Simple question Daz, would you have gone without the free tickets and a lift as a neutral?
At one time all the supporters mentioned above would have gone down in coaches' for the weekend, not anymore because of the expense involved and the sad fact that RL is on the decline is why your talking about counting out individual supporters.

I disagree that you don't see as many neutrals any more, but I would argue that you see fewer and fewer 'club trips' at Wembley.

The RFU has a big focus on marketing itself within the amateur clubs - it's often the only way you can actually buy tickets. I wonder if the RFL is reaching out to our amateur clubs in the same way. I'm sure that with the right incentive (a decent kick-back on ticket sales), most decent amateur clubs could fill a coach - they certainly used to do.

Or perhaps this already does go on, and the falling numbers is a symptom of falling participation?

My only issue with Wembley is that, because London is so huge, fans before and after are very spread out until they hit the stadium.

At Cardiff or Edinburgh, they all hit the town. They're all together. Makes it special.

We went for a walk around the Wembley on Friday night and apart from some posters on the underpass as you come out of the tube station you would not have known the final was on. The stadium was shouting out England football and Tottenham v Burnley on Sunday with hardly a mention for the rugby.

Well aren't you a wit. Well half of one anyway.

Probably not as i'm on a tight budget and don't have much disposable income, i've often wanted to go as a neutral but never had the chance or finances to allow it, and i wasn't on about individual neutrals most of the ones i saw were in families or large groups.

From as early as I can remember I went every year on the coach trip from my local working mens club no matter who was playing but by my reckoning it's about 12 year ago since they last did one. My group of friends (anywhere between about 10-20 of us) who've regularly attended RL events are mainly in our early to mid 30's now with families/kids so we prioritize the Grand Final now purely on the basis of when they are played.

The RFL sent our club 6 free CC Final tickets, less than 2 weeks before the final.

Unfortunately, this didn't give us enough time to raffle/give as prizes at a club event, and many people who were offered the tickets had to turn down due to other commitments/travel issues etc.

Compare this to the Magic Weekend, where we sell two coach loads for the day. Tickets are cheaper so more people fancy it, there are incentives financially to the club by organising it, and there's plenty of time to plan it.

I know of no other clubs near us that ran trips to the CCF.

The decline and closure of pubs and clubs obviously doesn't help, as does the lack of school trips. As a kid they were run every year and you were looking at decent numbers there. They can't happen so easily for a number of reasons beyond the most obvious one of it being in the middle of the summer holidays. I doubt the health & safety aspects and insurance costs of moving a group of 50-100 children are economically feasible. Anyway moving it back to May and binning (or moving) the Magic weekend would help. At present its too close to the Grand Final and at a time when many are away on hols.

See, this is the sort of stuff that frustrates me. This sort of promotion for 2018 should be starting today - the first working day after the last final.

Offer clubs a period where they can sell tickets (even offer a discount on face value to club members) and allow the club to pocket a commission. That way, they have a whole calendar of events, fixtures etc to push their tickets and raise funds. I'm sure that some of our bigger amateur clubs - your Stanningley's, St Pats/Judes and Siddalls of this world have enough members to easily fill a bus at the very least if it's promoted right.

Seem to recall an interview with either Wood or Rimmer where they claim the CC final to be 3rd ranked occasion behind SL final and Magic Weekend. Seems like promotion for CC final is more of an afterthought.

There are of course other issues affecting the CCF attendance, but engaging community clubs is certainly a trick they're missing.

As I said in my previous post, we take plenty to the MW, and we make a bit of money for the club in doing so. If similar offers/timescales were available for the CCF, we'd certainly do the same.

We're not a huge club, we have c90-100 juniors and an open age. Plus parents & other family members, if priced accordingly we could easily do two coaches.

The problem is that Newcastle is way more attractive at the moment (to people at our club as neutrals). It's less travel time, cheaper, you generally get a better view, and you see 3 games.

It doesn't include the empty club Wembley seats, first time it's been open for public sale

Regards

Lord Byron

I'm not sure if this applies because it's a different beast now it's in August but I went to every CC final with my amateur club for a number of years and you had to get in there early to get a place on the coach with your mates. Obviously it was in may and there was no magic but at the very least that's one amateur club who used to run at least one coach a year down to Wembley.

I have been to Wembley 27 times most for the challenge cup about 18 the rest Great Britain or England and most times on coach or car the best times was may for me