I don't think you can really pin the attendance on the weather though. I imagine the amount of people in the stadium who decided to go on the day and hadn't pre-purchased their tickets will be in double figures.

I reckon the final should be on a Saturday, moving the weekend's SL SKY pick to Sunday.

I'm sure that the weather wasn't the only factor but it definitely had an affect,

60 miles is quite a lot of distance to do on a Sunday evening and in my opinion it should definitely be played on a Saturday afternoon.

If it was circa 8,500 that would make it the third highest gate in the competitons history, 400 higher than last year and circa 450 short of capacity for the ground so not too bad a effort for 2 part time teams taking part in a live TV game on a wet Sunday evening.

2 heartland teams with asperations to play in Super League can only get 8,500 for a cup final. Very disappointing i would say.

The Northern Rain Cup final was a very entertaining game played in front of a passionate crowd that generated a great atmosphere

Must be time for a negative thread on RLFANS then

The negative is that only 8,500 turned to watch a cup final between 2 heartland sides with asperations to play in super league.
The positive side is that it was a entertaining game in front of passionate fans.
For any team with asperations to play in Super League they must try as hard as possible to get as many fans as they can to showcase games like this. Actually i will expand on that and say that clubs like these 2 who want to play in Super League should make an effort to showcase every game they play, and show the RFL that they would be assets to Super League. Easier said than done i know, but they need to give it a very serious try.

I thought it was a bit strange that a club with the aspirations of Leigh didn't appear to have taken many more fans to todays final than my club, Batley, did last year.

Wasn't that only 500 less than the best ever attendance for the final?

Are we going to reverse back and relegate Cas, Hull KR and Widnes as their final 'only' brought that amount? (which weren't FULLY sold out just as point of order that there weren't ticket available).

What a bizzarre thread.

(no digging at the above 3 teams, just amazed at the eness of the point trying to be made)

8522 at level that is used to below 2000 crowds.

Pretty decent if you ask me, but hey lets be negative for the sake of it.

well after the club were asked to return unsold tickets to the RFL -the RFL decided to run turn off the ticket hotline - sunday night in blackpool, televised and winter weather - whay croed do you expect to see?

Without being there and without being able to see properly I can confidently announce the attendance given is definitely wrong. There was in fact only 2000 people there.

Your a Huddersfield fan, i take it? You're calling the NRC final crowd disapointing. You were 2nd in the league at one point this year and yet you only manage to get 4-5k a game.

a heartland team sitting in the top four with aspirations to win the SuperLeague can barely scrape that many fans at home....

well I know the truth isnt liked on here but well here goes

The RFL/Blackpool set a crowd limit of 9K, both clubs sold out their allocation of tickets and for some reason known only to the RFL they (thats the RFL) held back 1000 tickets then told anyone who rang on Friday or Saturday that they could 'pay on the door' certainly if Leigh (I can't speak for Halifax) had been allowed to sell tickets past the deadline for clubs (the RFL stipulated The morning of last Wed therefore to get the tickets back on time Leigh HAD to post them back by Mon evening) then we would have sold another 300 tickets at least.