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.

Les Cats in a close competitive game which helped to develop our young players. St Helens last season were able to do that because they put in so much effort the rest of the season.

As for scrapping the cup, it seems daft to get rid of it because Super league clubs keep doing well, isn't that why they are in the top flight of RL in Europe(with Les Cats)? The FA cup in football is dominated by Premiership Clubs with the odd lower league clubs getting to the latter stages and no-one is calling for that to be scrapped

As already mentioned, without the cup RL would only be live on Sky and have an hour on a sunday on BBC which would only stop RL from being seen by more people and hinder the development at all levels or could end up killing the sport slowly because of less new fans seeing and becoming interested in the sport. The more fans we attract, which the cup can do better than Sky because not everyone has access to sky but will have BBC is they have a TV, the more money and players coming into the game improving this great game even futher

Do you think that would make much difference though? I would have thought those not willing to pay £12 to watch a mis-match would feel the same about paying £8, for example. If it's included in your season ticket, what happens if there isn't a home game?

I'm not saying the ideas aren't worthy of discussion, just pointing out some of the counter arguments.

What happens if/when Sky put their foot down and say right, scrap the CC or we'll pull the Super League money? Short and curlies springs to mind.

Thanks

No further questions.