What an embarrassment, 2905 at St Helens today!

What do they add to super league?

Saints out, Toulouse in!

[My tongue is firmly planted in cheek before Saddened! has an embolism]

How can we improve attendances for the challenge cup? People simply aren't willing to pay to watch a hiding.

People aren't willing to pay to watch a potentially close match either , given the attendances at all SL ties

If that game was against Wigan, there'd have been a near capacity attendance, so I would beg to differ with you on that point.

And if it had been against Crusaders , Quins ,Cas or Wakefield ?

... except it wasn't. therein lies the answer.

With respect, Widnes is hardly the other side of the country, it would be like Hull playing in Beverley.

It obviously is a problem, Saints attendances are down in general.

Featherstone took in the region of 400 > 600 which makes the Saints crowd even worse. Terrible support, makes you wonder how they can pay their wages?

Are you saying Wigan would have had 20k+ if they were playing at home v Featherstone? You are having a laugh!! And only 5828 at Bradford for an all Super League clash that included the currect Super League champions - so hardly a full capacity attendance there either - so hardly just Saints with poor attendances in Challenge Cup games.

It the case in all sports with league and cup that people are unwilling to splash the cash once they have purchased a season ticket.

I had zero interest watching my team put on a public training session against a load of pub players.

I decided to stay in and enjoy the last day of the premiership instead

I am surprised that a short journey for Saints fans to make has reduced their attendances so much. They are only 8.08 miles from Knowsley Road and are going to be 4.79 miles away at their new stadium, a mere 3.21 miles less to travel than they are having to now.

Again very surprised Bradford fans snapped up over 10,000 season passes because they were going cheap then failed to purchase a CC ticket when drawn against the Super League champions.

I think most teams were down on their attendances but why? I doubt it has much to do with holidays as kids are not off school, it wasn't a bank holiday weekend so again unlikely to be people on weekends away. If it had been a league game all crowd figures would have been incredibly bigger so what are the RFL doing wrong with the CC?

On a similar subject does anyone know if the Exiles game is selling well? I have a feeling Headingley is going to look slightly sp which will do nothing to encourage the RFL to make this a regular event?? Hope I am wrong though.

Is the correct answer.

Am I imagining all of those full houses at Champions League and Heineken Cup matches then?

I don't doubt that costs vs season tickets is an issue and the problems faced by the early rounds of the Challenge Cup are no different to the issues faced by the early rounds of the FA and Carling Cups.

For all the demands of cheaper tickets and freebies, the reality is that the Challenge Cup is poorly supported by fans. It just doesn't have the appeal that it once did - not until the semi final stage at least.

Had yesterday's Bradford v Wigan game been in the play-offs, the match would have realistically been expected to draw 15,000.

Wakefield attendence was just about the same as our average so far this season which is ok considering it was on the BBC. No other game got to 50% of a teams average attendance.