Looking at the number of vacant seats in the North and East stands Wire could save themselves the cost opening the HJ and move the game to Vicky Park. I guess most people have decided to watch the match on tv. Perhaps we will see a late surge, otherwise it will probably one of the lowest crowds ever for a Wire v Wigan game.

Might be due to football fixtures on Sunday? Big game for Liverpool and City fans.

In recent years maybe even longer back CC games have had small crowds for early rounds.

And season ticket holders don’t get it any more. Fourth round always used to be busier than the fifth.

At £17 a ticket and free for kids, it’s cheaper than our game at Odsul. The Halliwell Jones should be full.

By being on holiday ,i shall save myself the embarrassment of being tight .

It should be but won't be as it is a top fixture, mind you there isn't much novelty value in playing Wigan

Magic will be our 9th game against Wigan in the last 15 months. In that time, nearly 20% of our games have been against them.

Is hard to market such a saturated fixture. Can't do the 'bad blood' thing every time.

Who are Wigan?

Maybe we should market it like the Rocky franchise, or Fast and the Furious.

The challenge cup is heading for the bargain bin, it struggled so much to find a new sponsor which is pretty indicative of general interest in it as a brand/showpiece. It’s depressing seeing empty grounds, especially in the earlier rounds, and when you have to do a ‘double header’ semi final just to create a reasonable attendance, you know you’re on a downward spiral.

Personally, the magic of the cup has gone. I don’t recall ever being less bothered or excited or interested about a Wire Wigan game as I am for Sunday’s.

Wembley itself is sterile and dull too. I just don’t know what can fix it. Move the final back to May? Then how do you squeeze the rounds in? Would it push the magic weekend out of focus? It’s an absolute mess along with the state of SL/RL in this country in general. There’s a very interesting discussion over on the Wigan board about all of this.

It's a crying shame what has happened to the CC. I remember how it felt in the 1990 cup run.

Even as a teenager I loved the cup, going to The McAlpine (as it was then) to watch us in that semi against Bradford, who were at their heights of success, it still felt like we might [ijust[/i pull off a shock. It was exciting, the whole day out and the ups and downs. Now, it’s nothing like that. I know we all romanticise the past to an extent, but there’s nothing that appealing in the present apart from playoff footie and the chance of the GF.

If the 'smaller' clubs didn't sit around crying woe is me and blaming the RFL for everything instead of actually getting up and doing something to improve the match day experience and quality of the club, then maybe competitions like the CC would be in a better state.

Who on earth wants to play a team like Workington, in the end of nowhere in a stadium that wouldn't look out of place in the Rio-de-Janero Favellas? Whilst putting out a reserve team and still putting 80 on them?

The days of flat caps, whippets, warm ale and working mens clubs are over. Every other sport is moving with the times, RL isn't.

But you have to ask the bigger questions. Why can’t these clubs all have nice little modern grounds and better ‘match day experiences’? Where’s the money? Why are they mostly clinging on for dear life and former giants of the game almost going bust like Bradford and Widnes? The whole system in the league clearly doesn’t work. You can’t lay blame with just the clubs.

just out of interest, using the 2 clubs you've highlighted there, who are to blame for bradford and widnes going bust?

I think the issue is advertising, plus Sky have seen the CC in the past as competition for 'their' SL trophy. Look what has happened to the league leaders 'shield', its become known as the hubcap because there is no razzmatazz, everything is focussed on the Old Trafford final. People are very susceptible to advertising, promotion, articles in the press and social media and so over the years the importance of our oldest trophy has slipped from the consciousness of many fans. And as new (younger) ones join they will see little need or importance for it as they have grown up in an period of promotion vacuum for the CC.

It will take quite a few years, but if clubs and the RFL got behind an advertising and media campaign, you could resurrect interest in the cc again.. trouble is, are they willing to do it ?

Like it or not, everyone is influenced by advertising and articles in the media. If you gave a quality advertising house 8-10 years and a substantial budget I can guarantee a large segment of the UK public would be convinced that walking around town with a red flag on their willy was a better alternative to the MMR jab.

because teams like Workington, Whitehaven, Barrow, Rochdale, Dewsbury etc. dont do anything to stir interest. They were to relient on a generation of men who lived and breathed RL. That generation has gone. You can live with the crap tiny stadia but they can't even fill 20 seats most of them. thats down to the club. club self promotion equals more speccies. more speccies equals more income which in turn increases profit, better players, better coaching staff. all that creates more wins. more wins generates more interest which means more money.

These clubs though are happy to just bob along doing the bare minimum needed to get by. Thats why they are the way they are. I know lads who play for a team in the championship and they all say the same. They run their own club down at how bad they/it is. they'd rather play national conference prem but they like getting paid a bit on the side of their hobby.

Look at Warrington now. Our attendances were falling, what did we do? Brought in a young lad to run the social media who is up to date with the latest trends, memes and Gifs; the latest Viral videos. KF before the season started, actually told us our away kit was purposely designed to appeal to the younger generation of the town with the olive-green currently being on-trend. Daft stuff like that is all it can take like the half time challenge etc. Wire are capturing the interest of the younger generation of the town. The above mentioned clubs cant even be d running a half decent facebook or twitter acount.

I agree. And I am sure a lot of people / Wire fans will think all the Wolfie stuff this year is a bit of good fun. What they don't realise is that the club and RL in general is in a fight for survival. Fortunately KFP and the Board seem to have woken up to the fact and are trailblazing for most of the other RL clubs. I will have to put my hand up and say I thought he was a really lightweight appointment, but Fitzpatrick has turned out to be exactly what we needed.

Star Wars more like.

It seems like most teams have no idea what marketing is. There are more reasons that ever to not go to a game. Yet other sports are fine.

Most clubs sits on their hands and blame the RFL, while the RFL still thinks it's the 1950's.

All credit for KF for not looking for blame elsewhere are making the club accountable for its own promotion. And surprise, surprise, it's working. If all other clubs did the same then the Challenge Cup and UK RL in general would be in a much better place.

Toronto in their 3 short years of existence have promoted the game more than SKY / RFL / SL / BBC have in the past 20 years.

Toronto and Wire are head and shoulders above every other club in the country in the PR department. other clubs have tried this season to have a go and failed. Wigan and saints brought one out for their derby and it looked as though it was edited by a one armed, blindfolded chimp using only a stick and a potato.

We are probably some way behind Toronto too...they really are a yardstick.
Even their own fans promote over the social media platforms.

Think you are been a little unfair there. I support KR and some of the social media/KR TV/match day/community stuff the club do is spot on. We get it right off the pitch a lot ( sadly not on it)

A couple of years a go we were voted number 1 sports club in the UK for social media engagement and it's continued in a positive fashion.

I do think we are a bit insular in focusing just on the Hull area, but one of the pitfalls of having two clubs is the constant battle for the floating fans in the city.

You could also argue what Catalans have done since winning the CC has been fantastic, and the whole Barcelona events will add massive focus in that area.

Fair enough. But I think it's the innovation, originality and boldness which has impressed me with Warrington this year.

It's more about the RFL though. They just don't do any marketing and it's making their marquee competition suffer.