So, everyone seems to agree that Saturday's game between Fartown and Leeds was a superb game and great entertainment that was shown on national tv.

Played in front of a big crowd who created a big game atmosphere it made Saturdays game one of those special gamedays that dont seem to come around too often now with the mundane, mid-intensity Super League weekly rounds.
This was done on the back of reduced tickets and marketing pushes from both teams (who should be highly praised for getting their heads together and coming up with this) - it worked.....so, after seeing this and seeing some passion and excitment brought back to a competition that many people on here have claimed 'is dead' does anyone think the RFL should now be encouraging clubs to make the earlier rounds of the Challenge Cup ( up to the QF's) cheaper admission to try and generate this kind of enthusiasm for most challenge cup games?.

i think in the challenge cup most teams to cheap offers. Hull KR v Saints £10 and v Wigan £12 (more expensive on the day) and the crowds did not turn up I think both were around the 4.5k mark. Granted the club did not really push it that much and didn't see much in the local media. I think hull FC also did cheap offer for tickets for Wakey and got 7.5k.
My issue with having cheap tickets all the time is that is could devalue the sport.

Hull v Wakey was £14 pre purchase or £15 on the day. Reduced the tickets, but not substantially in my opinion as i don't think it sways that many people to justifiy it. I'd suggest Hudds v Leeds would have still attracted a large following if the tickets were double that price. Two sides performing brilliantly in the league and in close proximity

Saturday showed that if you work hard and market the game properly and have 2 very good teams on show the fans will turn up. Both clubs deserve credit for making Saturdays game a success. The more teams we have up to standard the more intense the games will be. This will result in more interest and higher crowds, cheap tickets will only go so far, the the quality of games arn't high enough fans still won't be bothered.

No. It's up to the clubs to take responsibility for pricing as they see fit.

It was £15 at Warrington yesterday, if you bought tickets before match day. Then I'm not sure what price they increased by on match day. Not a good decision as the crowd was only 5,451.

I also went the previous round against Keighley who also wanted £15.

I can see why the Championship clubs want to charge more as they see it as maybe there only big pay day of the year so have to make the most of it.

Ticket prices across the board should be coming down.

We need a bigger audience for RL not just milking the faithful.

Pegging a good chunk of regular tickets around 2 hours minimum wage 12-13 quid every match would be a big start.

There are other ways to raise revenue if we have bigger crowds.

Great idea reducing ticket prices, Bradford reduced their season tickets to £60 the other year, sent them into Administration. Super League clubs were asked to produce business plans as part of the licensing process. Simple business practice, income must exceed expenditure (unless someone is bankrolling the club). If not you go out of business. Salford, the club I support fell into the trap of concentrating on bums on seats, rather than unit pricing of tickets. Giving tickets away or selling them uneconomically is ultimately suicidal. Ticket prices need to reflect economic reality, not some utopian dream of what they should be.

Reduced prices would have to be part of an overall business plan....5 years and maybe even 10 years.

A tenner a pop is a reasonable price if you are paying up front in the form of a Season ticket, with walk up prices being about ₤13 for the cheap seats. If people want to sit in the "posh seats", then that's up to them.

Then you need to gradually increase the prices, but whilst doing so, "add more value".....say a ₤130 ST is to go up to ₤150 (15%), then maybe a bigger discount could be offered for merchandise or away travel? Then freeze it at ₤150 for a couple of hears before bumping it again to ₤165 (10%) again adding some more value elsewhere.

The real trick is to include some discounted "mates tickets" in the ST option, with redemption of the ticket for say ₤5 being dependant on getting data on the "casual fan"...then try to hook them as ST holders or at least get them back on a more regular basis...

The trick is to Gradually try and get people into the habit of attending games on a regular basis. ₤60 for a ST one year going up 200% the following year will never work.....it has to be part of an overall plan.

For far too long RL marketing has been about putting posts in the ground and announcing a KO time.....the powers that be need to graspthe fact that they are competing with hundreds if not thousands of other leisure activities when it comes to the attention of the public..............................................................................................................................................................................................................I blame Kevin Costner personally

Free tickets are ok as long as you strictly control who gets them and who uses them , getting into the local schools, inviting them down early to a RL festival and then putting everybody all together in a dedicated ' Community stand ' is great in you can do it, but that takes hard work and the right facilities

I suggested to Leigh a 10 quid kids junior ticket but with a free adult ticket to the 1 st game of the season , a big push to get them on sale well before Xmas to sell as presents mostly to mums as a way of getting rid of lazy hubby and little Johnny/Jemmima for a sunday afternoon/friday night

Astonishing news. If only the Bulls had charged high ticket prices, all would have been well.

Do you actually [ibelieve[/i this stuff?

My original post was aimed at the Challenge Cup games BTW not regular league matches....seems to have drifted onto a general ticket prices, was interested to see what peoples thoughts were on getting the cup back to its former glory.

If cheaper tickets increase retained income then great, if someone bankrolls the club until gates are at capacity then great but we have to understand we have bills to pay

The ticket pricing was certainly a success for your game with Leeds and an excellent win for you guys as well.
Prices for the cup are a difficult issue as the lower league teams only get 1 or 2 matches and the cup provides the opportunity for some much needed income but, its all about getting the right balance to achieve the maximum revenue.

TV games need to achieve slightly different objectives and when RL is on terrestrial TV it is imperative that we show the game in a good light as many people who tune in may have no knowledge of the game and it's an ideal opportunity to "sell" the game to a new audience, so in this respect, reducing ticket prices to fill the ground is a must, plus it should also encourage some new spectators to come and watch some live sport.

To be fair to Rovers, after the hiding they got last time out against Wigan this was never going to be a big crowd, but neither would it have been if it was at Wigan.

The issue is sport wide, and not just for the Challenge Cup. Playoff crowds are dwindling and are a poor reflection of the gates often seen when the teams play in the regular season, even for the clubs with bigger attendances such as Leeds and Wigan.

Credit to Huddersfield for generating the crowd they did on Saturday, but generally there just doesn't seem to be the appetite for one off games.

For me it's simple. More games like Hudd v Leeds and seeing teams really up for the cup

No (sensible) club is going to sell 15000 tickets at £10 each if it knows it can sell 10,000 at £20. the only way that the RFL can encourage "reduced pricing" especially if they are telling the clubs to operate on a sound commercial basis is if they agreed to pay the clubs for the shortfall in revenue.

find me a club that last sold 10,000 Challenge Cup tickets at a score each