Nope.
Starbug made an observation regarding the attendance at and The Printer followed up with his agreement, before going on to discuss supposed levels of interest in the City v Chelsea game. The initial issue here is the attendance at Sunderland and the backing up of this observation by the second poster....this is the area that I was commenting on.

Here....have ANOTHER LOOK.


In fact....in the above 2 posts, no mention was made of special offers or fascist type demands of clubs that fans MUST buy tickets to cup games......

The important bits fro above are...



No amount of you wriggling about is going to
a/ change the fact that the first part of the exchange between SB and TP was about attendances in the FA cup followed by a mention of the Challenge Cup....
b/ make any mention of offers/discounts/3 line whips or any other form of ticket promotion appear.


Lastly....you add


Why say that? I am perfectly aware that the comparison of FA cup and Challenge Cup matches is totally misplaced, regardless of if you're talking about attendances or attitudes.

What I maybe don't fully understand is why you are continuing with the side alley distraction of sales techniques used to get fans into stadiums....specifically in a thread where the main basis of your irrelevant distraction, namely United, aren't even in the comp?

Is it so hard to accept that you are wrong? It's not like its' a shooting offence when you get something wrong on here....I mean to say, I was 100k out on the RLWC attendance predictions I made.....I'm still here. I accepted I was wrong and embraced the fact that I am fallible. Is it so hard for you to accept that no amount of harping on about ticket sales tactics and the like will change the FACT that 47,013 people did give a toss, did care and did bother turning up at the not as glamorous but just as bankable FA cup match...regardless of what was said about:



47,364 people turned up in the more important Premiership a "few weeks back"......hang your hat on those 351 fans if you must. Maybe they were more fussed than the FA cup crowd.

Yes note the GOING ON bit, I'd moved on to highlight another problem with the FA Cup, I even talked about it with mention of the pre-match build up between managers in the press.




Well we'll remember that. How often have people on these boards said they've actually attended games but not been bother by the result at the end (because of the top 8 format). Did the 9,000+ that turned up at the Leeds Boxing Day game CARE about the result, did the 3,000+ at Bailey's testimonial really CARE if we beat London?

Everyone who attends a football match cares apparently, yet we hear constantly that when RL fans attend games they do so only because they're sheep and go out of force of habit.

It's just being hypocritical, if football fans turn up its because they're fussed and care, if RL fans do it's because of X amounts of downplayed reasons.

Crowds may not show it but if you follow both sports closely in this country I think RL fans are far more interested in the events of the CC than football fans are in the events of the FA Cup.

Seriously....47,013 people did give a toss, , tuppenybit or a flying about the game......351 les than gave a hoot a few weeks before and that is the point I was making.
No amount of blitzkrieg posting the same convoluted garbage about opinions and water-cooler moments will change this fact...saying that the FA cup is suffering from the same or even a similar decline to that we are experiencing in the CC smacks of insecurity and insanity in equal measure.

BTW I have no interest in anyone who says they attend any sporting match and say they "don't care who wins"......NEUTRAL is a gear I don't do!

The #1 difference being cited over here in regards to the Auckland 9's and the Wellington 7's is THE RUGBY! At the 9's, everyone had a team. There were fans of all the NRL teams there and at least 30% of the crowd actually watched the games.....at Wellington, nobody gives a toss about anyone except New Zealand....and other than the Final/Semi-finals, nobody...and I mean NOBODY watches the games.

That lot over at League Express appear to have rediscovered their enthusiasm for reporting on SL attendances AND viewing figures which were conspicuous by their season long absence last year.... well... apart from that [i"Toulouse for SL attendance in Toulouse"[/i

I eagerly await BARB's officially announced figures next week for comparison purposes

What is wrong with you?
Why can't you understand a simple point that football fans care less for the FA Cup than they do for the Premier League?
It's very well understood here. That was the point being made by both Printer and Starbug. On 2 different aspects of the same issue.

A comparison in the right context between the FA Cup and the CC isn't totally misplaced. They're both the major domestic cup competition. Both with significant history. There, a valid comparison. Of course the attendances aren't comparable. NOBODY has done that. Only you seem intent on doing so. What can be compared is a similar decrease in interest for the 2 cups in preference for the domestic league comp. In both sports they used to be of at least equal (or very close to) value compared to the league. Now that is not so.
Again, NOBODY, is saying they are worthless.

What are you on about "side alley distraction" of sales techniques? That's the whole point, these sales techniques didn't used to exist and aren't necessary for the Premier League games. They are now necessary in order to keep attendances up for the cup games.

This is the whole point. These techniques aren't needed for Premier League games. The comp is highly valued by both fans and clubs. If the Cup was equally valued and attendances would be equally as high, why would these techniques be used?

I'll try once again and see if you'll answer a simple question -
If the Cup hasn't declined in interest, why do Man Utd now force season ticket holders to buy tickets to it?


I'm not sure why Man Utd being beaten in this years cup has any relevance? Can you tell me?

You can continue to push the notion that the FA Cup is just as important to clubs and fans if you want, you'll just look very silly and as though you jumped into a discussion about a sport you know little about.

Remember NOBODY is saying that the cup is worthless, just that it has declined in interest from what it used to be. To most people that would seem a reasonable statement.

But then that would rob you of another opportunity to pretend to know the solution to every problem within rugby league.

Can you answer the question I posed? I've asked it several times now.

No chance, you'll just get a load of totally unrelated "facts" and made up stats before he moves on to something completely different (after insulting you once or twice of course) to try and divert you from the fact that he's ****** up yet again.

... from Red Hall?

Indeed, I agree.

Any advance on 355,000?

I don't know why you're starting to include Australian sport in this as this different countries have different attitudes towards sport. No quoting one large fan-based team (especially when they couldn't reach 30,000 in the FA Cup at home a few years ago when they were pretenders) will change what is an obvious and probably bigger decline in interest in their domestic cup. You've even pointed out the less well supported teams suffered from more empty stadiums.

Truth is the FA Cup has followed a very similar path to the CC in terms of importance. The 70's, 80's, early 90's it was known as FA Cup Final Day with that being the sole attraction and attention.....in 2011 Man City won the cup on the very same day Man Utd had a lunchtime kickoff that claimed that seasons title for them. If that's not a true example of where that competition stands then I don't know what is.

League titles decided on the same day, change in traditional kick off times, managers saying they'd rather not be involved in the competition. No diverting off to the Auckland 9's will change that. Oh, and for 4 years in the early to mid 00's the FA Cup had no main title sponsor.

Fair enough. BTW, I'd steer clear of calling the events I named "Australian" when discussing them with a proper Kiwi

Trademark.