The problem is that most of the "local" football clubs seem to be at home on that weekend.

On Saturday 6th, Preston are at home to Colchester, Burnley are at home to Watford and Huddersfield (the most probable venue for Leeds v Cas) are at home to Bury.

The Keepmoat is available on the Saturday (Doncaster away at Brighton) but I can't see that being used.

On top of that, as previously mentioned, there's the chance that football clubs might not be overly keen on a rugby match being played 6/7 days before their first match of the season.

when will they announce the venue?

Of co there must be a ground in Lancashire big enough for that Semi Final because St Helens don't exactly have a massive support and the self-styled 'greatest fans in Rugby League',Wigan,only sold a p!ss poor 6,000 for their Semi with us at Widnes just 2 years ago.

I think your missing a massive point here. Wigan saints is the biggest game certainly from my point of view (a Wigan fan). I'm sure most Wigan fans will agree that it is still the biggest game of our season. I would hazard a guess that saints fans feel the same as well.

Two years ago a game against Warrington wasn't a game that got the crowds excited like a Wigan saints game.

I will tell you for free, I am much more excited about this semi with saints than I ever was for the one against wire two years ago

And to prove my point about this being the biggest game for us fans, 3001 more fans were at the Wigan saints game than the Wigan wire game at the DW

So to compare a semi two years ago against wire (who were not having a great season in the league) and a Wigan saints semi is just a non starter

And it's the last full month of the league season when the focus should be on making the playoffs. Madness IMO.

Why does this country have this thing for semi finals having to be on neutral grounds? It doesn't happen on the continent.Would it really matter if it was at the DW Stadium?

The move to Widnes has seen poor crowds for Saints this year, perhaps a lot of the no-shows will come back out of the woodwork for a semi final?

I've never understood the RFL's policy of cramming people into tiny grounds, it does nothing to attact new fans to the game.

take our Semi with Wakefield in 2008 at the Keepmoat, yes tickets were still available on the day...but a large part of that was due to Hull and Wakey fans being unable to invite along any friends, neighbors, workmates etc because the small allocation meant it was passholders only.

Saints-Wigan should be held at the Reebok.

What's the capacity at Blackpool now ?

9k with the work being done all down one side, 16k when its all open.

I'd say Bolton was the best option.

You'd certainly think so.

No fan worth their salt would miss this.

Once Salford and Saints grounds are complete, we'll be in a much better position in the northwest.
Assuming Saints, Wigan and Wire continue as top clubs, cup ties between two of them will be common. With each club having a top class ground there'll be no need to travel any further for a decent venue.

Salford ground would be an excellent venue half way between Saints/Wigan and the west yorkshire clubs.

Wigan Athletic's ground holds 25000.