Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:56 am  

What do people reckon the crowd will be for Saturday's showpiece?

I'm gonna go for just under 60,000. Will certainly be the lowest at the new Wembley and probably the smallest Challenge Cup final crowd since the 1940s.

Sure there will be a massive Warrington contingent there, as well as a few thousand Catalan fans. Could the RFL have done more to attract neutral fans?

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:59 am  

I'd be pleased/amazed with anything over 50,000

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:13 am  

FireWire wrote:

What do people reckon the crowd will be for Saturday's showpiece?

I'm gonna go for just under 60,000. Will certainly be the lowest at the new Wembley and probably the smallest Challenge Cup final crowd since the 1940s.

Sure there will be a massive Warrington contingent there, as well as a few thousand Catalan fans. Could the RFL have done more to attract neutral fans?

Not much that anyone can do under the present timetable, which leaves less than three weeks between semi-final and final. There will also be numerous potential attendees absent on holiday in August (even more of a probelm for French fans than in the UK). I'm in favour of moving the final to June, before the school holidays, and making the gap betweeen semis and final at least five weeks to allow for marketing and sales of the tickets whoever reaches Wembley.

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:15 am  

As a comparison on marketing and interest levels in London, the NFL have held games at Wembley since 2007 with close on 85K attendance in Autumn/Winter too.

Lowest RL CC attendance at Wembley is 36,544 in 1929/30. I think we are safe there. But post-war 54,730 in 1945/46 is the lowest so far.

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 11:10 am  

There will be 50k+ easy.
Attendance figure are always 16500 lower since last year otherwise we'd be looking towards a 70k attendance figure in old money.

Imo Wire fans have really pulled out the stops this year. I don't think any other set of fans could have made such an effort.

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:07 pm  

Didnt Hull v wigan last year only attract about 68 thousand? Anything close to 60k will be very good. Over 60 thousand I would be very impressed with. Especially when people like me can't go due to work!!

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:41 pm  

Moe syslak wrote:

Didnt Hull v wigan last year only attract about 68 thousand? Anything close to 60k will be very good. Over 60 thousand I would be very impressed with. Especially when people like me can't go due to work!!

Yep 68,525.

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:41 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

Imo Wire fans have really pulled out the stops this year. I don't think any other set of fans could have made such an effort.

Do you know the sales figures?

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 1:40 pm  

The BBC has said that about 4,000 will travel to London from France for the final.

Re: Challenge Cup Final attendance : Tue Aug 21, 2018 2:14 pm  

Builth Wells Wire wrote:

The BBC has said that about 4,000 will travel to London from France for the final.

Which is about 10/15k down on what we would expect a normal following for a British based side?

55k would be a good effort I think considering the Wigan Hull crowd of 68k the year before. I'm hoping it will be 50k plus