No GF At OT And Probably no WCC Either.

"The working party are thought to be focusing on a northern football ground"

Why? If it is being played behind closed doors then the ground of any Super League team not actively involved in the Grand Final could, in theory, be used (apart from Wakefield or Castleford's as they are a dump). Even if you only focus on the large stadiums belonging to the "big" clubs, St Helens, Warrington and Leeds can't all be involved in the GF so use the stadium of one of the clubs that isn't involved. Hull/Wigan/Huddersfield all might have clashes with football games, but even the AJ Bell could be used as I think the RU season is over so no clash with a Sale game.

You can argue that a football ground makes it "impartial" but surely SL would only be paying the costs for that club (Lighting, groundsmen, ballboys, a handful of stewards, etc.) so that club itself wouldn't be making anything from hosting the final as a one-off. Also, in the current climate, it makes sense to me to be putting the money from those costs in to the pockets of people who work in our sport rather than in the pockets of people who work in a different sport, plus a wedge of money to the football club itself for the "honour" of hosting our Grand Final.

Just this once ,lets take it at face value.
They’re trying to make it special.
Fartown or the Etihad,Manchester. Which is the more special.
If they fail to reach agreement,OK,but FFS give them the benefit

Sorry I cant see why an empty football stadium is special
Hull have a big footy stadium as do Huddersfield and when matches played there with few people there or empty doesn't seem special to me.
Wembley is probably special, just because of the long tradition but no football ground has that tradition.
We can't keep saying RL has no money then pay big bucks for empty football stadia, surely.

So we pay major amounts of funds, of which apparently the RL might have to borrow off the Gov, in order to play in some empty football stadium but not Fartown or Hull because they've played there before and not the traditional place Old Trafford because it's not convenient?

So the Grand aspect is a big empty football stadium where we've never played before costing big bucks, which the RL doesn't have, and the players and tv audience will appreciate, even though there are big RL venues which are slightly less Grand but won't cost anywhere near as much?

I understand, seems a totally sensible thing to me now.

In any other year you would be right and having the game in a huge stadium full of fans does make it a spectacle. But an empty SL ground and an empty Old Trafford, Ethiad or Reebok stadium are exactly the same when we are all watching it on TV with fake crowd noises and empty stands, but it would cost SL more money when money in the sport is tight.

Grand Final goes to Hell !!


www.superleague.co.uk/article/1654/kcom-stadium-to-host-grand-final-

Hell (If it existed) Hull No difference.