Quote William Eve="William Eve"As a modern day fan of Sooper Dooper League and Sky Sports (no, really), I shall be taking my cues from Sky's level of commitment and interest in the Challenge Cup this round which amounts to approximately ZERO.
Moreover, the fact that Sky purchased and currently own the rights to televise a Challenge Cup game this weekend but choose not to do so tells me all I need to know regarding the future of this once-prestigious competition, once they get their hands on all of it in 2018.
In true modern day t fan of Sooper Dooper League stylee, may I take this opportunity to place the entire blame for the piecemeal destruction of the Challenge Cup on the BBC. How dare those b@stards display commitment and interest in televising a cup tie this weekend?'"
I dont think crowds have ever been too great for early rounds of the challenge cup.Granted they have certainly fallen away since pre SL days but even going back over 20 years to the 1990/91 cup, we played Bradford at home and pulled just 9,076 fans to the game, whilst Saints at home to Wakey drew a paltry 4,586.the following season we played Saints at Headingley and got just a tad more at 9,610.
That said, the Semi finals attendances have dropped markedly in recent years.pre- SL you would be looking at a guaranteed 15 to 30k Semi finals (maybe some quarters too) whoever was playing, these days yo are lucky to see 5 figures even if the big boys meet.
The Final has pretty much held up in its attendance figures, but im not so sure how much longer that will continue if it disapears from mainstream TV, and as a result, out of the minds of the 'once a year for the big event' attenders consciousness forever.