Look again.
One end full of trinity fans, one stand 1/3 full of Trinity fans plus many in the main stand and we're only a small club with mickey poor crowds.
The point being that Wire with an average crowd, well over double that of Trinity and with the game barely a spit away from home, weren't exactly filling the place but, they managed the 200 mile trip to Wembley for the Glory.

As I said, 3 of the current top 5 supported clubs in the country and on the doorstep for 2 of those clubs and yet, less people there than last season, when it was a "poor" crowd.
As the Yanks say, you do the math.

You'll be blaming Halifax for the small crowd or, perhaps the low numbers of supporters for the Women's final

Now now, you know thats going to infuriate the resident trolls.

Does anyone know, either officially or approximately how many tickets each of the 4 clubs sold.?

It was really hard from watching on tv to work out which teams were allocated which parts of the ground

Fax didn't sell all their allocation, but still had a good (and noisy) showing given our position and a very lacklustre performance in the Championship this year. We had a few Hull fans in our section, which suggests that they'd sold all their tickets and bought via the Fax website.

Glad we didn't have to sit in our allocated seats or we'd have left as the proverbial "drowned rats". Row F but just 3 seats from the touchline. How does that work?

I've been to every semi final Wires have been in (both CC and SL play off semis) since the 2004 Challenge Cup semi V Wigan in Widnes, and every final we've been in since the 1995 Regal Trophy. I've also done our day at Magic Weekend a handful of times in Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool.

As "events" go I reckon the CC double headers in Bolton the last couple of years have been okay, so sorry to go against the grain. Bolton's ground is only about 5,000 or so bigger than Huddersfield's, which is where the last Wires V Hull semi was in 2013 so it's not as if it would have been a sell out had it been played there again, and fans had the option of watching two other games if they wanted to. I was on the 16.14 train from Horwich to Manchester by the time the Saints game kicked off but it was a nice option to stay and watch for those who like full days like that, and I did deliberately make an effort to get there two hours earlier than I otherwise would have so I could watch most of the women's CCF so you can call that a success of sorts.

I say stick with it and keep it in the same place so people know what to expect, and give it 5-10 years to grow and see how it does rather than just drop the idea like a stone after two years. I can understand the Yorkshire clubs - especially Hull fans - saying it's hardly neutral when they have to travel a lot further than us to get there. I do appreciate that. The most obvious "centralish" location is Huddersfield though, and if you want to stick with a consistent venue, it won't by very neutral if Hudds themselves get there one year! Saying things like take it to Middlesbrough or Coventry is just daft because you all know full well crowds there would be half what they were in Bolton no matter how much you whinge about growth or people not supporting the game. Just be realistic. Bolton was fine.

Agree with a lot of this. Also think that Huddersfield is a lot more neutral than Bolton but location wise it makes more sense than trying to weave through town centres.

The problem with this sport is the chopping and changing of decisions, rules... Etc. Just stick with it long term five-ten years and it becomes the norm.

The first Grand Final in 1998 was only attended by just over 40k, the crowds increased as Old Trafford was renovated and now near capacity crowds of 70k. It paid off by just sticking to the one location.

As a Wire fan I've been to Bolton two years running. Last year I arrived to watch all the Saints v Cats game before our own semi - when I stayed to the end,of course. This year I got there in time to see 2nd half of the women's final, watched the Wire semi then stayed until 20 mins from the end of the Saints/Fax game. It is a shame that many fans don't show/go home before the other semi. The worst aspect of Bolton is the terrible catering ( I know there are money issues ). However, badly trained staff both taking money and pouring drinks, beer pumps full of air making the average pint-pour into a five minute process, ran out of milk for teas/coffees at half time in 2nd match. Get it sorted.

Maybe the problem is that it is the top 5 clubs that seem to contest the semi's and finals every year. As the saying goes familiarity breeds contempt. We've had a Wakey fan saying that when they were in the semi they had a great turnout. Unfortunately we need more competition in CC and SL. After twenty odd years of SL we have only had 4 different champions and one of those is currently languishing in the Championship and last one the SL 14 years ago.

