I doubt very much that had the game been at Workington that it would have been much less of a crowd.

Anyway you forgot the main point of the post. David started this thread off with regards how can we make the cup more interesting. Personally I do think it would be a little more even if Super League clubs were drawn away to NL oppossion rather than at home.

You only have to look at yesterdays game between Widnes and Wigan for that. At JJB that would have been a walk over for Wigan.

That's a very defensive and presumptious post there David.

I'll happily respond if you could explain your serious allegation that 70% of Friday's gate receipts will have gone into Gary Hetherington's pockets.

How about SL teams having to play a certain number of u21's players in the cup and only 1 overseas player - dunno, scrapping it wont be an option so....

Quite - my point about the receipts is this - the revenues are split once you take off the expenses and VAT.

If we said average amount paid to watch the game was £8/head taking into account concessions - I have assumed all corporate, bar takings and food sales go to Leeds. Not sure about the programme sales.

So my calcs are as follows:

3,576 @ £8 = 28,608
VAT (4,260)
Net 24,348
Expenses (4,000)
Net 20,348

GH's share 14,174 70%
WT share 10,174 30%

The expenses are a guess they could be even higher - one thing is for sure GH will not be out of pocket.

The Challenge Cup gives us national exposure - it is the only games of live RL on terrestrial in the year - and means a lot more casual viewers of the game than otherwise. Of course the lack of interest in the early rounds is disappointing but is inevitable given the improved standards in SL vis. a vis sides in the National Leagues (except the top NL1 sides). However the final is still a showpiece event that makes up for this.

Personally, I didn't go to the game on Friday I had other commitments but I did go to the away game against Worky a few years ago. I would be more motivated to go to these games if they were away because it is more of an occasion and its good to see some of the grounds in the NLs with lots of history.

David,

Do you understand about corporate identity?

Why do you say this money will be going into Gary Hetherington's pocket?

I agree Gareth.

Did you enjoy your first taste of the challenge cup this year?

There were rounds before that you know? Did you know?

I know. Why do you think it was my first taste of the cup? Mr Bywater made that same presumption.

A colloquial epression for funds going into the coffers of the Leeds Rugby.

..

st,helens academy u mean,,and they only won in the last seconds

Looking for some sense on this subject it, sadly, led me to a post from a Bulls fan. There you go.

Firstly, I agree entirely with Ferocious Aardvark.
I think a big step forward would be to include CC games in with your season ticket, maybe a 50% discount or some sort of incentive to get season ticket holders to the games, as I think the price on friday night put off a lot Leeds fans due to them thinking theyre not getting value for money against a team such as Workington.
It seems that games not on the season ticket attract signifcantly less fans than games that are. For example leeds getting only 10,500 for Wire in the playoffs last year compared to 17,500 a few weeks earlier.
My point being its not only the CC that attendances dip for, basically its any game not included on the season ticket. Which may also be one of the reasons for our pathetic turn outs for international games.