So in the last two days they've been in contact with the Hull ticket office who have happily kept them updated with how many they're selling on a daily basis. Ok then and are they also accurately aware of how many fans have bought their tickets directly through the RFL and not through their club?

Unsubstantiated claims....in marketing.....nah no one ever does that

And you don't think clubs are in contact with the rfl / giving & receiving ticket updates? Or that they don't know how many each were allocated?

I said originally that obviously wasn't including tickets through the rfl. Simply tickets bought through the clubs.

No way have Castleford sold the most tickets for the magic weekend....Catalan Dragons have (you silly Yorkshiremen) Jean from Chorley told me, and also DGM confirmed this to be true.

On a side point, after years of sneering from 'big' clubs on here about how the 3 clubs in the area should merge as we would never offer anything to the game with our own identity would it be a stretch to say the 'big' clubs (with recent succcess) should be doing a bit better with ticket sales ? If a town with a 40,000 population is in the top 2 for direct ticket sales, clubs such as Wigan, Saints, Wire and Leeds have sold less than 3500 presumably ? Should clubs such as Leeds with a population of over half a million people be looking to aim a little bit higher ?

From a slightly different angle, in the round ball game, FC Halifax Town and Chorley mustered a crowd of almost 8000 for the National League North play-off final last weekend. That's in the 6th tier of footie in England.

It just demonstrates that sporting events can attract spectators if the vibe is right, even when the quality on show is, let's say, lacking.

How to change things in RL for MW/SB I'm not sure (albeit Fax will almost certainly have more in Blackpool than they have at most home games??), but by asking fans to travel for the weekend (and pay for accommodation) is a bridge too far from a financial perspective probably for the majority.

Couple of points: not all fans of the "big" clubs were/are in favour of a cas/wakey/fev merger. And yes, the big clubs could and should aim higher than 3.5k.

If it is true, and Cas have sold the most tickets selling 3.5k, then unless the RFL have sold as many directly than the clubs have combined the attendances are going to be atrocious.

Hull had sold over 4,000 by last weekend, and that is only the ones directly from the club and not the ones bought through the RFL or other means.

However, I agree, if all clubs sold 4k, then that is still only 48k over the 2 days which is poor

Exactly, if all clubs had sold the what we are hearing the the highest numbers are the RFL will still be needing to sell another 20k to get it respectable.

When I went to Cardiff (as a lone Leigh fan with a Saints B.I.L) having bought well in advance, I found out that if you walked up to the tourist office/centre & asked "what is there to do in Cardiff today" you would be given multiple free tickets to MW.

I suspect this will happen again.

We had the exact opposite, an FC supporting mate of mine came along with us at the last minute, so had no ticket. We all thought there'd be a stack of freebies doing the rounds, he ended up paying top dollar for his tickets.

Hull KR have sold 3,500 for the Blackpool Bash

Having limited tickets might actually mean the RFL don't have to give them away dirt cheap, £25 for 2 days matches you could buy them for last year IIRC, supply and demand situation.
Also balance out the two days with teams that are well supported, whilst there might well be XX fans on any given day in total the stands are never full with all those fans all at once on either day.
A 32,000 stadium would be perfect, coventry is ideal location wise because it's within reasonable distance for all in cluding those of us in the south that don't want to have a 10 hour round trip.

And to boot Coventry/Midlands is an expansion area that the RFL need to be looking at with serious intent.

I remember when HKR sent 5000 to blackpool in the 2006 Arriva Trains Final.

Blackpool is a fun day out for sure (but Leigh upset the apple cart big time that day !!)

INOUT

Or not it would seem , third highest ' Magic ' attendance , just 3,000 behind the best

If it must move, please not Coventry! The ground is a pain to get to and as a city it has little to offer.

So maybe it was down to Leigh's extra fans we had a decent attendance this year?

Obviously , helped that we could take our ' pets ' with us , as seen just before the start of our game

And Saturdays crowd wouldent have fitted in the Ricoh, and Sundays crowd would have probably been over too if they sell unreserved seats. We should be looking to grow the event not take it to a smaller stadium.

Agree completely

If I needed help I'd set up my own inbred forum and scuttle off there like you lot do when the going gets tough. You know that self loving echo chamber (not my quote) that you lot hide in.

At least every other set of fans bar Widnes (who can blame them) have the bottle to front it out in public.

I have no official figure but I'd say we to 2000+, many like myself paid on the day I know because I was in the queue with them - some from other sources.

I'm happy with that - gives us a steady six inches in the willy measuring department compared to Leigh's rather limp 4 inches. Clearly we are not in king dong territory like Cas, we can but dream. I was actually very impressed with the Cas turnout but sadly had to curb my enthusiasm when I realised half those I'd counted were indeed stewards

Nice one.

Like it.

I hope it's not Coventry but have a feeling it will be.

The city has no attraction whatsoever and the ground is a nightmare (Coventry that is)