The Challenge Cup is a lame duck. That’s the only conclusion to be reached after the staggeringly low attendance for the Fourth Round fixtures.
Even the all-Super League tie between Warrington and Hull KR drew a pitiful attendance of only 4,523; less than a half of the figure that attended the Round 5 Super League encounter between the same two teams just a fortnight earlier.
And the two tasty derby clashes Bradford vs. Castleford and Widnes vs. Wigan struggled to top the six thousand mark.
With some might taterings dished out to the minnows maybe the whole thing needs a rethink.
Don’t forget the casual TV viewer with no Sky dish will have looked at those game on the back of repeated claims of how the game has ‘grown’ in the Super League era.
Their thoughts? Well maybe something like this …
“OK? I see no Halifax, no Featherstone and no flat caps. But apart from trading empty expanses of broken grey concrete terracing for ranks of empty red and blue plastic seating – what’s changed? Same old dying game. With no wrestling chaser to wash it down”.
Certainly the RFL cannot afford a repeat of this scenario in coming seasons if they are to continue to attract top tier blue-chip sponsors like … well … Leeds Carnegie University for example?!
A seeded draw might eliminate the lop-sided scores but would detract from the romance of the competition. And the more competitive ties may attract better crowds. But it’d be a close call.
Another option might be to seed the top-eight Super League teams and have them only join the competition in round five, with each SL team getting a home tie against one of the Round 4 survivors.
Another might be to go for a Millennium Magic style concept concentrating multiple games at attractive venues.
Combining the latter two options and getting TV involved only from Round 5 might be a viable way forward.
Eight games split between, say, Murrayfield and Cardiff spread over one weekend. With the quarterfinals similarly concentrated as four games one venue one weekend and the semis as a Sunday double header at Old Trafford.
A simpler option?
Let season ticket holders in free for televised games … clubs and the league should consider a TV slot on BBC as free advertising and a chance to sell their Matchday experience to a whole new non-Sky audience … consider it an investment and let the marketing budget take a hit …
Would any of those options work?
Who knows … But the alternative is to surrender to the butt-squirming 70′s flashback embarrassment we endured this weekend.
BTW … was that Scully’s old school sweater … ?
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