It's a mixture of many things, the main one being a general apathy towards the game from many of its loyal supporters, which means spending extra money to go to an event as a neutral is no longer as appealing, also the over saturation of events, but I'm also sure the August date doesn't help. It's smack bang in the middle of holiday season and it's the bank holiday weekend which is notorious for people heading off for breaks. Then throw in the fact that there are things like Leeds/Reading Fest on the same time, there's plenty of other things people are doing this weekend. A May weekend is much more like to see neutrals attend.

Challenge cup needs to be seen as an event again. I would scrap magic weekend think it's runs its course anyway. Move the cup back a 4 weeks. If we are sticking with super 8's the cc should be at the end of regular tounds before 8's start. Also each round should be every forth week and first round proper (no byes for super league teams) should be before super league starts.

I also think semis should be a double h header and venue announced year before.

I went as a neutral though sat in the Hull end, enjoyed the game just what i was hoping for, a close hard fought game where the result was in doubt right to the end.

One or two issues with the stadium though, firstly we had to have our tickets re-printed as they had been duplicated due to the original ones not being registered, this was also a problem for a few others who were having the same issue.
Secondly the escalators weren't working meaning everyone on level 5 had to walk up hundreds of steps, ok if your young and fit but there were elderly people and folk with mobility issues having to do it and clearly some people were struggling with this, it was a very long way up and i just think not enough was done to help and it was almost a blase attitude from Wembley staff.

Thought the 3/4 empty Wigan end was rather embarrassing from the self styled 'best team and fans in the world' shocking turnout from them but i guess if you're used to winning trophies and attending finals it gets boring for you....not that i could ever imagine getting bored.

Anyway congrats to Hull FC, thought they shaded it and hope everyone had a good day out.

The RFL have messed up since the BBC became the puppet master and we are possibly might see a continuous decline until the TV rights deal runs out in 2020. As mentioned the final should be moved back 4 weeks to avoid the clash with Football, Union and the August Bank Holiday, the schedule of the rounds make the neutrals forget about the competition, is it 5 or 6 weeks between between the quarter and semi finals.

After the semis and the finalists have been determined, the RFL should look at the projection of ticket sales and if there is substational availability tickets should be made to the 12 million or so London Residents at say 30 -40% reduction (kids for free).

Big Nige and his Barwick sidekick are sitting on the "crown jewels" of this event whilst rugby league burns.

As stated by previous poster the final needs to be earlier in the season. I fear a return to May is out of the question due to Wembley being used for the FA cup final and the playoffs on the two May bank holidays. An earlier cup final and a move of the Magic weekend to the last match of the regular season may boost attendances at both. Magic would be something special with play off places and possibly the League Leaders shield being decided.

Now on to Wembley/organisation. Several times in recent years there have been issues with the rail network on August bank holiday. I guess that Network Rail don't give a toss as it mainly affects Northerners travelling South. To compound the issue some idiot has thought that it is a good idea to build flats, shops etc. on the stadium carparks. It took over an hour in the queue (approx. 1/2 mile) to get in to the coachpark that is now smaller than the one at the DW! Absolutely crazy for a national stadium that attracts people from all over the country; especially when the rail network is stuffed and people have to travel by road.

The PA failure during "Abide with me" was an embarrassment and the half time break dragged on for a good 20 mins. It was after 5pm when the match finished. God knows what time it would have finished if it had gone to golden point. I remember when the match was done and dusted, you'd watched the cup presentation and be back on the coach by 5pm.

For me the key issues are timing and cost.

It is peak holiday season so many people are either on holiday or have just returned from holiday and are all spent up.

August bank holiday is when the west coast main line traditionally has engineering works. So if you were from Wigan the traditional train journey from Wigan North Western to Euston is out of the question. That means drive or Coach. Both of which entail 5 hour journeys each way.

With regard to coaches. With it being peak holiday season the availability of coaches is reduced as the coaches are in full use taking people away on trips. This results in increased cost of booking a coach. Hence pubs and clubs are faced with hefty bills if wanting to organise a wembley trip without guarantee of making a profit. Consequently fewer trips are organised. Those that are organised are more expensive, which again reduces accessibility.

