why my child?

Face facts the game is dieing

Grand final...hope it huddersfield v catalans

For a ground that holds 90,000, and with the last two games having 85k and 84k there, then yes it's poor in comparison. The drop in attendance was not due to Club Wembley, it was to do with the huge gaps of empty seats in the upper tier, and some in the lower, so don't try and make it out like it was a CW issue.


If you did notice the crowd, why did you question it? And why did you choose to talk about a non-crowd matter on a thread about the crowd? It's like you think it makes you superior to those who want to talk about the crowd. Like I say, it's not rocket science to notice huge gaps in the ground (especially when you're there!) and then watch the game.

There are many factors as to why the crowd may have been lower than previous years that had nothing to do with Warrington or Hudderfield.

I presume you have been lucky enough to remain untouched by the current recession? Many people are out of work and a trip to Wembley (even after a 19 year drought!) costs more than Job Seekers Allowance allows!

Like it or not, many Wigan and Saints fans did buy tickets and then chose not to go because they were not involved - a trip to ebay or Huddersfield and Warrington boards will prove that! Whether it was out of spite because their team wasn't involved or whether it was again financial ( it does cost a lot to get to Wembley), people can't buy tickets that are already sold.

I'm sure people that stayed away had their own reason for it. I know of holidays and weddings that got in the way - afterall, we never expected to get to the final! But I am also sure that the people that went had a brilliant time - so what does it matter?

I think one of the reasons the crowd was so much lower than the previous two was to do with the 3 week turn around from the semis. 9 week gap to the semis to sell less than 25k seats, then 3 weeks to sell 70k? Not the best planning from those in charge.

Should be at least a 5 week gap between the semis and the final.

possibly a factor but unless all other tickets had sold out (which I would guess would have been announced!) it wasn't really a big factor.

I think your point about the recession is a good one though and the current climate will have put a lot off going - or made it impossible - especially for neutral fans that dont have the same inclination to find the money no matter what as you do if your own club is there.

But what matters is that those who went seem to have all had a wonderful time and enjoyed there day regardless of how many went.

before fans of the big clubs moan.. i ahve been to murryfield to see leeds- bradford and saints-waigan and twickers to see bradford saints .. the ground was not full on any of these occations .. nobody seemed to moan about those crowds allthough they were less than the crowd yesterday

Thats not entirely accurate. The 2 semis are mainly attended by the teams fans that are participating whereas the final is attended by a significant percentage of neutrals

I think more accurately your post should have referred to 3 weeks to sell the seats allocated to the 2 teams and 12 months to sell the neutral tickets.

Do we not think that clubs now travel around alot more, so the choice is greater ie Edinburgh, Catalan, London Stoop, Celtic etc compared to the past when there was only one away day. It was noticeable yesterday that there was less neutral tops this year than previously.

Our mob didn't got this year. It was the first time in 40 years that they have not been to the Challenge Cup final weekend.

It had nothing to do with the teams involved as the decision was made prior to the season starting.

They decided to go to the Murrayfield weekend (4 day trip) instead.

I dont see how a 70k+ crowd is bad? particularly as it featured 2 teams who are in the middle of the SL crowd size list and don't get the biggest gates at home.

the only thing I would suggest for the CC final is to move it to an earlier weekend at the end of July. Where with no football for the media to concentrate on I feel it'd get more media attention. Also many people will have chosen to go away on a bank holiday weekend than attend/watch the game on TV.

Since when was 75,560 a small crowd?

The old Wembley wouldn't even hold that many. And with regrads to my club, it was clear about the size of our support after the final whistle, which didn't look too far off being half of that figure.

Typical of RL supporters to see negatives when they aren't any.

Like any club in our position (as also happened for our last visit in 1990) the numbers are boosted by the type of supporters who only turn up at big games, lapsed supporters, supporters family members etc etc

Attendance for the 2008/09 Heineken Cup at Murrayfield was 66,523.

74,417 in 07/08

81,076 in 06/07

74,534 in 05/06

Average 74,137.5 (dunno who the short was)!

Challenge Cup attendances for the same years;

76,560

82,821

84,241

65,187

Average - 77,202.25 (dunno who the one with a real problem was)!

Hardly looks like RL is dying on its to me .

Warrington supporters a credit to the game.

Far fewer neutrals at the game this season IMO.