CHALLENGE Cup semi-finals should sell themselves – after all, it is do-or-die football between four evenly matched sides with a place at the national stadium to play for the game’s most historic prize up for grabs.

In the 70s and 80s the battle cry that used to go up around town, when Saints were 80 minutes from walking up Wembley Way, used to encourage even the most infrequent visitors to climb aboard.

Sure, they used to get called ‘bandwagon jumpers’, but who cares – they were backing their town team and doing their bit to push them to Wembley.

Without a doubt cup semis have become something of a bug-bear in recent years – where to play them, how to price them and now we have got, for the first time, Friday nights thrown into the mix there is also of the issue of when.

There has definitely been a shift away from building semis into big events, and maybe that has to do with its close proximity to the final itself.

In fact, to throw another one in, the semi finals are now in that time slot in the season that comes after the big push on selling Magic and before the even bigger one in getting people to fill Wembley.

Some years you get the impression that the only ambition is to get the games played without losing any money and making sure there are as few empty seats as possible facing the BBC cameras.

That’s such a far cry from 1990 when more than 26,000 filed into Old Trafford to watch Les Quirk race the length of the pitch for a classic try and then see Wigan pinch it with a Hanley–Goodway forward pass try.

Challenge Cup semis are big events, not simply because of what is at stake, but combatants follow in some illustrious footsteps and do their own built to add to the rich tapestry of this historic, and should be built as such.

Now I can see the problem facing the governing body – but some it is self inflicted due to the congested scheduling. Buying Wembley tickets, booking coaches and hotels is a costly business and so I can see why some fans keep their money in their pockets and watch semi on television – and then join the front of the queue the following day when cup final tickets go on sale.

It is a minor thing, but maybe those with stubs from the quarters and semis should get some kind of reward, financial or in the shape of a priority voucher.

But that is just minor tinkering.

The cup, for me, needs to shifted away from the summer slot, away from kids school holidays and brought forward to the start of the season – going back to a May finale.

And secondly, venue wise, rather than seek out the smallest stadia that require the most minimal of selling to avoid the curse of orange seats, why not do something radical.

What about turning the semi into a super Saturday double-header? It would cut down on overheads, dispense with the need to play one each side of the Pennines, it would add to the atmosphere, encourage more neutrals to attend and give both sets of fans from the winning teams an equal crack at booking trains and hotels for London.

The Challenge Cup is a real crown jewel of rugby league, but sometimes it just needs that extra bit of care and polish to keep it gleaming.