It’s just a Mickey Mouse cup now. Just like all other sports domestic cup comps.

However. It gives teams who have no chance of winning super league an opportunity to win something

Correct, I'm always at least interested in going to the CC final and have been loads of times. Wouldn't be bothered in the slightest about a 9s tournament unless for some reason I was already in London and could get a very cheap ticket. Winning it holds no prestige like the CC does and like you say, guaranteed it would be reserves too. Not sure I'd even watch on TV to be honest, not that BBC would give airtime to a full tournament like that anyway.

you would say that having been well beaten in the last couple of years

Halifax picked up about 1/3 of £400k for their SF final appearance, so it's fair to say your team of 2019 losers probably picked up 300k....or a fair chunk of your Salary Capped squads wages.....about double what you got the year before when you choked a round earlier
[urlhttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/26/halifax-joiners-roofers-gods-st-helens-rugby-league-challenge-cup[/url

I still love the Challenge Cup, pity it's not more popular, but that's just the way it is. Like the Caraboa Cup in football, it will really only interest the fans of the smaller clubs....like me !

Yeah may as well bin it off and let the current holders keep it

Although Sky wouldn't want to share the coverage, maybe the GF should be moved to Wembley and turn the occasion into a "proper" end of season celebration (just as the Challenge Cup used to be and then we could move the cup final venue and maybe take it "on the road" ?

It has to be said that since the reintroduction of playoffs and a GF, the romance of the cup has largely disappeared and coupled with the numerous other RL trips, Magic, South of France, Toronto etc, Wembley doesn't excite folk anymore.
The trips to the coast in a sharrabang or the annual trip to London are yesterdays thing.
People are generally more mobile these days

I don’t think we should tinker with the Grand Final. We have an event that to be fair to the RFL is pretty well run and gets consistently big crowds. I’m sure it can be improved but I’d leave it at Old Trafford.

Agree on your other points. I think it’s more social change than the introduction of the playoffs that has hampered the Cup Final.
A mix of greater ability to travel making a trip to London not the “big thing” it used to along with stagnant/lower wages, higher housing/living costs and higher travel costs among RL’s supporter base has hit the Cup Final. RL is to blame for not moving with the times and just expecting people to turn up but I still suggest RL is one of the most difficult sports to market with its current makeup.

But the sport as a whole needs to put more effort into it and needs to pull together. Selling out the cup final and grand final should be priority number 1 for the sport. It will require both leadership from the RFL and forward thinking, flexibility and co-operation from the clubs at all levels. Something which is generally in short supply on all sides in RL.

To be clear.... Development of the game in either au or uk is definitely defined by one matrix....
TV cash.
Anything else is window dressing, because without the cash from murdoch, there is no game

That’s because he created a monopoly. That doesn’t mean the game is dead without that funding. It opens other windows again. So who is holding the game up now?

The sport requires injection of money. It’s not forthcoming to the lower tiers. So why should they work harder to keep a failing product alive?

Stop blaming others for the demise of the game. Let the lower tiers fend for themselves and hopefully a terrestrial channel will get on board with them.

SL obviously can’t function without the lower tiers. So let’s see who has the balls to call the shot.

I dont go along with the stagnant wages thing being the reason for the Cup Final being less popular.
The whole thing changed when we moved to summer rugby.

When the Final was the last act of the season, all of the supporters still had something to look forward to and again, pre the move to a GF, the Cup final was THE big RL event and it has now been replaced by the Grand Final, it's just an also ran.

Personally, I'd take a trip to Perpignan or Toulouse over The Cup Final all day long.
I'm not mad keen on magic, which seems to be for too many fans a 2 day mickey up and it too has lost some of it's relevance - we have to get back to "magic" being used to spread the game and not just as a money spinner for the rugby league coffers.

On your last point, I totally agree and it's up to ALL clubs to help sell out the 2 finals.

If there is any kind of serious drive to make 9's rugby happen, there could/should be something on the Challenge Cup Final undercard, which may help re engage more neutral fans