We went to Bolton last year as neutrals and thoroughly enjoyed the day, watching both games in full and it was an excellent day out and cheap as chips
There is definitely an issue with fans not turning up until late into the first game and others going early, after watching the first game and having watched on TV this time, the place looked empty for much of both games (plus the women's game beforehand).
Maybe those in charge of the game, plus our broadcasting partner are happy but, the crowd looked really poor on TV.

Totally agree about the competency of the bar staff, who among the slowest ever seen and clearly couldn't cope with the numbers.

Huddersfield is clearly more central, especially if either of the Hull sides make the semi finals.
There is something wrong when they are travelling around 100 miles and Wire/Saints/Wigan are on the doorstep ??

Mind you Catalan travelled way further than all of them last year and they seemed pretty happy

*Cough* Loop Fixtures *Cough*

When teams are playing each other for the fourth, fifth or sixth time in a season, is it any wonder people are getting bored?

But it's OK, we "absolutely need" loop fixtures according to some clubs.

It would have been sensible to increase SL to 14 clubs last time around.
However, I dont think that this would have made a jot of difference to the Challenge Cup semi final attendance.
It would be interesting to know where the idea for the double header came from
Was it from the Beeb, to help with production costs or The RFL, hoping for additional income ?

It's only sensible to increase to 14 teams of you have the talent pool that can sustain 14 teams without diluting the quality, and I'm not sure that we do. That was the reason for going from 14 to 12 teams a few years back and since then, we've had falling participation, the salary cap has fallen further behind in real terms, we've lost more talent to Australia and we find it harder to attract decent talent from the NRL.

The more sensible option would have been to insist that clubs needed to grow the revenue from the games we have, rather than milking our big fixtures to the point than fans are bored of them. There have been 31 Hull derbies in the last ten years - and consider than in one of those years, the clubs weren't even in the same division, can you blame the fans for getting bored?

The double header is very much the RFL's idea. I'm sure the BBC, as a stakeholder, would have been involved in the decision making, but it was Red Hall who, in their words, wanted to "tap into the event market".

Regarding the talent pool, nobody can disagree and with the playstation generation no longer willing to participate in any sport, Cricket, RU, RL and even football have fewer numbers of kids participating, this trend looks set to continue.
However, IF the 2 additional clubs were based overseas, say Toronto and Toulouse, the impact on the player pool would be reduced.

Again, you are right about the increased number of players now moving down under and the reduced quality of some of the imports, although it would be fair to say that, in relative terms, there are plenty of "Aussie" players to chose from, albeit not the very best, as they would negate their chances of playing Origin and International RL.

Having 14 clubs in the top flight still remains the most sensible option, as this would take out the loop fixtures and allow us to have a balanced fixture program, apart from Magic, which I think will stay.

The one real positive from the semi finals was the inclusion of the Women's final, which will have given their game a huge boost and may encourage more girls to take up the sport.

Agreed, but it isn't just that, I watch SL and the NRL, there is simply no comparison, SL may pay "professional" wages but 80% of the players are still nowhere near the talent.

Saints are the exception, but they are coached by a man going to the NRL.

Quote: wrencat1873 "Regarding the talent pool, nobody can disagree and with the playstation generation no longer willing to participate in any sport, Cricket, RU, RL and even football have fewer numbers of kids participating, this trend looks set to continue.'" Participation in rugby union is growing https://www.sportengland.org/media/1174 ... _aps10.pdf. And given how difficult it can be to book af five-a-side pitch near me, there's clearly enough demand for football facilities from Generation XBOX. I know "kids and their Playstations" is an easy answer, but we've had video games for a lot longer than we've had falling participation.

Quote: wrencat1873 "Regarding the talent pool, nobody can disagree and with the playstation generation no longer willing to participate in any sport, Cricket, RU, RL and even football have fewer numbers of kids participating, this trend looks set to continue.'" Participation in rugby union is growing https://www.sportengland.org/media/1174 ... _aps10.pdf. And given how difficult it can be to book af five-a-side pitch near me, there's clearly enough demand for football facilities from Generation XBOX. I know "kids and their Playstations" is an easy answer, but we've had video games for a lot longer than we've had falling participation.