How are people getting to Leigh?

The other day my mate and I were looking at getting a train from Manchester. There doesn't appear to even be a train station! Would just be easier to find a pub to watch it in.

You could get the train to Atherton then it's a 5-10 min bus journey into Leigh town centre, or there's the X34 bus from Manchester Piccadilly.

£26 is expensive? The dearest ticket for Latics semi final was £65 and then you had a £30 travel expense on top. Don't complain about prices because compared to other sports we have it easy. The fact is most rugby league fans would rather sit in the pub than actually go the game. That's why sky will always rule the roost.

Of course come Wembley should we get there they'll all be queing and demanding tickets as if they've never missed.

£65? You sure?
The rest of your post fair enough

I'm really embarrassed about the sales to be honest, it's going to look awful on tv. There's no real reason why we shouldn't sell out! It's only down the road for god sake! They'll all be there queuing on Sunday morning if we win. Knocks me sick.

Latics this, Latics that

Another point of my post was lack of courtesy shown be the Wigan club and the RL in answering my emails asking for information.

Think, that's bad, London fan here, who actually goes all the away games, below is another posting on London page, and then my comments,

'London fans have had Catalans away followed by three northern weekends running - Sheffield, Widnes and now Wigan (sorry Leigh) any wonder we can't afford to come to all the away games. A vast number of northeners can't / won't / don't make the road south once a season never mind as often as we are expected to. However we shouldn't feel any agnst against away fans as even our own club don't understand how the fans feel. Catalans tickets were booked months ago but you still need money to spend when you get there and a hotel to pay for, Sheffield was booked as soon as we knew about the game date, Widnes tickets and trains paid for ages ago but still food and drink to pay on the day and taxis/underground/trains across London so ask yourself why we cant afford to travel in large numbers. Most of us just cant afford it and as much as we would love to be there it is one away trip to many.

Saturdays effort:
£78.00 return to Wigan on train
£9.20 (train fare in/out London to get to Euston)
£40.00 in taxi's (return)
£26.00 match Ticket
£5.00 Programme
Beer, Food,

One day, One game, Up early, back last train.

Luckily, we only have three more away games left this season (St.Helens on Friday Bradford & Hull KR)
so time to save up then........................

If we make Wembley, great, cheapest ever away game and only one hour on tube from my house, actually have to travel 90 mins to get to Stoop.

Its only Seven Miles...............................Leigh

The pies will not be cold, when you get home on Sat night for tea. when we get home it will be Sunday.

Most semi finals now have poor attendances since the move to summer rugby and the height of the holiday season.

The Challenge Cup should be played in the early part of the season with the final no later than the beginning of June.

That way we would have a final in each half of the season and not on top of each other like they are now.

No rocket science needed to improve the competition, just common sense.

I agree to an extent on the final date but they would have to ensure the first round wasn't pre season as it was before the move to August.

It's amazing and sad how things have changed.

I used to love the way the Lancashire Cup kicked off the season. It never felt like a meaningless tournament to me, or to many others - 25,000 at the last ever final between Wigan and Saints!

If only we could readjust everyone's thinking, and turn the CC into something along those lines. Perhaps mingle a few league fixtures in there, so people don't feel the real action hasn't started yet, and make the final the half-way point of the season (get it back to the merry month of May), so the second half is all about the league.

Then we'd also do away with this overkill of important games at the business end when there's a dearth of such earlier on.

I think this is a very good idea.

The CC used to be THE pinnacle of the RL season. The emphasis is now on the playoffs (not the league; the league is almost redundant).

Playing the CC early on will also nudge teams into taking a "season long" approach to the game in terms of "peaking", and just may improve it's profile.

Attendance for the 1998 semi against London - in Huddersfield - 11,058. That season our average crowds were much lower than now. Not sure what conclusions to reach.