The Halifax Courier have tweeted "New Northern Rail Cup final venue to replace Blackpool on the agenda too. Leigh, Halifax both possibilities apparently." How to kill an event in one move.

Clubs are sick of Blackpool FC picking up about £50k and them getting nowt. It's the first move from a more bullish collection of Championship clubs.

In that case it is an understandable move.

There won't be £50k to pick up if the event is played elsewhere. No coincidence that the crowds at Blackpool were virtually double (and more) than when the final was played at Rochdale.

How would it be fair if the LSV or the Shay hosted the final & Leigh or Halifax was in it with home advantage

Well that figure surprises me I would have thought something like 10% of the gate receipts to a host club. Where did you get it from Alan ?

We could still all go to Blackpool for the weekend and get coaches to leigh for the final though

Thats the only minus side to this,no weekend trip, therefore its a shame one of the cumbrian clubs haven't got a decent ground, could have had a lakes weekend. York is a good weekend away but their ground would be no good either.

I have sources!!

Completely devalues the event and the competition as a whole IMO though. As I previously posted, it's no coincidence that the profile of the competition was much improved when it was moved to a proper 'event' venue.

Just a thought what about one of the new clubs in Championship one , that could be a good one as most fans wont have visited and it would bring some funds to a new up and coming club, surprised the RFL haven't thought of it .

So instead of giving blackpool 50k the idea now is to give it to those that run the shay or the lsv,i'm struggling to see a difference?.Surely if the idea is to keep the money in the league then the comp should be held at a club that owns its own ground?.

I think the idea is that the two competing clubs get the 'lion's share' of the proceeds, and that the chosen venue gets a lesser share than now.

Do the clubs still win if the gate is half what it was?

Just as the NRC final has established itself as a decent event in its own right, with a weekend away to boot, it's going to be devalued by playing it somewhere usual. I don't want to spend a weekend in Halifax, and I spend most weekends in Leigh already.

A shame imo.

But will a NRC Final between say Leigh and Halifax attract half the gate, if it's played at LSV or The Shay? Wherever it's played this year, the gate was going to be hit, as there's a full Championship fixture list that weekend.