Am I the only one sitting here giggling at the irony of people who couldn't be d traveling to Wembley complaining about the lack of bums on seats during the course of the game?

Anybody who expects 80 thousand people to consist of only people from the two towns/cities (delete as appropriate) involved in the final is a deluded tosspot. That might happen in Football, it simply doesn't, and never has, happened in RL.

I also think it's a little harsh to be pointing at Huddersfield's alleged lack of support. The people that went (regardless of who they support actually) should all be applauded, not vilified for not cloning themselves to double the numbers.

Also, on the point of Warrington's hangers on ... I've got to be honest, I simply don't care - yes it would be nice if we needed to expand the HJ in order to accommodate over 20k fans a week - but that isn't going to happen, as far as the North West goes Warrington is a fairly affluent town (in the main), people who are in good jobs are well within their rights to travel to a game and support the team, even if they only did so by being taken in by the euphoria surrounding the semi final win.

Even if only 1% of those fans take more of an interest in the following the club in the future (every game or even only 1 or 2 games), then it's a win situation for the club.

It never ceases to amaze me the people who criticise so called hangers on. Te game needs to attract new fans for a start, but the whole point is wembley cup final days are for people who do not usally attend games but are enjoying the one off - the family outing with mum and grandma attending their first match for years, old firiends reunited... etc etc.

People need to chill and look at the bigger picture before they think 20k plus are 'hangers on' desperate for a bit of glory. There is more to their life then the result of a rugby matc.

Exactly. The people who do it are usually the ones that think turning up to every home and away game somehow makes them special and a "better" supporter than anyone else.

Every single club would have these 'hangers on.' It's inevitable that occasional watchers are going to be more attracted by a final. I'm from quite a large family and some of us will always go the game, often at different points. When it becomes a final everybody will go and even my sisters want to go.

We all do it to an extent. I don't really care about Football as much as I used to but come World Cup time I jump on the bandwagon because it's the only real time I'm interested.

How is this a point when the crowd compares well with those pre-SL?
As a sport, our expectations are rising. 7k was considered a good attendance at the forefront of SL. Last year, it was the second lowest average in the league.

76k was 14k short of capacity and nearly 10k short of the previous two New Wembley finals. It's still a tremendous attendance, but compares poorly to our new rising expectations.


Complete and utter drivel. For a start, BARLA run BARLA clubs, not the RFL.
And the Championship is getting some of the best crowds for lower league RL it's ever had. And they're on TV. And they receive money for it.

There are loads of people who are disillusioned with the RFL. But these are the kind of people that are disillusioned from reality also. The RFL cannot cater the delusional, and so don't try.

Did any of the people bemoaning the "poor" 76k attendance go themselves?

Isn't this rather like refusing to vote, and then complaining about the government?

just what i said, the people who complain are probably the ones who would have no intention of gonig to wembley unless their team was in the final

I went.

Great final, cracking crowd and yet such a long thread moaning about the attendance.
Godd bless rugby league fans