I agree that the number of repeat games doesn't help, but it does seem odd that at some clubs even some season ticket holders haven't shown up. I know it's holiday time, but it just seems odd that they'd go to a game against a bottom 4 side but not a top 8 rival. Maybe it just needs more time for fans to get used to the format.

As for the cup final, I think a move to July at the end of the regular season could work, as without football and RU on it would get a lot more media exposure. It'd also offer all the non-finalists a week off, so the players would be fresher for the Super8's.

LOL don't get your knickers in a twist over a bit of banter.

Nobody mentioned our success but you, who is apparently not bothered by it.

Yet another thread that ends up with Leeds and Wigan fans bickering, they're both as bad as each other.

As for the cup the magic is never lost to the teams who make the final. Overall it has lost a bit but that started when the final ceased to be the big day out at the end of the season having been replaced by the Grand Final.

loiner81 is a very sensitive soul isn't he?

That's me.

To be fair, when I quoted him the smiley he'd used showed up as : mrgreen : so I just assumed that, like every other Wigan fan roaming the earth, he was referring back to those years when Wigan bought every player available to win 6000 Challenge Cups on the bounce, making fans of all other clubs supposedly jealous, and Wigan homeless & having to cheat the salary cap to avoid relegation...

If we want the Challenge Cup to get bigger crowds we need to look at including 1 home game on each season ticket. If your team doesn't get a home tie that year, you get the "value" deducted from the following years season ticket.
As it is, Wembley will be full and the cup will always be the biggest showcase we have on FTA TV......so no panic!

didnt clubs try that a few seasons ago? i know home fans got free entry at the fourth round, cant remember if away fans did too, a few of the lower tier teams complained about losing out on shared gate receipts too

if we are going to do that then they need to be compensated for that fixture imo

What about Home fans get in on their ST (casuals pay on the gate) and the away club keeps the revenue from the tickets they pre-sell to their fans? Then there's an incentive for both clubs to market the games, with the home side re-engaging lost fans and the away side boosting their coffers?
It's not a perfect solution, but it's better than letting challenge cup attendances plummet.

Every season ticket holder got the 1st cup game for free. However a certain Mr Hethrington spat his dummy out when Leeds were drawn at home to Saints iirc and virtually everyone got in for free.

So all the other clubs spinelessly went along with him and voted to get rid of it? These decisions are voted on by all the SL clubs! Hetherington is by far the most experienced and successful of them but surely half the clubs don't just slavishly follow him.

All it takes is one chairman to refuse free entry as part of the season ticket for it to be stopped.

Re OP, not for me it hasn't. Just landed after travelling from Oz for the magic of the cup. Only game in the world I'd travel that far for!

The Challenge Cup is 1/2 things to win during a long season, I've never understood why any team or fan would diminish it. I'd say I attend half of the season to travel but when it's a CC game, i'll make an extra effort! It's the cup!!