Add to that cutting to the crowd and/or coaches during play, even between the tackle on Sandow after his interception and the resulting try. What were they thinking?

Apart from the awful piece with Robbie hunter Paul or whatever he's called these days fannying around on the pitch trying to get interviews and getting in the way, what's that about? why do we need this silly feature? or the Sky-like obsession with showing the coaches hidden away behind glass windows while the game goes on in the background.
BBC coverage is a lot better than Sky usually, but they are starting to get as gimmicky now, just cut it out, show the game and leave the other stuff out.

Never a big fan of gimmicks myself and agree that BBC have slowly introduced them. Having said I still prefer their coverage over Sky's.

Fantastic day for me yesterday for obvious reasons! But the declining crowd for the final is a concern, i dont even think a final between our best supported clubs Wigan & Leeds would sell the ground out now, and the RFL need to urgently look in to why, is it the price, the marketing, the scheduling...because something isnt quite right.

Personally i think playing the game on one of the biggest weekends of the year for sporting and music events doesnt help with neutral crowd numbers or media coverage and a move to June or July would be a much clearer date in the diary. It also gets away from disrupting the middle8s as i doubt either Hull or Warrington will put on much of a show next weekend because the players are knackered.

Aren't ticket prices cheap enough without being practically free?

For me, the Wembley final has been on a downward spiral since the grand final was introduced and it was shunted to a bank holiday weekend in the school holidays, whereas previously it was THE showpiece event in the RL calendar, that has now been destroyed by Sky and super league, pubs, clubs, workplaces etc used to run coach trips to the final from almost every town, now i bet there are very few.
Also as well consider that RL fans, now have the Magic weekend, Grand final and cup final as big events, some will possibly pick one over the other, whereas the cup final was the big event, no question.

It's a shame,as with the FA cup final i grew up with it and all the euphoria around it, now it seems they are just another game.

Wembley lost its magic when it stopped being Wembley. Now, it's just another new stadium, albeit a very big one. Personally, I'd take it back to Cardiff.

Hasn't lost the magic for me and if your club got there and won I'm sure you would think the same.

I think lots come down to the financial state of the country, 10 years ago I'm sure there were miles more trips and neutrals attending, I reckon lots of people now can't afford it, so the neutrals are down massively.

Just looked and when saints played Catalan, there were 82k, so that 10k more than yesterday, Catalans support wouldn't have been near either teams yesterday so that around 20000 less neutrals

Society has changed. Far more people working on Saturdays. London isn't the extravagant big day out for everyone anymore. You've got the Grand Final to compete with (which isn't a negative for the sport) plus the centralisation of the nations media in London over the last 30 years.

Yet we still got 76k there. Pretty good as far as I'm concerned. The final isn't a worry to me. The worry is the semis and the earlier rounds. Got to get them fixed.

Yes Saints v Catalans got a higher crowd but it was the first one back at Wembley, I went to that purely for that fact. I also went to the year after for that reason too. But that factor wears off. 76K is a very good crowd and we should be banging that drum to the media and sponsors. Not bemoaning a few empty seats.

Having a magic weekend has a big effect to my mind, one that the RFL seem not to acknowledge as well as the very obvious positioning of the CC in the calendar.
They could have an all in one ticket CCsemi final/final + MM and GF and possibly Big Bash and sell it with home season tickets with a discount for buying all of them and make it known to all fans that discounts on individual tickets (like the cheap Magic weekend/GF/CC final on offer) will NOT be available for these events bought later in the season. This is why discounted tickets don't work to get more fans, undersubscribed stadiums and fans waiting to get a bargain.

Move it from Wembley, have it at Emirates (Especially if moved to May) Olympic stadium (my preference) or possibly Cardiff
It's not cheap for the RFL to use Wembley either. Move the magic weekend away from Newcastle, it's too far and too big and again £15/£20 tickets for two days games is ridiculous. This only occurs because fans know that the RFL have a big stadium to sell out and can't at the full price. Supply and demand.

Nope. Got to be Wembley. Olympic Stadium is shockingly bad, or it was for the international last year anyway.
Anything other than those 2 stadiums is yet another excuse for the media to ignore us. Plus we consistently get above the 60k capacity of the Olympic stadium for the Cup Final.