London itself is financially a completely different country to the North of England. This manifests itself most extravagantly in the costs of food and drink in and around the stadium. This again is a large disincentive to visit. Especially if compounded by peak holiday season hotel and transport costs.

The grand Final, magic weekend, summer big bash, and Perpignan to see your team play Les Cats all offer more affordable and better rugby league focused events than Wembley.

It struck me yesterday what a mess the game is in right now. A random Rugby Union game can pull in a better crowd than our final. How has it come to that?

For the first time, we didn't bother buying tickets in advance, because we are sick of paying full whack only for the RFL to flog seats off for next-to-nothing a few months later. Sure enough we got Club Wembley for a fiver from a tout!

Final needs to be moved to end of May, scrap MM which actually brings in less money for clubs than a respective home or indeed away game and is just a glorified mickey up for fans who actually don't turn up in any great numbers all things considered and is just as far for many heartlands fans going to Newcastle as it is to London.

I hate this attitude. It's not the refs putting cheap dog shots in, trying to "win" penalties, inventing plays on the cusp of the rules to gain advantage.

How do you know? How much do the local council pay to get the event to there city?

I went yesterday and clearly as a Hull fan I was delighted at the result. All games have contentious call. Did Clubb have the ball reefed or did he lose it whilst twisting to try and ground it? Did Marshall put his foot touch in goal at the start of the possession which lead to Wigans final try?

One things for certain, the officials were not the ones knocking or or throwing forward passes.

I sat in Club Wembley. Perfect seats, but the organisation (or lack of it) whilst entering the stadium was a bit of a concern.

As for the popularity of it as a showpiece event. As many have said, this clearly needs looking at. I think the final should be moved from London. Possibly rotate around other venues (Cardiff, Edinburgh,)

I bet you wasn't saying that 13 months ago!

Moving it wont do anything to increase the numbers wanting to attend.
It's the fact that it (the final) is just one of many big RL events, as opposed to being THE only one.
Well played Hull, I made a few quid and it's great to see a "new" club winning some of the major trophies (I know they won last season as well but, you take my point).

Okay, they pay for the stadium hire for 2 days, plus added extras in and around the ground.
Or do you imagine that the local authorities are going to stump a massive wad of cash equivalent to even half of what the lead sponsor for the whole of SL does for a 2 day event, I don't think so!

Two day tickets can be had for the price of a single match day ticket. the actual number of fans attending bearing in mind a lot will be going for both days is much much less than the equivalent games on any given SL weekend, ergo the amount of money based on ticket sales alone is massively reduced.
it costs the clubs a lot more to travel, ALL the clubs have to travel, not half, maybe you think all the additional travel is paid for by the local authority too? Then you have home stadium concessions, home stadium packages/boxes, merchandise sales etc whilst local businesses around each club are not part of that money for the club they are also missing out.
the event itself has a knock on effect on Wembley attendance too IMHO as it's now seen as the big weekend out several hours drive/train away for the year as opposed to a trip to Wembley for neutrals.

Then you have the slight downturn in fans the following weekend, fans have splashed out on a mickey up at Newcastle and some floating fans don't turn up for the next home game or the away game, this is a reality not made up.
We should also extend the season back a week so that we can avoid the ridiculous situation of playing two games within a few days which is both stupid and dangerous (player welfare right??) and it also affects fan numbers for those games. Spread those two games out over two weeks not one, losing the magic weekend to hold Wembley in late May instead and have a normal round of matches in the last week of August would work out far more beneficial for individual clubs AND Wembley would have far greater numbers in attendance.

As a neutral, that was a great game; tough defence, skillful attacking play and very little pillocking about - a few dodgy calls, but they balanced themselves out. And without a doubt, the best team won - Wigan did well to keep it so close, because they were outplayed in pretty much every area. Congratulations to Hull - quite an achievement.