Just before Leeds were playing Cas in the semi my wife asked me who I wanted to win. I replied that if Cas win we would have an easier game at Wembley but if Leeds win then they would take more fans to Wembley which is probably better for the game.
I now think Cas would have taken more fans.

I thought exactly the same. Although I think a Wigan v Leeds final will get a lot more neutrals and a lot more viewers on tele which can only be good for our sport.

They will still have 20k there on the day IMO. 2 weeks left, some people are waiting to be paid etc.

We will have well over 30k there. Over a 3rd of the stadium will be cherry and white (appart from my dad who will steal my 89' retro shirt)

With respect, Cas took all there fans and some to Doncaster - around 7k.

Despite poor sales, as Odemwingie says (don't normally agree with him...) I can't imagine we will have any less than 20k to be honest.

NO, Wigan havent sold 20,000 themselves, its through our sales and the RFL - I know many who gave up on getting the tickets from Wigan due to no phone calls/online orders and just bought them off the RFL site.

Cas only has a population of 37k so to take as many as us would mean literally more than half the town going (assuming that there isnt many fans of cas outside cas) that just isnt gonna happen. Leeds will definitely take more than Cas would have thats one thing we definitely cant slate leeds for. It will just be people waiting to be paid I think. I cant see Leeds, the second best supported team in the league (actually first currently this season according the the RLFans stats site though we are first for home games), not taking at least 20k.

I remember the classic 1985 final wigan v hull. wigan took 40k plus down to wembley. that was superb.

I've managed to get hold of club wembley tickets through work. They may be a bit corporate (no Wigan shirts allowed) but they're free and right in the middle of the Wigan end. Can't wait.

I may not go this year for a variety of reasons, and will make my mind up fairly late in the piece, like I did last year.

Most of the factors have nothing to do with Rugby, but Challenge Cup finals with Leeds in them hold no special fondness for me. I tend to enjoy the day, wherther Leeds are there or not, but having missed '99 for family reasons, I have been to 9 CC finals. 6 of those featured Leeds and we've lost all of them. The prospect of making it 7 doesn't help. It isn't the real reason I may not go, but it might, if I'm really honest with myself, affect the motivation to move certain obstacles around.

I have enjoyed some fairly heroic defeats in 1994, 2003 and 2005, which were excellent games, but how many times do I want to see the same script? I've also seen some embarrassing pastings in 1995, 200 and 2010. The day out can be fun, but again, been there, done that. Plus, the only time I haven't been to the final when we've been involved we won, so Mr Hethrington should be bloody well grateful if I don't go!

I think there is also a strong feeling that if Mr Hethrington wants fans to part with more of their money to support his team, he needs to show that the club has ambitions to match the fans. I don't share that belief myself, but it's certainly out there.

We may lose, who knows (I doubt it, but after seeing Wigan lose to the Eagles nothing would surprise me!), but I would be amazed if Brent Webb plays anything like as well as Radders did that day.

Those of us who travelled in hope rather than expectation to the 2002 final were rewarded that day with one of the greatest individual performances in the history of British RL - Radders was absolutely sensational. Saints fans have never forgiven him for it.

what a great occassion that would be, after the final hooter at the Bradford game for Rads to come on the pitch and present Wembley shirts to the 17 mighty warriors who will do battle with the "whinos"

Thats crazy!

Good plan. You might want to monitor a few bumps and knocks after the game and in training the following week before you name the squad though.

Not wanting to rain on too many parades or anything.

I think a mystery 'race against time' injury sort of story in the press is in order from us next week!

The combination of poor form, last seasons disappointment (plus a long line of Challenge Cup final failures) and the fact that many believe you'll hammer us (not that I agree with the latter) has led to the poor sales.

It doesn't surprise me at all, we've been fed on success for a few years, and a couple of poor seasons has seen the floating fans disappear as quickly as they arrived, something which the Wigan faithful are probably familiar with themselves. I understand some may not be going for financial reasons but I wouldn't miss it for the world.

But in all honesty I couldn't care less if you have more fans than us, because as I've said elsewhere, having more fans in the ground doesn't win you anything.

Quality ,


That would confuse Gaz Hock , he'd think he have another game that night if he had 2 shirts at once