double header at macron stadium, Bolton, sunday 5th august finally no excuse for the some west of pennine fans to not travel! www.rugby-league.com/article/525 ... -announced

double header at macron stadium, Bolton, sunday 5th august finally no excuse for the some west of pennine fans to not travel! www.rugby-league.com/article/525 ... -announced

Great idea

Might attract more fans for a 'day' of RL

Sounds good. Just hope it doesn’t turn out to be too small a capacity with four sets of fans plus neutrals.

28,000 doesn’t seem very ambitious for two Challenge Cup Semi Finals. What have semi final attendances been over the last few years?

Not sure how many neutrals go to CC semi finals like, not like the final I guess.

With one of Hudds/Catalans making the semi's the support for them clubs is obviously less. Wigan have not been taking many to semi's recently n all.

We should be able to sell this out or close though shouldn't we. I think it's a cracking idea like and feels more of a big event type day compared to seperate semi's

but they will have been worried about empty seats on tv

12.30 an early kick off..

not sure about this

I think it's a very good idea however it's a long time to spend in a stadium, providing you're allowed in and out of the stadium then it should be fine. Plenty to do around the stadium and there's even a train station next to it.

£25 is very reasonable.

Interesting. Wonder how they will deal with fan segregation? After all, this is a CC semi final not a Magic weekend jolly up and there has been plenty of recent form for trouble in cup semis in the recent past and that with just the 2 teams playing. Hope i'm wrong and it goes off well.

Combined CC semis have rarely bridged 20k in a number of years now, so don't see this being a problem, but even if it sells out 28k full stadium would be a great success.
Personally think its a great idea and i have suggested this many times over the years.

My guess would be each set of fans will have a half way line spot (both from semi 1 in the same attend, semi 2 in opposite stand). Main camera switches sides after each game to show full stand each game.

Lower tier initial allocation for each club. Expand to upper when necessary. Neutrals probably allocated Hudds/Catalans section.

Think it's worth a try. It is a good point mentioned above though about the fans all together as SF's are much different to a Magic weekend jolly, could be problems. Think 28k is about right, it's tough to know ATM with the lineup yet to be decided, you could a Saints Wigan derby or Saints vs Catalans which has no set of fans for one team and the other team possibly expecting to go through and saving their money for Wembley. Another issue you could have a Hull vs Hudds SF which makes the location not ideal. But like I said it's worth trying but might be a bit or trial and error early days.

I think the crowd for game 2 will look bleak. If say Leeds play in game 1 and lose.... There fans won't stay behind (or most of them) to watch game 2. I know I wouldn't be in the mood anyway.

Leeds have to beat Leigh first. Yes they probably will do as favourites,but they still have to win.

With anything like this, I think a lot of folk lose a bit of interest after their team has played, regardless of the result. Having a double header is possibly more attractive in theory for the neutrals, but spending £25+ on a ticket plus all the extras compared to watching it on TV probably means it'll not attract vast numbers outside of the 4 participants.

As has been said, worth trying though.

Yup, I was just about to make the point that we're very beatable right now. Attendance-wise, I don't think there'd be a huge difference between the numbers either of the respective teams would take.

If you know anything about the car parking there you will want to leave after the first match.

If, and I mean if, the semis look like


Huddersfield v leeds

Wigan (or wire) v Saints

Then I think it could be a great spectacle. Huddersfield would take a healthy following if got to the semis and played hit and miss leeds side who also travel well for the jolly days out. Then a main event of wigan v Saints. I think it's a very positive move.



Appreciate that Leigh hull and Catalans could totally wreck this potential plan and good luck to them !

I would imagine supporters on coaches will have to stay for the second game.

I guess each club does things differently, but I've seen it where there's a choice (albeit one that has to be made beforehand) whether you go on a coach that leaves after the first game or at the end of the second one.

When I went to Wembley in 1987 (yes, a long, long time ago), the coach picked us up in central London just after midnight. That was a great day (for anyone in blue'n'white anyway).

Off topic, but sort of relevant for some of the discussions on here about RL and how things have (or haven't changed). This is quite thought provoking (and imo, a good song)... [urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0D5WaUNbFI[/url

Given 1 of Huddersfield or Catalan are assured to be there, I'd say that 28k is a good sized stadium.......

As well as 28k sounding fine I'm struggling to find another suitable one in the north. The next smallest are up at 40k and that's too big and I don't think Elland Road would go down well with some if Leeds make it through. Likewise you can't use the likes of the DW and KCom because of Wigan and Hull potential involvement.

I don’t know the size of any of these but are any of Sheffield, Bradford, Barnsley, Blackburn, Middlesbrough suitable

would think if huddersfield reach the semi final, prob take 3-4k... few years back think we took 4k to a semi final at warrington. not alot but more than catalan would take.

not sure how many other clubs would take, we dont even know which clubs will make it yet!

but 30k stadium will still be plenty of seats available for everyone wanting a ticket!

leeds will beat leigh with a bit to spare, dont kid yourself otherwise, if leigh get within 10 points they will have done well.

who ever the losing set of supporters are from the first game highly unlikely they will stick around for game 2 don't know why you have mentioned Leeds fans, wigan fans the most likely to walk.