Less than 20,000 sold for Cup Semi Triple Header it seems

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, RL Sonja said:

Ok we can move on then… 

Oh the irony from a poster quoting semi finals from 80 years ago as evidence

[gingerjon]

24 minutes ago, RL Sonja said:

That’s the question I just asked! 

And have no answer for because - and this is the important bit - the 1939 Challenge Cup semi final is laughably irrelevant.

[Mattrhino]

10 hours ago, yipyee said:

This is not taking the mick here but Leigh should have hosted Saints vs Wigan semi or Warrington at a push. A sell out of a smaller venue makes people feel like they are missing out. Tickets being sold out before they go on general release increases future ticket sales. This was very much the case for grand finals when OT was only 65 thousand capacity.

Ellend Road is just a sad play by the Yorkshire central/biased rfl 

Hull kr vs Huddersfield at fetherstone or Cas.

Womens final at Halifax.

 

Are you on the wind up? Leigh is used all the blumin time. And that trick about putting the crowd into a smaller stadium never works. You just end up with a smaller crowd period because nobody thinks going to a small stadium in Leigh for a semi final is an Event.

[RL Sonja]

You two boys keep going with it. I’ve moved on. 

[Tommygilf]

What's with the corners?

[Mattrhino]

9 hours ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

I’ve never understood why the RFL seem to think an event means ‘more games’. Who wants to sit thru 3 matches, surely none but the most ardent of fans?

An event is about more than the game itself. I can see some logic in the semis being a double header if it really had much more surrounding it than just the games, but I don’t know that this does. And the womens game … I guess doing that as well secures the National coverage, but does feel a bit overkill.

6 hrs in a cramped stadium with poor/Expensive food and drink options. And that's not a slight on Elland Rd in particular. I couldn't think of any stadium bar maybe Wembley where I could comfortably spend 4-6 hrs in.

[Tommygilf]

Maybe, just maybe, the Cup isn't that popular...

[Damien]

31 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

So, assuming it is completely and totally relevant, what can we learn from the semi finals of 1939 that would ensure that next year's semi finals don't mirror the failure of this year's?

I'm just waiting for the suggestion of a 1939 retro semi final, with retro kits, no TV, mobile phones or internet and the banning of many other modern forms of entertainment. We could even play it at Odsal or Belle Vue to recreate that 1939 charm. It worked once, surely it would work again.

[RL Sonja]

At least you know where they were played in those years now, Damien. You’ve learned something. No charge. 

[RL Sonja]

12 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

And have no answer for because - and this is the important bit - the 1939 Challenge Cup semi final is laughably irrelevant.

I’m not going to answer the same question I posed, genius.

[Tommygilf]

Just now, RL Sonja said:

At least you know where they were played in those years now, Damien. You’ve learned something. No charge. 

The point is about equivalence, surely you aren't too stubborn to see that?

[Dave T]

11 hours ago, Damien said:

I agree. Double headers or triple headers in this case have to be big, glitzy affairs if they are to have a place. If they do not create something bigger and better than their individual parts then I don't think they have a place.

I do acknowledge that I am perhaps more sceptical than most about their place but I am not convinced that many people actually want to sit there for 4 or 6 hours of RL. This is particularly so at an old ground like Elland Road.

I try not to be to critical of the RFL/SLE for the sake of it, but if yiu are going to try and create a new event, then do it properly. They have just rented a substandard ground and arranged 3 matches. 

I'm not sure whether semis are the right games for this type of event. If you win, you're off to celebrate, and if you lose you have no desire to hang around watching another match. Semi finals are the most difficult games to lose. 

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, RL Sonja said:

I’m not going to answer the same question I posed, genius.

Clearly

[gingerjon]

11 minutes ago, Damien said:

I'm just waiting for the suggestion of a 1939 retro semi final, with retro kits, no TV, mobile phones or internet and the banning of many other modern forms of entertainment. We could even play it at Odsal or Belle Vue to recreate that 1939 charm. It worked once, surely it would work again.

I think the key thing is we need the looming threat of a European war against fascist aggression.

Who knew Putin was an RL fan?

