Are you new to RL? Late discounting is always on offer.......unless there's earlier discounting, like being able to buy next years CC Final tickets almost immediately after the CC Final for a tenner as was the case a couple of years back.

4,568 - Widnes
10,366 - Leeds
10,347 - Hull FC
2,328 - Salford
7,137 - Castleford
6,711 - HKR
9,138 - St Helens
9,121* - Hudds
???? - Wakefield
8,807 - Wire
????? - Wigan

7613 is the average attendance when catalans visit the UK....831 fewer than the entire competition average.....which means that the 9 venues with reported attendances will gave been down a collective £16,000 each in ticket revenues at £20 a ticket......except....Widnes, Salford, Huddersfield, Castleford, Wire and Hull FC have all had LOWER attendances than those reported for Catalans visits......6 from 9.....so again I say......STEP AWAY FROM THE AWAY ATTENDANCE DEBATE.........It's unwinnable for you!

Not new at all and every RL fan in the land is used to the early bird offers.
What we received yesterday, for a game in 10 days time, was certainly not an "early bird" offer and looked more like a "best sell some tickets before kick off" offer.

I/we were delighted to take advantage, which is what got me thinking again about "expansion clubs".
Regarding Catalan visits to England, you are failing to take account of the "promotions" that take place for their games.

It was £12 a pop when they came to Wakefield a couple of weeks ago, albeit, there was also a clash with the England world cup game.

And you don't think that the fact that it was the first final at the New Wembley this century may not have had something to do with the attendance?

I think is most definitely had something to do with it........but it doesn't prove/disprove that the French being finalists majorly impacted on the gate......same way that the London final was impacted as being the last one at the old Wembley, but they still delivered 13k more than the previous final when Sheffield turned over Wigan.......Hull v Wigan last year got 68,500........The reality is that there are about 50k neutrals at the cc Final....if not more.....and those fans aren't getting any younger, so we need to attract new ones.

If we pander to the desires of anti-expansionists, then by all means pull up the drawbridge and play with 6 teams from each side of the Pennines, but don't start threads blaming the BBC for treating us like a northern hobby, because that's exactly what we come across as to the majority of English People.....don't whine when SKY TV decide that they can offer us less and nobody else wants to pay for the rights....don't slag off the RFL for bringing us bargain box sponsors.....if we want to survive, we need to expand and the old saying about egg breaking while making an omelette is apt here.......if we lose a few clubs then we lose them....it's about survival of the game, not whether wakefield get to play Castleford at home and get 3k above their 4k average because the away fans could walk to the ground.....giving clubs like Wakey, Widnes, Salford Leigh, London etc £1,800,000 is killing the sport because those clubs spend every cent of it trying to survive so they can have it again next year......

I am no fan of the leg-up Toronto have had this season and I have serious doubts about the longevity of their existence once the novelty has worn off and they are playing to 3k gates......but Away Fans is not the reason to exclude expansion sides.....it is a smoke screen. The fact that without the 7k for Castleford, Wakefield only attract 4k to games isn't the fault of Catalans, Toulouse or Toronto.......it's the fault of Wakefield. The City of Wakefield is 340,000 people strong, yet this club with a rich history can't attract little more than 1% to games.

Of course it was ,it was certainly the reason that i attended that day and my mrs who had not been to a game before or since.

Obviously the poster knows it, hence the small and selective attendances given .

Had he gone on he would have highlighted that the OP was indeed correct and that CC final attendances are on the slide.

It will be very interesting to see the attendance this year, particularly should Catalans make the final.

And my original post and those thereafter had feck all to do with Wakefield.
Perhaps the reason for the £15 all in ticket/travel and free drink is down to the game being on its

and nothing whatsoever to do with the lack of French fans willing to take a trip to Bolton and maybe we should look closer to home for the apathy towards the fixture



The one sure thing is that not being able to clear 25000 tickets for a decent event is poor and for this fixture, at a neutral venue, we can certainly point the finger of blame at AWAY FANS, many of whom dont have to travel too far for the games.

