i think comparing challenge cup attendances for the entire competition and comparing them to other years is a bit of stupid idea; remember a lot of the draws are done from the hat so if a small teams gets the home game with a small stadium then obviously it won't get an attendance as large as big team having the home game and the small team getting the away draw. All depends on the draws up to the quarter finals on what the end overall attendance looks like, Wembley is always likely to have an attendance that just varies by around 5-8000 so the earlier rounds really skew the overall attendance figures.

What a pity the 'stats pack' posts couldn't be put, sort of behind the more interesting ones, maybe only available by pressing a red button...

So, according to William Eve's stats, if the SFs next year are Wigan v Saints (12k example) and Leeds v Warrington (12k example) then Challenge Cup SF attendances will be up by 50% woooo hooo

Honest answer. No

I'd say about 65k

That being said, I find it quite ironic that someone that did not attend the final is bleating on about the number of empty seats.

Perhaps if those all too quick to criticise actually attended the major events the perception of the game (which you seem so bothered about) wouldn't be as low as you hope it to be.

Wigan took a few less than last time I was there, Hull took a lot more than Leeds. Nowhere near as many neutrals there though, which is where the big dropoff was.

Challenge Cup Final attendances in recent years are deliberately inflated by the inclusion of the alleged sale of thousands of empty seats along with the Club Wembley ring of indifference. This has never been more evident than at yesterday's "Empty Seat" CC Final where it was obvious to anyone that Wembley was at least one-third empty.

The sundry knee-jerk reactions and ad hominem responses directed as a result of the provision of genuine comparative attendance stats from semi finals proving that the Challenge Cup is attended by far less people during the SL era surprises me not.

I think as other posters have pointed out, many neutrals (myself included) decided to save their money for the World Cup.

We obviously can't trust the officially announced attendancies for CC finals, so to validate the figures for the last 25 years I'm going to stitch together photos from every final and count the number of people... watch this space!

People actually read the endless list of meaning less numbers he puts up ?

Thankfully all pre superleague attendances you use are 100% accurate

They are indeed to the best of my researched knowledge and I invite anyone to question their validity if they feel disposed to do so.