Isnt the CC part of the club wembley package and as such already sold.

Yeah, sorry. I didnt make it clear. Everyone had the option whether to be included into the package before they "signed up" to play at Wembley. The NFL opted out instead deciding to sell the Club Wembley seats themselves (£150 a ticket you can understand why). If the RFL decided the same they would have avoided a ring of 15k empty seats between the 2 tiers.

There will have been some recompense for that though im sure.

Oh yeah, definitely. All the ones who opted in will have got a share so its basically free money and a guaranteed 15k on the attendance. Still doesnt look good though

Cheergirls versus teams on the pitch.

Picking out one or two random crowds doesn't help your argument...

When the NFL gets 99,801 for the same match, you can complain.

Rugby league has had crowds of over 90,000 there since 1948. A bit more of an established pattern than one off NFL events packaged with typical US build-up and promotion.

The only thing to learn regarding the CC Final from NFL is to properly market the event. The RFL just relies on supporters lining up when their team eventually makes it through. They only bother to promote the Grand Final these days it seems from afar.

You can't place a price on the value of that packed final at Wembley. It was the thing that got me first interested in the English game some 30 years ago.

This tournament is one of the pinnacles of world rugby league.

England needs to work on getting relevance back into it and especially to get the semi-finals back to the wonderful crowds of the past, like the 65,000 at Odsal etc.

the big white panels with the graphics on..they are seats being covered up..also your picture for the Leeds v Wires game was taken 15 mins before kick offf

Before Super League the Challenge Cup wasn't seen as being a secondary competition to the league at the extent that it is now. It is now a distant second to Super League and the attendances reflect that. The competition will never go back to having the prominence that it used to have IMO, no matter whether the format is changed or not.

The advent of SL basically killed it. The gap between SL and the rest is now so wide, shocks very rarely happen and therefore the 'romance' of the cup has gone.

Yes, now stop trying to create a non issue.

Correct

I wasn't trying to create an issue



I was just saying that there were 75k tops in the ground for the final last year. Thats what the pics were about, not to say one sport is better than the other (even though it is by some distance

) Just to show what 85k actually looks like.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Half the trouble with the early rounds is that the amateur sides have no chance of causing an upset. It is the SL sides only which can compete.

Yeah the NFL games with all the seats under bunting.

Whilst there is a Superleague there will NEVER again be a challenge cup winning side from one of the lower leagues.

Fact.

Whilst I agree with you its not a Fact. Its an Opinion!

Whilst i enjoy us playing superleague teams in this competition, i also feel that it is pointless playing full time teams against part time.

I'm still going with 'fact'

The gulf between SL and the more *ahem* 'amateur' sides (which lets be honest thats what any team outside of SL effectively is... in ability certainly) is enormous.

If a side like Quins can win a game then you know the lower league stuff has problems.

Do you know when the last time was that a team from outside the top division won the Challenge Cup?

Certainly not happened in my lifetime (which goes back well before the start of Super League), so you're hardly going out on a limb with that prediction.

Without checking Andy I have no idea.

But the way it is now it's like having the FA cup rounds played with only premier league clubs and sides from the conference. The higher placed lower league sides MIGHT sneak an upset win over one of the weak SL sides in one of the early rounds if they are very very lucky but it's not that likely.

But as for one of those teams winning the actual trophy... forget it.

So in my opinion it should be a comp played between only the amateur sides. Its pointless having sides like Leigh, Doncaster, that Swineton whoever they are (the side that got hammered 112-0 - I'm still none the wiser in finding out who they are by the way) Featherstone, Halifax playing the likes of St Helens, Warrington or Wigan.

Blow out scores on telly (especially the BBC) do nothing for our game either.


*Edit*

It's Swinton apparently not 'Swineton'. Apologies.

I had still never heard of them though.

Quote ="St pete"IMO the challenge cup needs a huge revamp. I'm not sure how to revamp it but it's lost it's romance and we are in danger of losing what was once a great cup to win. The gap between super league sides and championship sides now is so huge it's becoming embarrassing with some of the huge score this year. Leigh and Halifax give a good account but I can't remember a year with such huge score which IMO isn't good for the game. Maybe some sort of seeding between the championship sides?'" Briers and Wellens disagree www.code13rugbyleague.com/2011/0 ... cup-format

Quote ="St pete"IMO the challenge cup needs a huge revamp. I'm not sure how to revamp it but it's lost it's romance and we are in danger of losing what was once a great cup to win. The gap between super league sides and championship sides now is so huge it's becoming embarrassing with some of the huge score this year. Leigh and Halifax give a good account but I can't remember a year with such huge score which IMO isn't good for the game. Maybe some sort of seeding between the championship sides?'" Briers and Wellens disagree www.code13rugbyleague.com/2011/0 ... cup-format

It has never happened. In fact, there has never been a finalist from outside the top division. The following teams made it to the semi-finals from outside the top flight:

Oldham 1963-64
Halifax 1979-80
York 1983-84
Widnes 1996
Toulouse 2005

Now wait just one minute, you can't just come barging in here with your statistics and facts and ruin a perfectly well reasoned argument that people are having!

Next you'll be posting crowd figures from the earlier rounds of the CC from the pre-SL era that also show very little difference to the attendances that early round cup games get today!

Shame on you!