This competition used to be the pinnacle of the sport. If your team were drawn at home in the challenge cup, you could bet that the town/city you lived in would be buzzing with cup fever. On the day/night of the game you could gaurantee a bumper crowd, especially if you were playing a team from the same or higher division. Why does it experience such apathy? Salford v Hull KR tonight saw just 2096 fans attending. If this was a league game, there would be double that. The semi-finals of the competition used to be played in front of sell-out crowds of 16-18000 at Headingley and the old Burnden Park Bolton. Now they struggle to sell 10000 tickets. The only time the competition comes alive is when we all go down to Wembley on the bank holiday weekend. How can the sport re-invigorate this wonderful competition.

For one, they should never be played on a Friday, two, cheaper tickets.

No on cares about it except warrington fans,

Its just an incovenience for the big clubs, Saints, Wigan and Leeds.

0/10

Typical RL fans. People wonder why the sport gets no national interest when all we do is complain ourselves about how crap everything is.

I have a copy of the book put together by Robert Gate about the '54 cup final replay, in it there are a lot of mentions to RL fans & press of the time complaining about and being concerned about waning interest in the Challenge Cup. Considering this waning interest stretches back so far I reckon crowd figures ought to have hit negative figures by now.

Free for kids, £5 for concessions and £10 for adults across the board. No free tickets rubbish, demeans the cup I think & stops the financial gains small clubs get.

The cup final used to be on the last day and the showpiece occasion of the season. It's now stuck in the middle and has been replaced by the grand final. That IMO is why interest has dropped recently.

It used to be scheduled for the backend of the season. I'm almost 100% certain (but can't be d spending time poring over historical records to prove it) that it was never explicitly scheduled to be on the last day of the season though, I think your memory has made that fact up.



Efficiently marketed by Sky. There was always a premiership playoff series involving the top few teams from the league at the end of the season, it's just that nobody cared about it unless their team was actually IN the final.



People have been saying "interest has dropped recently" for the past 13/14 years that I've been using usenet/internet forums.

It clearly needs over time to become not only a publicised event again but also rugby league's European Cup. All the same English teams but also those from the other nations of Europe. 3 French teams...waste of time. All should eventually be involved. This will clearly also help the French. For the inevitable trolls, the Heineken Cup started around 5 minutes ago. The Challenge Cup, not so.

nothing wrong with the challenge cup, maybe the rl should put the prices inc in season tickets some how.also well done warrington fantastic achievment to score over a hundred points no matter who the opposition is. just hope hull dont do the same to us.anyway ill be there supporting my team this afternoon win draw or lose.

There are two rounds of super league after the challenge cup final, hardly call that in the middle

The semi's and final are usually well attended, its only really R4 and R5 that have dire attendances

what was the attendance at Wembley last year for this 'non-even't in the RL calender? 80K+ of people who turned up because they had nothing better to do wasn't it?

The BBC ruined it in my opinion.

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?

Why not indeed. So that's licensing, a £300k salary cap and now a seeded Challenge cup comp. Anything else? How else can we crap on these inferior clubs? Ooooooh, I know - let's give free tickets away for the round that SL clubs enter ........ Oh, hang on.

How about a new set of criteria for entering the Challenge Cup? (Toulouse exempt of course).

3,400 pre sold tickets for the Bulls v Wigan game tomorrow.

I didnt go to the the Rhinos game last night because I think the quality of the product on the field drops off in the early rounds unless its a derby. £20 is expensive to watch your team play at half the pace as a regular SL game.

It's pretty obvious that you have not read my full post. I've said somehow the cup needs a revamp as it's lost it's romance but I've stated I don't know how they can do it. I suggested "MAYBE" seeding.

If you think Warrington putting 112 on swinton or other super leagues sides putting 80 on lower league teams is good for the super league, championship or rugby league in general then I'd like to here how?

I've not said let's $hit on the championship sides as you suggest, in fact it's the total opposite.

But it back to earlier in the season where you are more likely to see heavier pitches and conditions acting as a leveller. Would a SL team fancy going to a championship ground in February?

Put it earlier in the season and people will complain that the cup has been demoted to being a early/pre-season novelty instead of a show piece event. The RFL can't win here, all anyone in RL ever does is complain and b***h that the cup has lost it's romance (unless, of course, their own team is in the final). It's actually getting pretty boring now.

Is it just a coincidence that the decline has been since the BBC forced the final to be in August? It's ridiculous that we can have 2 rounds in 3 weeks and then wait 9 weeks for the next. Then the semi and final are 3 weeks apart.

Scores like this aren't unheard of. I'm certain that Saints put a similar score on Carlisle many moons ago in the cup.

The CC has been devalued due to SL being the be all and end all paymasters. Unless you get to the final, where there are the obvious financial rewards, the cup nowadays is a hindrance.

Totally pointless in every way having a SL side playing a championship one in the Challenge cup.

Long gone are the days that a club other than one of the 'big names' could win it. That more or less changed when the game went professional. SL sides are getting stronger. The others are just plain rubbish.

It's not even as though the non SL clubs are going to get a good pay day out of playing one of the real clubs. It's not like a non league side drawing Man Utd in the FA Cup and making a few quid.

Give teams like Halifax, Leigh the chance to actually win something by making the CC a lower league comp or do away with the concept altogether in it's current form.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is a troll and should be banned from the forum.

You're the authority on being banned from this place Bazza. That and fat people apparently. What a resume you have. If you ever make it out of the place you're in give the Australian Consulate a ring - they may take you home.