Quote: mikeefreedom "OK so the double header didn't work out, but have a look at the attendance of today's cup games. 735 at Featherstone, 333 at Sheffield, 10000 at Halifax. Amazingly Leigh Miners was one of the best. Rugby league as a whole is suffering.'"
Needs another round before we play and another round before the top 8 SL teams play.
The games need to look like they will be competitive to attract support.
Listening to Radio Cumbria today (brilliant RL coverage on a sunday btw) and its understanable but saddening that many think the sole aim of the cup is for the clubs to make as much money as possible before concentrating on the league.
Sure I agree a a club should aim to make money but surely the whole point of the cup is to do well and win games otherwise its totally pointless, personally I feel the CC is now at the stage where at least two rounds need adding (if using the 'need to make money' argument for being in the cup I bet East Leeds would have made just as much money away v Rochdale or away v Leigh Miners as they did from yesterday and then if they had progressed the interest generated may have meant a good pay day and increase in the clubs profile), failing that regionalise the earlier rounds so at least local interest might drum up the crowds (if we played Blackbrook or East it would likely have been double the gate we got yesterday).
The gates don't lie, the interest in the competiton is virtually nil as 99% of the results are known before a ball is kicked, its time the governing body and the clubs started to act like they are professional as short term ideas = short term gains, start losing supporters due to lack of interest could mean you lose them for a long time as competiton for their leisure money these days is huge.
