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.

How on earth do you work that out - you really are a prize pillock.

I gave up on him yesterday.