Challenge Cup

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bill.inger
Posts: 662
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 11:34 am

Re: Challenge Cup

Post by bill.inger »

Dead right there Fozzie, we'll never get the promotion the Final merits as long as the RFL want to persecute teams who can't send umpteen thousands to Wembley. The way I see this demand for half a million quid is that, assuming Les Cats didn't send twenty thousand extra fans to the final (assuming the RFL expected 70,000 minimum on the ground). If the average mark-up on a ticket is £25.00 that's where they are £500,000 out of profit.
That's the simple way I see it, but the game at the RFL is run by simple folk, hence where the game is now.
DaveO
Posts: 15880
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 5:32 pm

Re: Challenge Cup

Post by DaveO »

The lack of promotion for the Cup is in my opinion a direct consequence of the switch to the playoff system in 1998 and the installation of the Grand Final as THE prestigious event and trophy to win.

The RFL did their best not only to downgrade winning the league to a non-event by not even offering up a trophy when it first started but they were also desperate that the CC also did not overshadow the GF. From when I started watching the game THE big event was the CC. Being champions was great but if you won the CC it didn't matter so much if you didn't win the league.

Post 1998 it soon became almost acceptable to get knocked out of the CC because at least a trip to Wembley would not scupper your GF chances.

The ironic thing is even though the game became obsessed with the GF, the CC remained the biggest earner for both the RFL and the clubs who got to the final. Yet somehow they managed to let its importance wither and IMO this is down to the obsessive promotion of the GF (and also the magic weekend particularly at first) while the CC was left to take care of itself.

Somehow they have managed to turn a showcase event into something like the FA cup in soccer where you see some teams and fans not take it seriously anymore and as a consequence I beleive far fewer neutral fans travel to the game.

It used to be the games big day out, not just for the fans of the two clubs involved but that tradition seems to be almost dead. The fact it is, is also in my view why crowds are down. Small clubs have got to the CC final before like Sheffield and London and the crowds still went. If Les Cats had got there in say 1989 the traditional interest among the neutrals would have still seen a large crowd so IMO the RFL are barking up the wrong tree blaming clubs for poor attendances. I can never remember any two sides filling Wembley since I have watched the game on their own, even in 1985 massive Wigan and Hull followings were supplemented by fans from other clubs.

As to asking Les Cats put up £500K, never mind the principle being wrong but which idiot in the RFL came to the conclusion any club in the game has a spare £500K lying around?
doc
Posts: 1795
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:08 pm

Re: Challenge Cup

Post by doc »

It makes a farce of the competition if the holders are bullied out of defending their trophy.
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