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, RL Sonja said:

At least you know where they were played in those years now, Damien. You’ve learned something. No charge. 

I've already said you were right and I was wrong. You also said you've moved on. Again though you seem stuck in the past.

Just to correct you though. I actually did know already. It's no secret that RL got huge crowds, particularly in the post war years as all sports did. It's just not relevant to today's discussion, hence why no body bothers to bring it up as they could on every thread.

[Tommygilf]

6 minutes ago, Damien said:

I've already said you were right and I was wrong. You also said you've moved on. Again though you seem stuck in the past.

Just to correct you though. I actually did know already. It's no secret that RL got huge crowds, particularly in the post war years as all sports did. It's just not relevant to today's discussion, hence why no body bothers to bring it up as they could on every thread.

The moaning about the decline in the Rhinos and Wigan crowd averages would go through the roof!

[RL Sonja]

21 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

The point is about equivalence, surely you aren't too stubborn to see that?

I think you missed what occurred.

I said the very game in question has had up to 65,000 spectators. I said it was sad we don’t get this now. 

Damien said there was no such crowd. Gingerjon liked his post.

Since then they have rallied around to say I ascribed something to the figure, when in fact I didn’t. I merely stated it.

[Damien]

8 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I try not to be to critical of the RFL/SLE for the sake of it, but if yiu are going to try and create a new event, then do it properly. They have just rented a substandard ground and arranged 3 matches. 

I'm not sure whether semis are the right games for this type of event. If you win, you're off to celebrate, and if you lose you have no desire to hang around watching another match. Semi finals are the most difficult games to lose. 

I think someone mentioned a good point before. Are neutrals interested in attending semi finals? On the whole I think not. Certainly not as they may attend a SL final or Challenge Cup final. So your target audience should be the fans of the teams involved and you should be looking to maximise those.

As I have already said I don't think many RL fans want to sit there for 4 or 6 hours anyway and I don't think neutrals are really attracted to a semi final as an event (as either a single event or double header). As such I think the logic of trying this approach (presuming the approach is to create an event to attract more neutrals) is flawed from the off. Save that for finals and internationals, if we ever get going with arranging them.

I don't think there is any shame in realising we can't get huge crowds for semi finals. There is no shame in trying to maximise fans for individual semi finals when we know them based on the clubs that get there. For Saints v Wigan at Warrington or Bolton if we want to be ambitious. Likewise Huddersfield v Hull KR at Headingley or somewhere like Doncaster.

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, RL Sonja said:

I think you missed what occurred.

I said the very game in question has had up to 65,000 spectators. I said it was sad we don’t get this now. 

Damien said there was no such crowd. Gingerjon liked his post.

Since then they have rallied around to say I ascribed something to the figure, when in fact I didn’t. I merely stated it.

Tbf you did state that the RFL had "denigrated" the competition to fall from that level for this stage; that suggested to me at least that you considered there to be an equivalence.

I would posit that there is no real point for equivalence given that more people watch now than then, just fewer in person. Realistically you can only go so far back to get a society and sport that resembles a reasonable comparison with any merit. 

[RL Sonja]

Degenerated not denigrated. 

[Damien]

14 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

The moaning about the decline in the Rhinos and Wigan crowd averages would go through the roof!

To be honest in discussions with Sir Kev I am always dying to cite Leeds crowds declining from a high of 40,175 in 1947. I do hold back though because I know someone would throw back Wigans decline from 47,747 v Saints 60 odd years ago. Geez, it's worse than we thought.

[RL Sonja]

I don’t see how you can describe it as anything else if an event capable of attracting nearly 70,000 in its own right is now a triple header with potentially 20,000 attending… 

[Mumby Magic]

It's the RFL approach. Put on an occasion and the fans will come, like all the others. Little to no marketing, no incentives.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, Scubby said:

Got to say I'm pretty disappointed with that figure - sign of the times perhaps?

 

 

If Wigan v Saints was at Bolton that would get close to 20K alone, play the HKR v Huddersfield at Headingley, and tag the Ladies on at either one of those.

[sentoffagain2]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

Maybe, just maybe, the Cup isn't that popular...

  It was before SKY bought the game.