is definitely accurate as its only Wigan games they lie about the attendance.

Are you implying that Wembley was half full?

i think comparing challenge cup attendances for the entire competition and comparing them to other years is a bit of stupid idea; remember a lot of the draws are done from the hat so if a small teams gets the home game with a small stadium then obviously it won't get an attendance as large as big team having the home game and the small team getting the away draw. All depends on the draws up to the quarter finals on what the end overall attendance looks like, Wembley is always likely to have an attendance that just varies by around 5-8000 so the earlier rounds really skew the overall attendance figures.

What a pity the 'stats pack' posts couldn't be put, sort of behind the more interesting ones, maybe only available by pressing a red button...

So, according to William Eve's stats, if the SFs next year are Wigan v Saints (12k example) and Leeds v Warrington (12k example) then Challenge Cup SF attendances will be up by 50% woooo hooo

Honest answer. No

I'd say about 65k

That being said, I find it quite ironic that someone that did not attend the final is bleating on about the number of empty seats.

Perhaps if those all too quick to criticise actually attended the major events the perception of the game (which you seem so bothered about) wouldn't be as low as you hope it to be.

Wigan took a few less than last time I was there, Hull took a lot more than Leeds. Nowhere near as many neutrals there though, which is where the big dropoff was.

Challenge Cup Final attendances in recent years are deliberately inflated by the inclusion of the alleged sale of thousands of empty seats along with the Club Wembley ring of indifference. This has never been more evident than at yesterday's "Empty Seat" CC Final where it was obvious to anyone that Wembley was at least one-third empty.

The sundry knee-jerk reactions and ad hominem responses directed as a result of the provision of genuine comparative attendance stats from semi finals proving that the Challenge Cup is attended by far less people during the SL era surprises me not.

I think as other posters have pointed out, many neutrals (myself included) decided to save their money for the World Cup.

We obviously can't trust the officially announced attendancies for CC finals, so to validate the figures for the last 25 years I'm going to stitch together photos from every final and count the number of people... watch this space!

People actually read the endless list of meaning less numbers he puts up ?

Thankfully all pre superleague attendances you use are 100% accurate

They are indeed to the best of my researched knowledge and I invite anyone to question their validity if they feel disposed to do so.

Top concept. You call an official attendance that does not fit your agenda made up but recognise figures that do validate your agenda. Do you have a side line in doing stats for north Korea.

If you wanted to be taken seriously you would show stats the show both sides. +ve and -ve.

Yes there were empty seats yesterday, but to say Wembley was at least a third empty is utter bolllocks.