like the Yorkshire cup with half of the teams missing, the games a joke of late

Quote: ThePrinter "Not sure he’s the best person to be criticising diminishing attendances given Wigan’s season average has gone from over 16k in 2012 to below 12k in 2018.'" Still, he'll have shifted a few more season tickets on the back of the Edwards appointment. Oh, wait a minute... https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... n-sacking/

Quote: ThePrinter "Not sure he’s the best person to be criticising diminishing attendances given Wigan’s season average has gone from over 16k in 2012 to below 12k in 2018.'" Still, he'll have shifted a few more season tickets on the back of the Edwards appointment. Oh, wait a minute... https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/ ... n-sacking/

Not stupid at all. If you accept that our great game is a business then contracting to a provincial league (ie the M62 area) is giving up. We need every ounce of support from wherever it comes. As a fan of over 50 years I have seen the highs & lowes of our sport. I live not 10 miles from the both Hull clubs but could not play the game as a kid as it did not reach my town. I have witnessed the rebirth, failure & eventual reformation of the amateur game here & like the pro game it is hanging on by a thread. Our only hope is a diverse competition spread as wide as it can be, not held back by parochial views of self interested parties. Our game has always been at the forefront of innovation & inclusiveness now is not the time to retract into our little safe world.

Sadly, the Yorkshire Cup as we knew it, went long ago and right now nad SL clubs are already playing too many games each season to allow them to compete.
The days of playing 2 games a week (apart from Easter) have rightly been consigned to the history books.

And Easter should be has well that has been a pain for players for years time to get rid

It makes no odds who reaches the final. Other than the Grand Final, this should be the must see event that RL fans attend every year.....the fact that it isn't has nothing to do with Catalans making the final, but a whole lot to do with the RFL milking the cash cow dry and not paying any heed to the aging demographic of their audience, the austerity measures across the UK and not liaising with Railtrack et al in regards of engineering works.
There are 26 teams in the top 2 divisions. 23 of these are UK based. Wembley holds 90,000....so if each of those 23 clubs were to sell 3,913 tickets each, receiving a commission from the RFL i return, I have no doubt that we'd see a return to 80K+ attendances.......no doubt at all!
The Clubs would be incentivised to run coach trips, organise overnight accommodation bought in bulk for a discount....all in return for a cut in the takings. The RFL wouldn't need to print a poster, send an email or do anything (sort of lie they do now!)....and if they started o this campaign straight after the final hooter the year previous, they's have 50k sold by xmas.......
I reckon even the free loaders in Canada would fill a couple of planes full of supporters.....but it would involve some hard work, so no chance

An agreed deal with an unknown company to take over the Sponsorship of the 2019 Challenge Cup has fallen through, and so the RFL are on the look out for a new partner for the competition which starts next week.

Previous Sponsors :

State Express (1978-1984)
The first ever Challenge Cup sponsor was State Express, a cigarette brand, who first took naming rights of the competition for the 1978-79 season, which ended with Widnes beating Wakefield in the final. Their Three Fives brand would have the naming rights for 1980-81, also won by Widnes, before reverting back to the State Express Challenge Cup until the end of the 1983-84 season, the final of which was won by Wigan in front of the highest ever recorded Challenge Cup final attendance at Wembley (99,801).


Silk Cut (1985-2001)
Probably the most recognisable and renowned sponsors, Silk Cut held the sponsorship for by far the longest period, running from 1985 to 2001. Their reign took in Wigan’s incredible eight-year run of triumphs, as well as arguably the most famous final, Sheffield’s win over Wigan in 1998, for which the club received £100,000 in prize money from Silk Cut. Their last final in association with the competition was 2001 at Twickenham. Two years later, tobacco sponsorship was banned in the UK, cutting significant revenue streams for a number of sports, notably snooker and motor racing.


Kellogg’s Nutri-grain (2002)
The envious task of following Silk Cut was handed to Kellogg’s, who sponsored for £1m on an initial 12-month deal. Clearly it didn’t go too well for them, as they only held the rights for that one season – the year Wigan beat St Helens at Murrayfield, as the cup final moved around due to the rebuilding works at Wembley.


Powergen (2003-2006)
Energy company Powergen were next up and they enjoyed the significance of the first final to be held at the new Wembley. Their four-year deal came to an end when their parent company E.ON decided to withdraw from their rugby sponsorships to channel all their resources in to football.


Leeds Met Carnegie (2007-2012)
This new sponsor saw the first non-English club reach the final in their first year, as Catalans went down to St Helens at Wembley. A “ground-breaking” six year deal saw the competition known as the Carnegie Challenge Cup, with the RFL saying they had turn down several offers for the naming rights. The first partnership between a higher education institution and a national sports governing body was believed to be worth anywhere between £6m and £10m to the sport.


Tetley’s (2013-2014)
A familiar name to rugby league fans, having been the title sponsor of Super League in the early 2000s as well as high-profile sponsorship with Leeds and Dewsbury. Their return came at a time when Super League was looking to replace the ill-fated Stobart sponsorship deal that had come to an end after just one year.


Ladbrokes (2015-201icon_cool.gif
With Betfred having taken over sponsorship of Super League, Championship and League 1, it is perhaps unsurprising that Ladbrokes have decided not to renew, maybe thinking that Betfred now has the monopoly over the rugby league market. Ladbrokes taking over the sponsorship in the first place had been seen as a sea of change at the RFL, who had previously knocked back offers from gambling companies under Richard Lewis. It will be interesting to see if any other bookmakers come to the table to sponsor the competition, which will include Serbian side Red Star Belgrade for the first time when it gets underway after Christmas.

2019 - No Sponsor .

There’s only about 5 teams in SLwho cansell 3913 tickets for a home game

80,000 tickets between 23 clubs isn’t a huge amount to ask. Especially as the 2 finalists will take say 30k. Leaving 50k between 21 clubs. Which works out at just under 2.5k per club even without any sold centrally by the RFL. I have no idea why, when we’re struggling to sell tickets for the Cup Final, the RFL haven’t engaged the clubs in this. The same should be true for internationals.

I used to play for York RU about 15 years ago and even then they were part of a central scheme whereby they could buy Twickers tickets and make a bit of money from it. An amateur Union team 15 years ago was doing it.

We desperately need to join all parts of this sport together and having it all pull in the same direction.

Totally agree, the selling of tickets for RL "events" should work all the way down the pyramid, from SL to local amateur clubs.

As you say, it's something that has happened, very successfully, in Union for years and if the clubs dont sell their "allocation", they get overlooked for the "bigger" games, which helps increase demand.

A week to go and still no sponsor. Even the U.K. pro netball league has a mainstream sponsor.

Just shows how far rugby league has fallen

We could get a sponsor immediately, we would just have to drop the price significantly.

It’s too simplistic an argument to say the Cup hasn’t got sponsor but netball has.

This is something I have a bit of sympathy for with the RFL. It’s a difficult time to sell a cup title sponsor for any sport let alone RL. For instance I believe it was last year the 6 Nations had to cut the price of its main title sponsorship by over 30%. And IIRC the FA Cup went a year without a sponsor.

You’ve got a real bee in your bonnet about this and came onto the Bradford board to argue about it.

Please forgive the little championship clubs for wanting to drum up a bit more interest/cash from pre-season games. In the face of losing revenue thanks to clubs like yours.

What do you think’s going to happen when all those clubs go out of business? If it’s that you think we’ll all Start supporting club’s like Wakefield you’re in for a shock.