The Magic Weekend may well have had some effect on neutrals going but I think it's probably negligible in comparison to the other factors.
This is another example of where we need to be 1 sport rather than a collection of isolated clubs all pulling in different directions. All clubs should be marketing the big events (Cup Final, Grand Final, Cup semis, Magic Weekend etc) all season long not just when they are involved. And there needs to be far, far greater links with the amateur clubs. The RFL should be helping co-ordinate group tickets and travel for amateur clubs along with a cashback scheme as an incentive for the amateur club.

It's a good point re: Magic Weekend. It will detract many neutrals from going for the day out to the Cup Final.

Apart from the school certain raiser why don't the rfl introduce a minor Challenge Cup for teams in the bottom tier of the leagues and play that before the main event?. Would give supporters of teams in that league the chance of seeing their club on the hallowed turf and could fatten out the crowds?. You could show the game on the red button on the BBC as an option to watching the build up on BBC1.

The problem is there clearly wasnt 76k in the ground as that number includes Club Wembley tickets who dont show up. And regardless of which version of the number they announce its a number that is in decline.

Does anyone know what happens with Club Wembley after next year? My understanding was the initial 10 year deal is up. Hopefully that means the RFL can sell just the bottom two tiers of Wembley and only open the top tier if needed, when theyce done that for England games the atmosphere has been good.

Saturday was an excellent game, superb crowd and a top "event".
RL has done well at introducing The GF and Magic Weekend in addition to the long established CC Final. However, it's probably unrealistic to keep adding to the number of major events and expect that they will all be sell out's.
Sometimes less is more.
IF we still had to old style league with the top club as champions and the big day out was a Wembley final, it would sell out every year but, it's not reasonable to expect the "same" fans to keep emptying their pockets.
The reality is that they will pick and choose their days out.

Of course it's all a balance, between trying to expand the games appeal and "find" new fans but more importantly, we have to expand the fan base.
The Magic event should be the best way of doing this but, it needs moving around the country at regular intervals and some solid marketing to try and bring new fans on board.

Although the inclusion of Toronto and Toulouse into the domestic competition is contentious, there is no doubt that this will increase the sports profile and this should create some interest outside the traditional RL heartlands.

Of course there is no magic formula but, the key is growing the game and increasing the number of people across the country that are willing to pay to watch our sport.

The upcoming 4 nations with a game in london will also be a major factor. Saturday was far and away the fewest neutral supporters I've ever seen at wembley

For me 1 they should move it back to may 2 they should fix the early rounds and 3 why should the top teams play less matches to get their go back to what it was, I hope when sky get it thats what they do

Elaborate, please?

I went on Sat and try to get down every year. It's still a highlight for me and I'm sure for others too.

The problem is that people have an obsession with empty seats, which I agree doesn't look good, but 76k is still a good crowd if you take it as a stand alone figure. Although I accept the point about Club Wembley, which hopefully will not be a problem any longer.

Wembley is a massive stadium and we just need to accept that it's difficult to fill considering that a lot of our fan base is Northern. Travelling down to and possibly staying in one of the most expensive cities in the world is a tough ask for those who simply can't afford to do that.

I think a lot also has to do with the reduced quality that we have now and the last couple of finals have been one-sided so I can imagine that would put people off

I think football are having the same problems with the FA Cup. Obviously they will still sell it out, but it's lost something.

I think we just live in a sporting society where the league is the ultimate prize and the cup is secondary. Possibly changing the scheduling would help, but it needs to stay at Wembley 100%

It's also an expensive day trip and has now become one of many.In the past the league was won by the team that finished top - no special day out needed,it was won over the season. Now we are asked to spend out on a trip to the Magic Weekend in Newcastle, a trip to Wembley for the cup, a trip to Manchester for the Grand Final. It's a big and expensive ask and some people will have to pick and chose which they would prefer to attend. Not everyone has unlimited finances!

Brilliant afternoon in Queens Gardens, Hull for the victory parade. Huge turnout and glorious weather.

:zv834ouy

I suppose we will be seeing that 23,000 filling out the KC week in week out from now on ?

Only if it's free



Would hope our attendances next year will be up but we have the same issues in increasing crowds as every club. An extra thousand or two would be good.

You are such a little ray of sunshine, aren't you?