North London Calling?

This year's Challenge Cup Final was relocated from Wembley Stadium to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A distance of just 12 miles across North London, but it gave the event a very different feel to usual.

When the final returned to the 'new' Wembley Stadium in 2007, there was a feeling of excitement, with over 84,000 fans attending the first Challenge Cup Final between Catalans and St Helens. In 2010, the crowd had increased to 85,000. Since then, the crowd dropped into the 70,000's, then the 60,000's and more recently, the 50,000's.

And this cannot simply be blamed on clubs with poor followings making the final. Hull FC v Wigan in 2017 had a sub 70,000 crowd, Warrington v St Helens in 2019 barely scraped over 60,000 (and that with the boost of more Championship fans attending for the 1895 Cup Final). 

There was always a suspicion that crowd figures were inflated in the early 'new' Wembley days due to the fact that Club Wembley seats were sold to members, but often unoccupied. The BBC's Rugby League correspondent, Dave Woods, referred to this eruditely as the 'ring of indifference', with a largely unoccupied Club Wembley middle tier, flanked with more full lower and upper tiers.

What cannot be denied is that the empty seats have increased as years have passed. That ring of indifference turned into a ring of much the same (not as catchy, I know). We had the unedifying sight of having the majority of the upper tier closed, as the Challenge Cup Final has contracted, with many concluding that Wembley is now too big for us.

Tottenham

As the final returned to its traditional May spot, we were unable to use Wembley this year due to the football play off finals. Instead, we moved to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium widely considered as one of the best stadiums in the country.

On TV, it looked far better. The stadium looked more full, yet the occasion still looked large-scale and spectacular. On the other hand, the crowd contracted further, with a little over 50,000 in attendance. 

There are two ways of looking at this. Tottenham is a better fit. When sides with smaller followings (like Huddersfield) make the final, the stadium still looks full. It's not out of the question to suggest that when clubs with larger following make the final, the 62,000 capacity will be reached.

The other is that we should have ambitions to fill Wembley and the more we go to smaller venues, the lower the crowds will get. Many blame the Magic Weekend for the reduction in Cup Final crowds, but we have had the Magic Weekend since 2007 and still managed to attract good crowds in the early days of the new Wembley.

The New Country?

Maybe the lure of London has now gone to northerners? In decades and generations gone by, having been to London was almost seen as a status symbol, a special occasion. Now, you can get on a train from Wigan and reach London Euston in two hours. Improved connectivity has brought us closer together. The Challenge Cup Final is no longer 'the big day out', that it once was.

In those days, average attendances were lower than they are now for league fixtures, but Cup Final crowds were higher. Arguably, it is more profitable for the game to have the reverse to be true (as we do now). What this does highlight is need to embrace new audiences and not simply rely on the same spectators.

We ask a small group of fans to buy season tickets, go to the Magic Weekend, travel to France for away fixtures, go the Challenge Cup Final, go to the Grand Final, go to the Summer Bash and attend international fixtures. Events are great and necessary to grow our profile. But when asking the same small group to attend all of them, you spread attendees more thinly.

The Future?

We have a contract for Wembley to host the Challenge Cup Final until 2027. But as that year gets ever closer, we have questions to ask. 

Is the Wembley Cup Final now antiquated? Should we move the final around the country, to keep it feeling fresh, but also as a 'big day out'? Is a smaller capacity but higher occupancy better? Or, should we maintain our ambition and tradition and do more to sell out a 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium? 

These are questions that we already had to answer in time, but Saturday's impressive occasion at Tottenham has simply brought these into sharper focus.