They must have been virtual & not real people.

We all enjoyed watching the Dragons play so well to beat Saints. You deserve to be in the final, and it's a great effort for even a few thousand of your supporters to get to Wembley considering the cost and the August holiday season in France. Sorry your shirt hasn't arrived, just wear something red and yellow, sang et or!

Tous le monde a aimé regarder les Dragons jouer si bien pour battre les Saints. Vous méritez d'être en finale, et c'est un grand effort pour quelques milliers de vos supporters de se rendre à Wembley, compte tenu des coûts et de la periode des fêtes d'août en France. Désolé votre chemise n'est pas arrivée, je suggère que vous portiez simplement quelque chose de rouge et jaune, sang et or!

I would love to know what the marketing strategy is. I know the RFL send me a few emails in the year but is that it?

For a final in a world city with a population of 8.8M with 250,000 French nationals living there to have to close the top tier it is a monumental failure.

bon post et bon chance

The only thing virtual about my end was it was virtually empty.

Pardon!!

You two could always meet at the Holiday Inn and 'hug it out'?

That rings a bell.

Not getting involved in hand-wringing about likely attendance (and yes RFL are inept but rugby league fans love talking anything about the game down) but can't let the inference that the moon isn't actually whole pass?

WTF are you on about?

You are quite right, we should be upbeat and positive e.g) for some the stadium is half empty, for me it's half full!

The game may be in extremis, but there will be more parking spaces.

What do you care?

Hmmm. I never thought about that.
I wonder if the high viz arm wavers will be giving discount or upgrades too?

A bit of creative cgi may be called for to ensure a full house & convince the tv viewing masses of the popularity of rugby league in Britain.

Yes the chap that made the film [iGladiator.[/i

Or Toronto's marketing guy apparently and according to reports on the VT everyone not at their games is there but in the beer tent. This year everyone not at Wembley could be reported to be at the Holiday Inn watching BWW and RD in a Greco-Roman wrestling match

The biggest problem for the RFL was the way the semi finals turned out. If this was Saints v Leeds, we would not be stressing about a half full stadium.

Yes they could have done a big marketing campaign in London but the average Londoner would have seen the teams that were playing and gone "who?".

If someone put a leaflet through your door and said "discounted tickets for the ATP final: Roger Federer v Rafa Nadal" you would be more inclined to take the offer up than if it said "Dominic Thiem v Jack Sock", where you're more likely to think hmm ok I'll probably give that a miss, not that interested in tennis anyway.

Anyway don't RIP the Challenge Cup just yet, if the final in 2020 is Wigan v Saints, Shaun Edwards returning to Wembley will be a massive story and the game will get significant coverage and a packed house.

I wonder whether the RFL could be more proactive in making sure the semis deliver the best result for the game. Put it this way if this was Italian football and the Coppa Italia semis were Juventus v Genoa and Inter v Chievo, there is no way in a million years that Genoa and Chievo would be allowed to both win.