I think the RFL need to re-look at the pricing/price bands for next year. The areas where £21 tickets were on sale were pretty much full (such as at the very top of 3rd tier) while 'better' seats where left empty.

While I feel £21 is too cheap for a supposed major sporting event, at the same time £50/60 for seats down the side that are only on the 20metre line, or in the gods on the 3rd tier is too much. And perhaps meeting in the middle and charging £40 for all of these areas would be better.

I also feel there are far too many price bands and it makes it a confusing event to buy tickets for. For example one block of the stadium can be 2 different prices.

I also don't understand why for other events such as the World Cup they are selling tickets that face the TV camera's first, before opening the whole ground up for sale. Surely it makes more sense to get the lower tier, and the stand facing the cameras sold out first before we open the rest of Wembley up?

Interesting point which I'd not considered but why would they be homeless? Is it a contractual thing which determines what months both RL clubs can play at the respective shared stadia? Reason I ask is that those stadia are shared between both Soccer and Summer Rugby seasons during the months of August, September, February, March, April and May. Why would Wigan and Hull necessarily be made homeless in December and January?

On a similar vein the whole pricing strategy of the RFL must change. At the game on Saturday they were saying book for the final in 2014 to get a 30% discount. At the start of the season there were similar offers. Yet I booked just before the semi final and got a 50% discount. This is all completely wrong, people are not necessarily rewarded for booking early and in some cases get punished. I know this has happened to me previously and I have learned my lesson never to book too early.

The RFL should make it clear that its first offer is the best that you will get and each subsequent offer should be on a reducing scale. Its pricing policy is all over the place and certainly doesnt attract people to book early and it is bound to have an affect on crowds. If a neutral books a year before they will save and go, if a floating fan doesnt because they always think a better offer will come and the final then isnt appealing, or maybe they have another attraction instead, then they may not go at all.

I agree with that too, far too many discount codes and offers going round now and this leads to people hanging on before they buy.

on another note: why had the RFL made no effort at all in putting up banners, flags etc outside the ground? every game I have been to at new Wembley has had branding from the event put on the ground, but on Saturday it was just the generic 'Wembley Stadium' banners. While that may not make a huge difference to the crowd, it made it look like a unimportant event and I suspect it was a misguided cost-cutting measure.

Cant believe the comments about returning to winter.
Some folk have very short memories and a switch back to winter would decimate attendance figures and could severely damage TV sponsorship, as we would be going head to head with the round ball game !

I agree, moving back to Winter isn't the answer.

but I do feel moving the final slightly earlier would be beneficial. The August Bank holiday is jam-packed with other events, such as Reading/Leeds Festival, Creamfields, a full schedule of Football, Ashes Cricket...while there is never a completely clear weekend of events in Summer, there are a few weekends at the end of July where we would get much better media coverage and a chance of getting more neutral fans in.

Which part of June & July is so precious that the game simply must be played during those two months instead of playing in December & January instead?

Apart from those two months, there is no difference... the game is still played in Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Aug, Sep, Oct and Nov.

Errr December & January are freezing, and July & August are far better months to sit outside and watch rugby

the above sentences are 100% of the RFL's marketing Strategy.....and there, ladies and gents, lies the root of the problem with regard to attendances.

The domestic game stops early in October. Yes there are internationals. But these are fewer in number and every other year played abroad.
I agree the cc has suffered. Although we will disagree over the final. I do think the cc suffers for being so spread out. I would prefer the competition to be earlier to compress it.

Lewis helped the rfl get in much better shape. IMHO in his early tenure. But the stobart deal and London life support and lack of transparency over licensing and it's bias hurt his final years.

To answer your points:
The difference is - December/January would be right in the middle of the season when the weather is potentially at its very worst - not the same for June/July. There will be more disposable income in June/July too. Clubs play games over the Xmas to generate income - unlikely the same senario in June/July. I can't see how crowds will be enhanced by playing in December and January as opposed to June and July.

International tours are a thing of the past - this is not a SL issue this is a club v country issue and a spectatot apathy issue, clubs are not going to allow their prized assets to be away from the club for 2/3 months. The players in other eras were part time and going on a tour helped fill the off season rather than finding a part time job. The international game is of limited interest to most RL spectators, look at the crowds for tests between Australia and NZ which can be competitive. RL is a club game not an international game such as RU

The challenge cup has suffered in the same way that the FA Cup has suffered in that spectators are more interested in the league - this is also reflected in the higher league attendences now being experienced in SL compared to the league prior to SL. I would suggest higher attendences for 27 games a year is a preferred option to higher attendences for 5 games in a cup competition.

Overall playing standards are much higher now than they were pre SL - the game maybe in a lull right now but it is still light years away from the days of Wigan winning everything.

The lack of sponsors is more about the ineptitude of the RFL than it is about the quality of SL, the likes of Wood, Solly and Rimmer are not exactly high quality administrators - replace them with people who have a bit of acumen in marketing and you would find a decent sponsor. Also it would have been interesting to to see how pre SL they would have got on without tobacco sponsorship.

The game isn't on terrestrial TV but the funds flowing into the game have increased significantly - depends on your view of the benefits of Sky over the BBC - given the coverage the BBC give RL I am not sure what the benefit would be of terrestrial exposure. It certainly didn't have a positive impact on crowds when it was on the BBC?

Why was it moved to august? The rounds are sometimes months apart, so the competition has no momentum, then when we do get to the final it's weeks away from the playoffs.

I liked it much better earlier in the season where it used to be. It really got you up for the start of the season, knowing some domestic silverware was only a few months away, rather than nearly an entire season away, and the rounds were close together as well which helped. Somehow having the rounds spread out more just seems to sap the energy from the competition.

Maybe you could have a close down of SL for a month and have CC every week with a two week gap to the final - so end of April with the final May bank holiday after the play offs in soccer

It was never a problem until these last few years to fit a may CC final into the SL programme, we bend too often for sky as I could only see the magic date being a problem due to proximity