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Did anyone else notice the issues at Wembley and with the BBC which were very annoying on the day.
1. Our coach made splendid time, leaving Bryn at 7.30am and within a mile of Wembley by 12 noon. We left the coach at 1.10pm and I understand that a big Wembley coach park is being covered in hundreds of homes, businesses etc. So within 10 years of opening our national stadium is being sold off??
2. We were all asked to stand for Abide With Me and we did. However he poor young singer looked totally lost as someone forgot to switch the music on. The fans tried to mask this by chanting loudly and this in turn drowned out the music when it finally began. Piss ups and breweries???
3. That irritating nerd Robbie Paul took a pointless trip to the Hull dressing rooms to tell us about their medical stocks and then did the same in the Wigan rooms but unfortunately his sound was not working. The BBC lead commentator thought this was highly amusing. I though it was embarrasing unprofessional.
4. Of course we then have to have the spectacle of the nerd (again) invading the pitch during warm up and during the match!!!! Am I wrong or is it not an arrestable offence to invade a sports pitch?
5. We then have the two "experts" going through each of the teams against a background showing the teams --- but unfortunately the wrong captions came up. Again the BBC reaction was -- isn't this hilarious and lets all have a laugh about it. After all its not important it is only Rugby League and its only the Cup Final!!!!
6. I may be wrong but I got the distinct impression that the BBC had far less cameras on duty than is normally the case with Sky and maybe that was one reason why the Clubb try was disallowed? To their credit, the commentators generally said that the video ref "got it wrong" but at no point did anybody attempt to find out why and how they got it wrong and, to my knowledge, that question has never been asked or answered.

Regretably I think it is getting towards the time when we should play the final elsewhere and maybe ask Sky to cover it (if they can find any decent commentators to replace especially knowledgeless Hemmings) and finally I think we ditch the video ref or at the very least scrap this stupid idea of the pitch refs view is try or no try. If he has a view wether try or not he should not be sending it to the videa ref in the pigging first place!!!

EEEEE isnt a rant int morning good for you!!!!!

I think the Wembley stadium has had its day and maybe it's time for a new venue.If you gave each club say 20,000 tickets and say 10,000 up for grabs to anyone else then you only need 50,000 stadium and there's lots of stadiums in the north that can be used.

Wembley is now second fiddle to grand final agree sack Wembley bring it up north it's had its day

It is time to face facts,Wembley is far too big a stadium for our sport joe,to so many empty seats was embarrassing for the sport.

fozzieskem wrote:It is time to face facts,Wembley is far too big a stadium for our sport joe,to so many empty seats was embarrassing for the sport.

Never thought I would agree with moving from Wembley but I do now.

In my day the Challenge Cup was the no 1 trophy behind the top 4 playoffs.
Now we have the Grand Final + Magic Weekend. So the Challenge Cup has been relegated to 3rd. Economics suggest that punters from the North will travel to the Grand Final, maybe Magic leaving Wembley a definite luxory.
I think I'm right that Spurs play there now?
Either way, if the RL want to preserve our heritage, they have to evaluate the Challenge Cup and raise it's profile urgently.

If it moves North where would it be played? Old Trafford already has the Grand Final.

Do we care about how full Wembley is for football games? They don't all sell out, including some England games and especially lower league finals.

We should remember that it's a great honour for the players to walk out at Wembley. We don't have our own national Rugby League stadium, so Wembley for us is the national stadium and I think it only further devalues the Challenge Cup if we move it from there.

The RFL should be seeking to emphasise it as a high calibre event rather than moving the game elsewhere. The only other realistic stadiums in the north don't sell out for Magic Weekend so what makes people think they will shift 50k+ seats for a Cup Final? And correct me if I'm wrong, but we never sold out any of the alternative venues when Wembley was getting rebuilt. OT has only been sold out for 1 GF I think and for the 2013 WC final. Playing it at a smaller stadium will not make the cup more appealing.

Maybe thinking about ticketing prices can help. And maybe selling the event more with associated activities will help. I didn't even know there was a fan park until I turned up, for example, and Josie pointed out there wasn't much big cross-promotion for the Friday night London Skolars game too, and I couldn't tell you where the champion schools finals were held.

markill wrote:Do we care about how full Wembley is for football games? They don't all sell out, including some England games and especially lower league finals.

We should remember that it's a great honour for the players to walk out at Wembley. We don't have our own national Rugby League stadium, so Wembley for us is the national stadium and I think it only further devalues the Challenge Cup if we move it from there.

The RFL should be seeking to emphasise it as a high calibre event rather than moving the game elsewhere. The only other realistic stadiums in the north don't sell out for Magic Weekend so what makes people think they will shift 50k+ seats for a Cup Final? And correct me if I'm wrong, but we never sold out any of the alternative venues when Wembley was getting rebuilt. OT has only been sold out for 1 GF I think and for the 2013 WC final. Playing it at a smaller stadium will not make the cup more appealing.

Maybe thinking about ticketing prices can help. And maybe selling the event more with associated activities will help. I didn't even know there was a fan park until I turned up, for example, and Josie pointed out there wasn't much big cross-promotion for the Friday night London Skolars game too, and I couldn't tell you where the champion schools finals were held.

We didn't know about the fan park either. My friends went off up Wembley Way looking for entertainment for our little girl who goes to all the games with us while I waited outside our gate number. Plus there wasn't enough seating & tables for the people on the outside concourse.

Also the original 'disabled' car park is now a building site so the allocated "disabled car park" I was on, was about half a mile or more (at least it felt like that) from where I was seated in the East stand. By the time I'd walked there, I thought at one point I was going to collapse as I couldn't breathe, especially with the humidity, I was just too exhausted to enjoy any pre final entertainment or the beginning of the game. It took me from going in at opening of the gates to part way through the first half before I felt any relief from my inhalers.

I only found out after, when I'd eventually got back to the car, that the people who were standing about with wheelchairs all over the place were there for people who were struggling to walk to the stadium!

Not once was I approached when I trundled past several groups of them did any of them ask if I needed any help or assistance. Again this wasn't advertised as being available by the RFL when I bought my disabled parking place, I had no idea what they were there for!

Did anyone on here know or use this facility?

In my view it was better when they had Clare Balding rather than 'Chappers'. And yes, the commentators are rubbish (so are Sky's, though) and Robbie Paul, good a player as he was, is very annoying.

And I agree with markill, moving from Wembley would be acquiescing to relegation to the second tier of national sports.

I don't think the public at large worry about, or probably even notice, a few empty seats on TV that some of us seem to agonise over.

I see both sides of this arguement

on the one hand a half or even 3/4 full wembley is not good for what is meant to be a showcase event, its a hard stadium to get atmosphere in anyway but when there are so many empty seats that makes it worse.

i agree though moving it from the stadium is an admission that we just arent a big sport.

Ive been to Old trafford 6-7 times now and that always seems to be a banging atmosphere and full house