... 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.

Now we're getting somewhere. So your original point was that the RFL definitely and purposely "made up" the figures?

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





I did point out lesser % in sold seats at other stadiums, but Sunderland at 33% was the worst. Even Brighton on a foul Monday Night got 70% of their seats shifted......compared to the workmanlike efforts at last years CC with a few 46%ers and London and Sheffield at 8%.....it would seem the comparison with soccer is flawed.


Really? The Truth?
All I can see are stadiums that are 99% 98% 79% 76% 70% 63% and 33% full...compared to 46%, 43%, 36% 30% 24% 17% 8% and 8%...that's the truth as I see it. 64% at the soccer....27% at the Rugby League.....hardly "close" is it?


That's an example of TV scheduling......unless I am mistaken, 88k were there and 8 million watched it on TV.......again, the comparison is flawed.



...yep, but 47,013 did bother with, could be d and patently gave a toss about the City Chelsea game enough to pay to go.....which is what we were talking about before I got an abridged history of the FA Cup.

......nope,but neither will it change the fact that 47,013 people cared enough to pay for tickets and attend the City Chelsea cup tie.....

.....ah, at last, a comparison that might have some legs in it......then again, I'd hazard a guess that the asking price was a tad higher than the CC.......[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26087337[/url

That figure....just once more...for non caring, couldn't give a toss, why bother it's a pointless game, it's pointless game between City and Chelsea.....47,013.......regardless of your opinion of what people were talking about prior to the event!

Hey there now now,

We were discussing the
FA Cup - 1st held in 1871-72
CC - 1st held in 1896-97

And how the tradition of these long held events were not the same anymore, that's why it was completely logical for him to start going on about......

Wellington 7's - 1st held 2000
Auckland 9's - 1st held in 2014

point to these 2 cities out on an ATLAS........

Trademark.

Well we've established you like to read what you want to read.

I said "Australian sports", not "Australian cities"......if you don't think the Auckland Nines which had 15 of 16 teams featuring coming from Australian can't be described as Australian sport then embarrass yourself by all means.

No just shows what we know all along, football is a bigger deal than RL in England.......but no amount of numbers can help with the obvious fact that people's interest in the FA Cup has dwindled from what it use to be. I live in the country surrounded by football mad friends and work colleagues, the obvious disinterest compared to other competitions is massive. Some may still attend the match, but I doubt many Chelsea fans are still gutted about their exit from the Cup like they will be if they exit the Champions League when that starts up again. Or had they lost the league game there.



Aww bless, another excuse for the others sports. It's the "tv schedulers" to blame. Note when games are shifted around in RL it's the end of the sport as we know it and the RFL are to blame for this happening. There is inconsiderate or poorly planned tv scheduling, then there is having the league title and FA cup decided on the same day, that's hardly bad scheduling, that's an example of how the FA Cup is thought of. As for telling us how many were at Wembley, yeah great, many were they for the CC Final too.



Damn me mentioning one final from 3 years ago, how dare I, it had no place in this argument.



It's not an opinion about what people were talking about, it's fact. I'm actually in the country, reading the papers, watching the sports news on tv, surrounded by football fans.......who progressed was a mere afterthought, the focus was how it'd effect the title race. Journalists are going on about Mourinho's war of words with Wenger, not who Man City play in the next round.

Oohhhh Australian Sports eh?
Both games are ENGLISH sports, both games were played in NEW ZEALAND CITIES and your clutching at straw (men) now.



no, actually, it's your opinion.
The only FACT that bears out in this debate (that you and your tag team partner are increasingly becoming more troll-like with each post) is that 47,013 people did care about the FA cup match enough to attend it.

Answer me this.....and as it relates to the actual topic, a YES/NO answer should suffice:

When Starbug posted


...did you, or did you not respond



as I say, I doubt I'll get a straight answer to a straight question that is 100% relevant to this particular sub debate within Billy's thread, but hey, I've asked.

47,013 people cared........filling 98% of the seats in the stadium.....regardless of YOUR OPINION!

actually, I'll answer the question of the blitzkrieg poster when he admits he is wrong......

actually, I mentioned the 2 New Zealand based events playing English sports to counter the outlandish claim that people attend games but don't care about the results.

I'm all over this particular debate my little "33 years supporting Leeds at full price" buddy......47,013 or 98% of the available capacity of the stadium DID care enough to pay to watch it.....rendering the comparison of the FA cup and Challenge Cup void.....useless and kaput!

[uBTW......by again[/u, do you mean when I predicted 360k attendance at the RLWC? Get over it pal......I predicted that probably over 18 months ago now.....there's a whole new season of SL shenanigans to rip into now......things to get excited about only to find you've been spoon fed bull......ask your mate Billy to show you how the BARB figures work again

The teams competing were 15 Australian, 1 New Zealand. Thus it can be can be called Australian, I'm not claiming about the 'birthplace' of the sport. I'm not saying RL is an Australian sport, but the NRL is an Australian sport. That to was held in Wellington doesn't change that, if the FA Cup final was held in Dubai would that make it a Middle East sport?




And you know they cared how? Because in YOUR OPINION (from the other side of the world) is that every football fan who turns up to a match cared deeply about the outcome. Maybe they're just sheep-like like your tag-team partner likes to accuse RL fans of being.



It's been explained but you won't read it properly. I did say that.....Then I moved onto another sentence talking about another reason/problem with the FA Cup. Note the full stop between what you quoted from me and the bit about Chelsea/Man City/Mourinho/Pellegrini.

Maybe you'll answer some questions from Him, or maybe how a club like Man City (who care deeply about the FA Cup according to you) couldn't even get over 30,000 just over a few years ago for an All Premiership FA Cup clash before their riches and success saw a big increase in nationwide and global fan base, meaning even the least important games get near full crowds.




47,013 bought tickets, how they felt is YOUR OPINION and isn't automatically correct no matter how much you claim.