A number of Betfred Championship teams announced record crowds this weekend when they welcomed Super League clubs for Betfred Challenge Cup Third Round ties.
Workington Town recorded an attendance of 4,169 for their game against St Helens – a huge increase on last season's average of 1,562.
Rochdale Hornets confirmed their highest attendance since 1998, with 4,248 fans at the Crown Oil Arena for Wigan Warriors’ visit. The home crowd embraced every moment of their first Cup tie against the record 21-time Challenge Cup winners since 1991.
More than 4,000 fans took to Craven Park on Friday night when Lock Lane faced current Cup holders Hull KR. The Castleford-based amateurs were fighting for survival in the Premier Division of the National Conference League last season but enjoyed every aspect of their clash against the 2025 treble winners. Doncaster RLFC (2,537) and North Wales Crusaders (1,899) both reported their all-time highest Challenge Cup attendance when they hosted Castleford Tigers and Leigh Leopards respectively on Saturday, and Swinton Lions continued the trend on Sunday as they announced their highest Challenge Cup attendance since 2017.
An audience of over 250,000 enjoyed the on-field action over the weekend, with BBC Sport showing London Broncos take on one of Super League’s newest entrants, in the Bradford Bulls, and the Sportsman showing Friday’s night match between Workington Town and 13-time Challenge Cup winner’s St Helens, and on Saturday Widnes Vikings versus Leeds Rhinos where a Riley Lumb solo try with 15 minutes to go helped the visitors finally break the resolve of the Championship side and progress to the competition’s next stage.
Across the Betfred Challenge Cup social media channels there was a 46% increase in engagements vs Round 3 last year, with Nick Cotric’s try in under 10 seconds for Catalans Dragons against Batley Bulldogs pulling in over 400k video views across all platforms.
The draw for the fourth round will take place tonight (9 Feb) at 6.40pm live on BBC Radio Manchester conducted by 2006 Challenge Cup winner Jon Wilkin and former England international Kevin Brown.
Listeners can choose one of the following options to hear the draw:
- 95.1 FM, 104.6 FM
- DAB radio
- BBC Radio Manchester online
- BBC Sounds app
- FM radio 95.1 or 104.6
