By Chris Lord
May 14 2007

WIth Challenge Cup attendances on the decline year by year we ask what can be done to help stop the trend of empty grounds for the cup matches but full houses for the league fixtures. Prehaps give home advantage to National League clubs or reduce the prices for tickets even further.

Why are the attendances so low?

Rugby League fans once again failed to support there clubs following shocking fifth round attendances in the Carnegie Challenge Cup. The total attendances for the eight fifth round matches was 31574 which ment an average of 3946 at each of the matches. Out of these eight matches 3 of the them were all Super League matches. Leeds against Wigan attracted the biggest crowd of the round with 9,612 in attendance even with a healthy following from Wigan, but compair that the Super League encounter on the same ground when over 16,000 turned up just over 4 weeks ago, you have to ask yourselves where have the 7,000 fans gone.

Meanwhile Salford against Huddersfield Giants, last years runners up attracted the second lowest crowd (Oldham v Quins was the lowest with 559 but that game was played at neutral venue) of the weekend with only 2,694 fans turning up to see two Super League sides battle it out for a place in the quater finals and edge closer to a place at Wembley.

Warrington Wolves against Barrow attracted 4,184 which included around 900 away supporters. Wolves officials reduced ticket prices inorder to try and attract a decent crowd. Had they not reduced the prices i wonder what the attandance would have been?

Its not just Rugby League that have this problem it also is the case in Football with many of the top premiership clubs failing to attract full-houses for the League Cup matches. This has been the case for many years now and clubs even reduced to tickets but still fans fail to turn up.

Many supporters of Super League clubs have stated that it is to much to ask Rugby League fans to spend even more money a week after the Millenium Magic weekend in Cardiff. They have also stated that it to expensive to go to cup matches after you have paid for the away trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons, with some clubs travelling twice.

One thing is for sure, the RFL need to sort something out before the attendances in the Challenge cup drop even further. One thing the RFL could consider is all National League teams play there fixture against Super League teams at home, which could mean an increase in attendance and a chance for National League fans to see the Super League stars on their pitch. I am sure it would sound and look better if we had a crowd of 4,000 at Rochdale or Barrow rather then 3,000 at St. Helens and Wakefield.