Why such a big gap from the last round to this one, then the Quarters/Semis and Final barely squashed into a month?

Then again it is the RFL, so there's no need to ask.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this forum full of outrage when the RFL booked Wire vs Wigan at the "far too small" Halton Stadium, only for tickets to still be available on the day?

Wigan didn't sell their allocation

Craven Park in Barrow will be big enough

they have had a similar thing the last few seasons. People moaning about not being big enough. In reality, 6500 for each set is probably a little too small but just right to make people scramble for tickets.

The HJ will be 15000 this time next year. Salford's new place will be up and about the same size. Saints slightly bigger.

It would make sense to me to try and get a stadium like Deepdale in Preston or Turf Moor in Burnley. Both a reasonable size, near enough and would take the professional game into a new area.

The problem is that most of the "local" football clubs seem to be at home on that weekend.

On Saturday 6th, Preston are at home to Colchester, Burnley are at home to Watford and Huddersfield (the most probable venue for Leeds v Cas) are at home to Bury.

The Keepmoat is available on the Saturday (Doncaster away at Brighton) but I can't see that being used.

On top of that, as previously mentioned, there's the chance that football clubs might not be overly keen on a rugby match being played 6/7 days before their first match of the season.

when will they announce the venue?

Of co there must be a ground in Lancashire big enough for that Semi Final because St Helens don't exactly have a massive support and the self-styled 'greatest fans in Rugby League',Wigan,only sold a p!ss poor 6,000 for their Semi with us at Widnes just 2 years ago.

I think your missing a massive point here. Wigan saints is the biggest game certainly from my point of view (a Wigan fan). I'm sure most Wigan fans will agree that it is still the biggest game of our season. I would hazard a guess that saints fans feel the same as well.

Two years ago a game against Warrington wasn't a game that got the crowds excited like a Wigan saints game.

I will tell you for free, I am much more excited about this semi with saints than I ever was for the one against wire two years ago

And to prove my point about this being the biggest game for us fans, 3001 more fans were at the Wigan saints game than the Wigan wire game at the DW

So to compare a semi two years ago against wire (who were not having a great season in the league) and a Wigan saints semi is just a non starter

And it's the last full month of the league season when the focus should be on making the playoffs. Madness IMO.

Why does this country have this thing for semi finals having to be on neutral grounds? It doesn't happen on the continent.Would it really matter if it was at the DW Stadium?

The move to Widnes has seen poor crowds for Saints this year, perhaps a lot of the no-shows will come back out of the woodwork for a semi final?

I've never understood the RFL's policy of cramming people into tiny grounds, it does nothing to attact new fans to the game.

take our Semi with Wakefield in 2008 at the Keepmoat, yes tickets were still available on the day...but a large part of that was due to Hull and Wakey fans being unable to invite along any friends, neighbors, workmates etc because the small allocation meant it was passholders only.

Saints-Wigan should be held at the Reebok.

What's the capacity at Blackpool now ?

9k with the work being done all down one side, 16k when its all open.

I'd say Bolton was the best option.