We,ve been saying for years that the final shoulbe in July to avoid the start of the football premiership, each round should be in each month March, April , May and June.
The RFL should tender the media coverage out instead of letting the Beeb dictate the scheduling.

The RFL do the same thing with the Magic Weekend always schedule it with another big event going on that particular weekend, scheduling and planning is something that is alien to the RFL.

PUT IT back to may august is bloody

I'd have the final in May with the semis at least a month, if not more, earlier. The rounds involving SL teams to be every other week.

So if it was in 2014 it'd be something like:
Round 4 - 8/9th March
Round 5 - 22/23rd March
Quarter Finals - 5/6th April
Semi Finals - 19/20th April
Final - Spring Bank Holiday - 24th May

Hopefully might generate a bit of momentum and interest on TV rather than a game every now and again.

OT but I'd also introduce some kind of game-wide discount/incentive for season ticket holders to attend Challenge Cup games.

Which semi final was in Glasgow?

Over the last few years I have seen fewer and fewer people in London over the cup final weekend wearing replica shirts. I was in the west end this afternoon and saw none for the first time. Is this to do with the game being played on the bank holiday weekend or are there other factors (lack of money, trips to France for away games at Catalans) affecting things?

I think its more to do with the beeb being unwilling to interrupt their wall to wall coverage of the Empire Games for the semi's....I don't know for definite that this is why the semi's were pushed back to 2 weeks before the final, but It wouldn't surprise me.

How big is your local ? I was on coach number 35 out of Headingley , and there were still hundreds of people waiting to get on other coaches as we departed .

For the millionth time please stop exaggerating .

LOL !

Very poor turn out for the final, and this is not actually a dig about Leeds. No matter how many coaches you saw there were still HUGE empty spaces at Wembley which MAY have been better filled if there had been more time between the semis and the final.

SURELY it makes more sense to give people the maximum amount of time to make arrangements ???

That's counting the club Wembley seats though and obviously hardly any of those turned up

This

And make every ticket £25.

Who made that figure up?

As its an all-seater stadium, the attendance figure for the final is based on how many tickets have been sold for the event. This includes not only the club wembley seats but also any tickets which have been sold to 3rd party retails, whether or not they subsequently sold them and the bum arrived on the seat.

I think this could be the key issue here, I was in block 542 (top tier at Cas end), and a week before the final I am pretty sure the RFL website said this block and all of the top tier were sold out apart for the small block above the big screen.

If the RFL did indeed sell them they probably won't care as they will trouser the cash even if it looks horrible on T.V and made the atmosphere flat. So I would like to know who bought these tickets?, Amateur clubs?, lower league clubs?, Touts, individual opportunists who tried to sell them through E.bay etc?

If they didn't whoever was in charged with that stadium graphic on the website wants to be dragged into the bosses office in the morning!

Got to agree with others that the scheduling is bonkers, the other issue is that it gives the finalists very little time to sell Merchandise. In 2008 Hull made over £500K and a large part of that was selling a shedload of merchandise during the months gap between the Semi and the Final, 2 weeks barely gives a club chance to embroider/heatseal a few t-shirts never mind buy anything else in.

Personally i'd move the final to either the first weekend after the football season, or the weekend before the start of the new season. The media are always desperate to fill the sports pages during these lean weekends and the final would get more coverage.