I am not backing anything in particular, but I am not convinced the Spurs fiasco has worked out well for the RFL, certainly with my first point.

Wembley does provide point 3 in that list and has provided plenty of point 1 and 2 in my list over the years.

Tbh, I'm not backing a particular location either. My only thought is that, if it has to be in London, then Spurs is the best option imo.

I'm not convinced that any northern ground delivers on options 2 & 3 btw.

oh absolutely.

for me though, the key is probably the info we will never see, the overall cost to the RFL, the punters are already taking a fairly big hit with any London game.

It certainly provides 2 and 3. Granted there needs to be work done for point 2.

I said before the game that if we are playing it up north, then go to Newcastle.

10,000 attendance has automatically been added to Wembley for the empty corporate seats until very recently.

Add those to the 51k and it stands a far better comparison with past years.

Any of the team apart from Huds, Catalan and possibly Wakefield take maybe 10,000 more fans, so you're looking at a comparative 70k attendance.

Every final has a number of free seats for the pre match entertainment so seems churlish to pick it out now.

Spurs is miles ahead in terms of atmosphere, noise, views, facilities. Wembley is a souless, empty shed in comparison.

Plus why are we so obsessed with crowd numbers and talking the game down . RL fans must be the most negative supporters of any sport.

I'm just going off what I saw on the day, bums on seats. The largest % of empty seats was the upper section in the Huddersfield end. Hull KR would have filled the majority of that. Add that into the mix and it would have looked great, especially as the country is in the middle of a 'cost of living crisis'.

Unfortunately, thats part of the problem the game has. I think someone else has commented that there are a couple of sides, where you know that they attendance will be low. I personally think that may have a knock on effect on the other teams support too, but dont have anything to prove that (just a hunch), but for example, would there be more Wigan fans there on Saturday if it was Saints, Wire or Leeds, instead of Huddersfield? Certainly if Wigan played Saints, i reckon there would be at least another couple of thousand Wigan fans there, plus you are looking at a full opposite end of the stadium, so the perception of was it a success is massively changed

The challenge therefore, and the RFL failed big time when Catalan won the trophy by asking them to pay 500k to enter it the following year, is how do you compensate for clubs when you know that they wont be bringing big numbers of fans. If Hudds had won at weekend, would the RFL have asked them for 500k i dont think so

You can't punish those sides IMO, they deserved to get there.

There isn't a simple answer really except for making tickets affordable to the neutral, selling to as many 'locals' as possible. Not easy to do granted, but the two finalists shouldn't be punished as Catalans effectively were.

The answer is for the RFL to sell as many tickets up front as they can, starting now for next year. Offering block bookings to large groups. Let's say the RFL offer 200 tickets to St Judes club, sell as many as you can (approx four coaches), the more they sell then £4 per ticket is refunded back by the RFL into the club - £800 into St Judes coffers. Imagine coach loads from each amateur club regardless of who is playing? Then you have corporate offers, not just in hospitality but standard seats as well. RU have been doing this for decades.

If they can sell 40-45,000 up front before we even know who the finalists would be great start, shout it from the rooftops and creates demand.

I think first, we need to know the financials from the last 10 years of cup finals, without that, and without the knowledge of whether any money was made, we can't even begin to give 0.01p back to clubs.

If we find that the Cup Final has lost money for the past 10 years then it needs a big think about how we go forward, if it has indeed brough a profit in some difficult times, then sure we look at ticket pricing.

Either way your idea of tickets to clubs is great and used to happen under Barla, but what price will those tickets need to be to help the overall profits and allow a £4 rebate per ticket.

We just have no idea really on that bottom line.

You can't, but it's a great argument for changing the cap to be based off a % of things like revenue generated. Difficult I know, as we made a loss, but there has to be a way of supporting teams that bring something wider to the table, than just performance on the pitch?

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/05/ ... n-numbers/ Some fantastic numbers there. The Huddersfield stats must have been amazing seeing they were the better team. Can't wait to see them...

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/05/ ... n-numbers/ Some fantastic numbers there. The Huddersfield stats must have been amazing seeing they were the better team. Can't wait to see them...

Spurs was a great stadium with a great atmosphere. The onky down side was sticking the lobby gobblers in with us who all left leaving a big gap. The Leigh fans will contribute to gate figure but for the main event they'd gone, the Fev fans seem to have stayed though. All those kids with the coloured hoodies on all left after they'd done their dance on the pitch too.

I know the RFL are trying to get as many in as possible but they need to fill it with proper fans.

Like MattyB said about giving tickets to clubs to sell and rewarding them and having 40k fans before the finalists are decided. That is what RFU do to fill Twickenham Ive heard.

Even if we do that will the top tiers full of amatuer teams, reward clubs eg if they sell 1000 tickets have Shaun Wane and the England lads train at their club, sell 500 have Sam Tomkins etc turn up for autographs and photos/presentation night, sell 200 get a signed England shirt.

I'd run family coaches and family areas too, its no fun getting lumped on a coach with young kids and having drunk blokes singing songs swearing. Maybe that puts some people off taking their kids?

England RU tickets rarely get to general sale as they are snapped up by the clubs and England members.

I don't know if the amateur clubs would sell tickets in the way they used to do because the CC Final seems to be third in the pecking order these days and money isn't as disposable as it once was, but we won't know if we don't try.