well, looking at the challenge cup tickets page, they're selling reasonably well in the warrington end, and only just going on general sale this morning.

I don't know where the free tickets are that the rfl are giving to lower league and community clubs, but the catalans end looks a little weird at the moment.

Elton is washing his too but is still going to the game. He'll pick it up on the way home!

I very much doubt it will have any bearing on the neutral supporters turning up, we go every year and book our trip months in advance. Am I anymore excited with it been Catalan? Not at all, but equally I am not dissapointed that it is Catalan opposed to a Leeds or Saints.

The problem for the attendance is that most other SL clubs would take 20k+ and realistically Catalan might take a few thousand,not a dig at the Catalan club, that is just the way it is with the costs and hassle of getting over to London... As already mentioned it would be great for the Catalan club to supplement a trip for them, if they can throw hundreds of thousands bringing over a waste of a shirt like Dave Taylor then they surely can put something towards there loyal fan base who have stuck by them this season! Whatever the attendance is I expect them to add 10k.

When is it that you think that "big sponsors" will start paying again ??

We wont attract any big sponsors if we play the game along the M62, with the showpiece final somewhere along the M62.

The main issue with the Challenge Cup final is that it's no longer the end of season "showpiece" event that is always was.
The Grand Final is now set up as THE big event in the RL calendar and this, and the Challenge Cup finale being played mid season, the final has lost some of its appeal.
It's a real shame and as a neutral, I'd take Wembley over the Grand Final every time.

I can't see there being more than 70k this year, road and railway works, bank holiday weekend its getting more difficult to get to London these days. Also as already mentioned the new Wembley has lost its charm, if you are high up in the stands you lose the atmosphere and you start thinking there is a game of rugby league way down there.

As for the game itself hope its a good advert for our sport and the winning score towards the latter part of the game.

There were 68000 there for Hull v Wigan and 76000 there for Wire v Hull the year before. There will not be 70000 there this year and will only 80000 there once a decade if that.

There has been 4 +80k crowds in the last decade and a few more 1k below the 80k mark in the last 10 years.

I’m getting sick and tired of certain posters on here putting down the areas that most of us are from. I’m proud of where I’m from thanks. I’m trying to be as polite as I can about it, and I’m of the thinking that expenasion done correctly is a good thing, but as EastHull has already said - if these are the type of fans that expansion is going to bring then do we really want it? The actual problem could be the stuck up attitudes of ‘fans’ outside of the heartlands. Some of the posts on here lately just sound like stuck up your own ar5e pompous cr@p that could lead to dislike between different sets of fans. Rugby League fans have always been a fairly close group regardless of the teams we support. I’d like to keep it that way thanks, so if you don’t like us then do us all a favour - go back under the rock that you crawled from under in the first place.

Cheers didn’t realise that, for some reason thought they were all pretty steady around the 70-75000 mark.

I am from London and a supporter of expansion but definitely agree with the points you have put across.

There is no need for the total disrespect towards northern areas in the UK. We can all have discussion and debate without putting down the areas people live in.

Last year was the first year not to include the Club Wembley sales, which inflated the crowd for the last decade.

As I said earlier in the thread the issue is the RFL need to get the neutrals back, by the semi final stage we should be aiming for 40k to be sold with 25k sales reserved for each finalist. Thousands of neutral fans have been lost and we need em back.

Big name blue chip sponsors are not looking at Pound shop, Daily Mirror reader types of demography. They see that there is no money there, this is why we attract the likes of Foxy Bingo and BetFred.

There was over 84,000 at the CC final last time Catalans got there in 2007.

By contrast there was only 68,000 last year for Hull v Wigan.

Heartland clubs do not guarantee an increase in crowds.