I was at wire hudds, felt a lot less then 76k

I work in the motor trade. If tomorrow I sell ten new cars, one of which the customer puts away in the garage with no intention of using, should I only put nine towards my sales figures?

Whoooosh.

8 weeks between QF and semi.

2 weeks between semi and final.

Morons.

All west coast mainline services will be terminating (ironically) at Rugby on Cup Final day, so I would suggest finding alternative means of transports if you live in Lancashire.

That was my point.

I recognise the point you're trying to make, however noting that the capacity of the Millenium Stadium is 74,500 and CC crowds there were 71k, 73k and 74k, which represented a greater perecentage of full capacity against the 90k capacity of Wembley finals.

One thing I'd do to try and revitalise the cup final and to get more neutrals is allow the amateur clubs to sell tickets and keep 50% of the sales.

It could be tried as a two or three year experiment. If it succeeds the revenue to the RFL won't be hit and the amateur game gets a boost. If it fails the revenue to the RFL won't take a disastrous hit. Give it three years to see if the old tradition of attending the cup final can be restored.

This is what I would do if you wanted to still travel by train.

Train to Birmingham New Street. 5-10 minute walk to Birmingham Snow Hill and there are trains there to London Marylebone, some of these also may stop at Wembley Stadium Station.

You're bloody right it will, especially as I doubt we'll be in SL for a while.

You couldn't make it up.

Still don't get why they don't spread the rounds out more evenly, makes no sense at all.

It's a great idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if the commercial arrangements with Wembley prevent it in some way. Given the bunch of clowns that run RL I suspect the deal provides maximum benefit to Wembley and minimum benefit to the game.

It's not the final that needs revitalising, you know there's going to be 75k+ in attendance every year. The problem is every other round leading up to the final.

There was until about 6 weeks ago (when they woke up to the clash with the England game and moved Bradford v Rovers back 24 hours).