Wembley faces thousands of empty seats
16/08/2007 |
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Thousands of seats are likely to be empty for the first Challenge Cup final at the new Wembley on Saturday week, even though the Rugby Football League is still wading through a long waiting list of supporters wanting tickets for the game between St Helens and Catalans Dragons.
The RFL had been hoping to buy then resell any unwanted tickets from the 14,400 Club Wembley members who are guaranteed seats for all major events at the stadium should they choose not to go to the final. However they have had no more luck than the Football League did in attempting to secure Club Wembley tickets for Derby County and West Bromwich Albion fans for the Championship play-off final, which means the attendance is likely to be nearer the 74,993 who watched that game than the 90,000 capacity.
St Helens sold their initial allocation of 10,000 in record time and expect to have the backing of well over 20,000 fans for their first Wembley appearance since 1997. Catalans expect to bring around 2,100 supporters, which has allowed the RFL to reduce its waiting list considerably. Even so, the last of the 72,500 tickets available to the general public are likely to be allocated today.
The RFL announced yesterday that Ashley Klein will referee the match, little more than three months since he was dropped from the Super League for a fortnight following the blunders that gave Leeds a controversial victory over Bradford in May.
Warrington's hopes of reaching a first Super League grand final suffered a blow yesterday when their wing Stuart Reardon was ruled out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. Leeds have also lost their prop Nick Scruton for the rest of the year with seven fractures in a hand.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
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