all on again now!

Crowd 77K odd according to the tannoy, surely they are including the 10K or so Club Wembley fans who don't attend in that number!??

you would think. Looking at the crowd I would have said nearer 60000.

"the game has never been stronger"

2 weeks between semi and final is not enough to make plans, and make financial arrangements, for everyone. Probably too close to the play offs to encourage fans of other clubs to enjoy a day out, with the prospect of 4 additional games to pay for in Sept/Oct.

another good point, and with the new structure the final next year will be slap bang in the middle of the Super8s and that may make neutral fans save their cash for their own teams home games.

What if a team from the middle 8 make the final and are sitting 4/5th......will they field a weakened side in the final to save their stars for the million pound game?

What would that be then?

Not if the final moves back to may

Just got back from the final as a neutral, great day out, but, I used to go to CC finals as a neutral plenty of times but I've never been to the new Wembley for RL before today and it was very noticeable how few neutral fans there where. I was very surprised, there were some obviously but whereas 10 years ago and before it was maybe a third of the crowd, (?) complete guess but it was certainly many more than today, today Id reckon neutrals were only something like 5-10% of the crowd if that, which is a real shame. It didn't feel like rugby leagues big day out, it felt like Leeds and Cas's day out. We need to change that, I don't think holding it on the Aug Bank Holiday helps attract neutrals for a start.

I've said it so many times, the CC final needs to swap with the Magic weekend - it makes so much sense. The fact that The RFL haven't even acknowledged that moving the CC final to August has had a negative effect on it is worrying.

I don’t like Wembley soulless place with the middle tier empty by the half way line and then club Wembley seats empty not like the old days. Good call on moving from August.

I bet if the RFL had a poll the people would favour going back to may, the fans and the players would, I would love it to go back I have been to Wembley 28 time 4 great Britain 3 England the rest the challenge cup and it was best in may

The middle tier at Wembley doesn't help... how long does the club Wembley deal run for now?.

The time between the Semi final and Final is ridiculous, also do the RFL recognise the problem people with children have regarding family holidays out of term time?.

Why the need for the final to be played on a bank holiday weekend anymore is beyond me, the cost of staying in London over 2 days now would put most off. I would move the final to mid May or late June...and maybe introduce a "consolation cup" comp for those teams going out in the 3rd round (before S.L teams enter), with the final to be played as a curtain raiser to the main final....I noticed a massive drop in neutrals from lower league sides yest maybe that would help.

The main problem fro the CC final is that it is no longer the "main event" in the RL calendar.
Reserved seating at Wembley doesn't help either and there should be a way of re allocating these seats/tickets

There is a way of reallocating the seats but it's cumbersome. If you hold Club Wembley seats of any kind they are on a season ticket basis. If you definitely know in advance that you won't be attending a particular event, you can 'pass them back' to Club Wembley for them to resell. If they manage this, you get 15% of the re-sale value, they keep the rest. This is not exactly helpful in the case of the Challenge Cup Final for lots of reasons:

1) You may not be sure until too late that you, or a friend, won't want the tickets
2) As you only get 15% back, what's the point of giving up the option above? You are NOT ALLOWED to sell the tickets yourself
3) Club Wembley marketing people have few contacts in RL, so no-one to sell them to.
4) Club Wembley already have the money for these seats, extra revenue is available through a re-sale, but no-one's out of pocket if they don't get resold, so no special offers, for instance, to fill Club Wembley.
5) There are not enough folks local to Wembley/London who are likely to buy a last-minute ticket for £80 plus ( Club Wembley bottom-end price for a one-off ). For Northerners there is travel on top, of course

Like in much of business today, Wembley is happy to bank the corporate money and not worry about appearances on TV.

What is even more surprising are the empty 'dignitary' seats, the block of pure red in prime position over the half-way line. Most of these are given away to dignitaries, celebrities, politicians, charities connected to RL, folk who have done favours for the sport, companies who may be targets to become sponsors/advertisers etc. These should be 90% full, allowing even for 'no-shows' on the day.