1. Well that's 2 of the 84,241 then.......and as I have already said, it did impact on the gate.
2. We've had 11 finals at the new Wembley...averaging 78,860. The last 11 at the old Wembley averaged 75,550....or maybe I've given too many attendances now?
3. See the above. Attendances fluctuate at the challenge Cup Final and have hovered between 70,000 and 95,000 at Wembley since the second world war but the last 11 at New Wembley are better than the last 11 at the old.
4. It matters little if Catalans are there or not...the vast majority of supporters are neutrals anyway and like you and your good lady wife back 11 years ago.

Happy to debate the pro's and con's of expansion with anyone, but please leave the red herring of "away fans" out of it....they have little impact at Club level and at "event level"it becomes an issue for the RFL to cope with and not fans of badly run clubs. As for the fiscals, the RFL turn over about £25,000,000 a year......St Helens would sell 14,000 tickets, Catalans maybe 6,000.....so 8,000 fewer tickets @ £20 will cost the RFL about .0064% of their turnover.....or what they used to spend on suits and pies for Nigel!

As a London fan I am well versed in the opinions of pit villagers who distrust anything that's not local and we put up with years of lies and innuendo about extra money and being protected, generally from fans of badly run clubs who may soon be jettisoned as they just fritter away their sky allowance on surviving whilst playing in crumbling stadiums and offering nothing to the game.

That average could even be higher under normal circumstances. Leeds usually get around 13k for the Catalans game but with the stadium work and it being played on a Wednesday because it got called off for snow earlier in the year obviously hurt it.

Are you so anti northern ?

You still haven't com up with any reasons why the Bolton semi final "event" has sold so poorly.
I suggested that this may be to do with 25% of the sides competing being from France, which you have tried hard to disprove but, would you care to offer some of your infinite wisdom as to the reason for this when we have 3 of the "big 4" clubs competing for a Wembley final ?
Also why tickets which were £25 are now being jobbed out at £15, including travel.

I’d imagine Leeds’ sales haven’t gone as strongly as possible due to their form. If we were playing well and winning and up in the top 4 ticket sales would improve.

Rubbish!!!

Not at all, but after years of being asked '"what do London bring to the game"? or "did you all come in the same taxi"? I find the irony of Northern clubs with 120+ years history, but fewer than 5,000 averages, filling their teams with journeymen just so they ca get the sky loot again next year, quite delicious......especially when they are decrying "away" fans.....who deliver little as a % of revenue for SL clubs


I believe you're in the middle of a Heatwave at present and the ankle snappers are still off school.......perhaps folk would rather spend their time on a beach and their cash on an icecream....could be any number of things......indeed it could be because of the French being there.....Leeds v Toulouse drew 10k in 2005........Wigan v Catalans 10k 2 years later......I don't recall threads decrying away attendances as an excuse to bin them back then.....


As I said, there are many reasons for slow sales, if they are in fact slow and I have no doubt that if it were St Helens v Hull, there's have been a few more in attendance, but you are spectacularly missing the point.

Attendances, especially away contingents DO NOT MATTER in modern sport.......but having a French Side in the Challenge Cup final will give us a few extra column inches in the papers, raise the profile of the game in France and maybe even attract new interest to the sport. Wigan v Hull FC last year attracted 8k fewer than Hull v Wire the year before........is that because Wire are better supported than Wigan....of could other factors have impacted this? Maybe we should bin Wigan because they obviously don't travel well.....



The reality is that the game has to adapt, adjust, improve or it will die. Wakefield v Castleford played in front of 7k in a decrepit old stadium with no facilities isn't going to getnoticed by the national media, but Catalans at Wembley will.

Lastly. Leeds, Wire and St Helens have a combined attendance figure of 34,276. .....if 75% of those are Season Ticket Holders, then surely Catalans would only need to bring 2,000 to fill the place......so rather than ask questions of Catalan, why not the other three clubs fans? It's 14 clicks from St Helens, 18 from Wire and an hours drive from Leeds.........

Back to attendances.......and money. Wakefield had 48,017 fans troop to BV this year. If we take 4,000 as the figure for "home fans only" then 44,000 home fans paid an average of £15 a ticket allowing for ST's, concessions etc......£660,000 in revenue. The other 4,07 probably all paid a score, so £80k in gate receipts over 11 games...so each home game had an average ticketing revenue from Away fans of £7,300...........so catalan, bringing nobody, cost Wakefield £7,300.

You need £4,000,000 turn over to run a mid table SL (figures from a number of SL owners) side....and your binning expansion because of £7,300......