It was embarrassing to see all the empty seats at Wembley for a dream final Leeds v Wigan. Rugby League is dying a slow death in the heartlands. Within the next 10 years all the best RL players will be over in Oz or defected to RU. P&R must come back. The heartlands must be strengthened. The game must be given back to the fans or the best game in the world will die.

Well don't blame Wigan. They took 30,000

I noticed that there were much less neutrals there than there usually are.

Keep your head in the sand if you want but rows of empty seats at the games showpiece shows a game in disarray and dying. The game is divided and declining. The 4 Nations will be a farce at Wembley and the Aussies will run rings round England. I bet there isnt a 20,000 at Wembley.

A lot of heartlands fans wont go because their teams are excluded due to franchising. Give the game back to the fans and bring back P&R. If franchising continues the game will die.

Virtually all the Wigan side bar the club wembley seats were full

Looking around the Wigan end was a special, special sight today.


Do. Not. Care. What the other lot looked like

Half empty? The 90k stadium was actually 87% full!

There didn't seem to be as many neutrals and the Leeds end wasn't as full as it could be.

78k on wasn't there?

To be fair, Leeds took a lot more than was rumoured imo.

Half full you mean

The wigan end was more full than the leeds end, but it wasn't as good as some are making out. Very quiet atmosphere wise as well, congrats on the win.

seem to recall that a few years ago there was problem with being able to male the "Club Wembley" tickets aavailable for the CC as the owners who are footie fans own them and they cannot be resold without their say so.

Those areas certaintly seemed to be where the big gaps were.

90k stadium, 78k attendance = 12k empty seats. Considering there's 14,400 club wembley seats and 2,000 executive box seats, which can't be sold unless the owner of the membership says so, I don't think it was that bad of a crowd.

Cardiff
The Stoop
Catalans
Wembley
4 Nations Wembley

More options these days to travel and see your own club-before it was the only away day, not these days

To put it at wemberly keeps it special but to northen teams being there means that getting there for most people will be hard and expensive especially if its for a whole family to go down, Would a northern venue mean more bums on seats who knows. Also dont forget there is a lot on this weekend for neutrals creamfields, Leeds and reading, Matthews st.

All the being said Wigan end was buzzing and atmosphere was awsome well done pie eaters Back on the perch and backed by the fans.

Dont forget though that each and everyone of the club wemvley seats is clasas attending, whether they do or not. So its 14,000ish down on the 78k attendance, which means you were about 64k and that is only a 2/3 full wembley,, and considering every wigan ultra fan in the worl was going its a poor attendance for the "two biggest clubs in SL".

Im from the school of thought that as long as I'm there I've done my bit. Crowds are for other clubs to deal with, they should get their own house in order before ANYONE has a go at our fanbase.

78,000 is pretty good, especially seeing is Leeds were rumoured to not be taking many.

Of course there were some empty seats, that was expected and most of them were in the Leeds end. The whole club wembley seats situation is a bit of a joke though and doesnt help.
As for the "new" Wembley itself I thought the seats were excellent with plenty of leg room and a huge improvement on the old Wembley. Like many new stadia though it's a soulless place with nothing around it to keep fans entertained or to create any pre-match atmosphere. I thought the atmosphere was terrible in the ground yesterday during the match and after the match is there anything more annoying than playing cliched music at full blast over the PA system.

Its seated stadiums that kill the atmosphere IMO

The new Wembley left me cold! Looks nice but No atmosphere and that god awfull music being blasted out after the game. Check out the games in the 80's 90's, the atmosphere was created by the crowd at the end of the game. Miles better.

There were fewer in attendance than last year but more than in 2009. Most of the attendances at the new Wembley have been in the mid to high 70,000s so I don't know what the OP is talking about. There were a few patches of red seats in the upper tiers - and no wonder, it's awful up there - but other than that it looked nice and busy bar the usual Club Wembley waste of space.

If the place had been full people will still have moaned.

I really dont know why this thread is on Wigans forum, we did more than enough to fill the stadium.
The empty seats were down to far less neutrals and 'loyal' Leeds fans watching the game from behind their sofas at home.

There was a block of around 150 seats empty in front of me . I was wondering why it was taped/coned off . I found out why when it started raining . The roof was leaking , and it was dripping into the middle of the block .