Looking at the number of vacant seats in the North and East stands Wire could save themselves the cost opening the HJ and move the game to Vicky Park. I guess most people have decided to watch the match on tv. Perhaps we will see a late surge, otherwise it will probably one of the lowest crowds ever for a Wire v Wigan game.

Might be due to football fixtures on Sunday? Big game for Liverpool and City fans.

In recent years maybe even longer back CC games have had small crowds for early rounds.

And season ticket holders don’t get it any more. Fourth round always used to be busier than the fifth.

At £17 a ticket and free for kids, it’s cheaper than our game at Odsul. The Halliwell Jones should be full.

By being on holiday ,i shall save myself the embarrassment of being tight .

It should be but won't be as it is a top fixture, mind you there isn't much novelty value in playing Wigan

Magic will be our 9th game against Wigan in the last 15 months. In that time, nearly 20% of our games have been against them.

Is hard to market such a saturated fixture. Can't do the 'bad blood' thing every time.

Who are Wigan?

Maybe we should market it like the Rocky franchise, or Fast and the Furious.

The challenge cup is heading for the bargain bin, it struggled so much to find a new sponsor which is pretty indicative of general interest in it as a brand/showpiece. It’s depressing seeing empty grounds, especially in the earlier rounds, and when you have to do a ‘double header’ semi final just to create a reasonable attendance, you know you’re on a downward spiral.

Personally, the magic of the cup has gone. I don’t recall ever being less bothered or excited or interested about a Wire Wigan game as I am for Sunday’s.

Wembley itself is sterile and dull too. I just don’t know what can fix it. Move the final back to May? Then how do you squeeze the rounds in? Would it push the magic weekend out of focus? It’s an absolute mess along with the state of SL/RL in this country in general. There’s a very interesting discussion over on the Wigan board about all of this.

It's a crying shame what has happened to the CC. I remember how it felt in the 1990 cup run.

Even as a teenager I loved the cup, going to The McAlpine (as it was then) to watch us in that semi against Bradford, who were at their heights of success, it still felt like we might [ijust[/i pull off a shock. It was exciting, the whole day out and the ups and downs. Now, it’s nothing like that. I know we all romanticise the past to an extent, but there’s nothing that appealing in the present apart from playoff footie and the chance of the GF.

If the 'smaller' clubs didn't sit around crying woe is me and blaming the RFL for everything instead of actually getting up and doing something to improve the match day experience and quality of the club, then maybe competitions like the CC would be in a better state.

Who on earth wants to play a team like Workington, in the end of nowhere in a stadium that wouldn't look out of place in the Rio-de-Janero Favellas? Whilst putting out a reserve team and still putting 80 on them?

The days of flat caps, whippets, warm ale and working mens clubs are over. Every other sport is moving with the times, RL isn't.

But you have to ask the bigger questions. Why can’t these clubs all have nice little modern grounds and better ‘match day experiences’? Where’s the money? Why are they mostly clinging on for dear life and former giants of the game almost going bust like Bradford and Widnes? The whole system in the league clearly doesn’t work. You can’t lay blame with just the clubs.