Low attendance in early rounds of the cup is more to do with 1) the introduction of the Grand Final to decide who the champions are as there are now two showcase events rather than 1 for the SL clubs and their fans to look forward to. Attention that was focussed largely on the cup and the big day at Wembley is now split two ways. 2) The fact that SKY promote the SL and its Grand Final every week throughout the season and the BBC don't do that with the Challenge Cup. It is given less prestige by its, up until now, only broadcaster and in turn many fans will view it as having less importance. 3) The seeming reluctance of many fans to part with extra cash to attend games once they have parted with the money for their season ticket. (The problem predates the recession so it is not wholly due to reduced disposable income)

Many fans would it seems rather attend both finals as a neutral than follow their own team in the earlier rounds of both the cup and the playoffs. The big 'events' in any sport are the ones that get talked up and we now see many fans (both regular and casual) that would rather attend those talked about one off games to 'be there' and have little interest in how the teams competing got there or in seeing them earn their place. Hopefully SKY will promote the cup now they will broadcast it and will help to restore its level of prestige in the minds of supporters both old and new.

The "hope" was that once BBC Sport moved oop north, they'd be less parochial towards yawnion. Not seen much of that yet except there seems to be more references to "rugby union" instead of just "rugby" as if there was only one code. Albeit Rhino Riley appears to be the sole voice of the subject on Five.

Bring back the Floodlit Trophy I say

Obviously the point was having all the games on the BBC gives the greatest access so given some CC games are migrating to Sky there is less access than there was.

If Sky have come to the rescue and picked up games that otherwise would not have been shown that is better than nothing but we still have less access than before.

I don't want this to lead to Sky getting the CC as well as SL. I'd like the BBC to pull its finger out and improve their coverage instead.

I'm the same as much as the BBC do very little in covering the challenge cup having the sport available on terrestrial TV is beneficial compared to Sky taking the cup.

Why when it's true?

Is it the magic of the cup that keeps it going? Is it the poor attendances,? The one sided early round scores? What about the stupid final date that ruins any winners chance at SL glory.

Some on here stated that they felt ashamed when we celebrated winning the hub cap in 2010 but yet wet themselves after beating Saints, wire and Leeds over a 12 week period????

I'd rather get knocked out in the first round and concentrate on the league.

The CC is dead sadly.

Further marginalisation of the greatest game from the kick and clap loving muppets at the BBC....

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... final.html

www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... final.html

I see Parker is on the ball again with the factsJAMES GRAHAM is giving everyone a laugh Down Under — his new team-mates at St George Ilawarra..............'"

You have a very different recollection of the early 90s from me.

The treatment of RL on the BBC has always been poor; RL is presented as a peculiar northern minor sport;
RL receives very little airtime in national sports news bulletins or in the SPOTY awards.

Things were bad in the early 90s and have got worse since then. The profile of the CC is now so low on the BBC that it might as well be given to Sky. I think though that would be playing to the agenda of the rah rahs at the BBC.

Mark Chapman did an excellent job last year, I was surprised by his enthusiasm for the sport he really understood the games and was a great presenter for the hardcore fans and the ones tuning in the for the first time.

He presents the new rugby league show on Radio 5.

Hopefully if Sky are to take a serious interest in the Challenge Cup, then they might put some pressure on the RFL to move the Challenge Cup final to earlier in the season. My personal preference would be the last weekend in June.

Told the coverage will be as follows.

Round 4 - One Match Live BBC - One Match Live on Sky
Round 5 - As Round 4
Quarter Finals - Two Matches Live BBC - Two Matches Live Sky
Semi Finals - Both Live on BBC
Final - Live on BBC

We're only about one month away from round 4. When's the draw?