CC game in Barcelona

[ParraEelsNRL]

Translated badly.


http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.lindependant.com/actui/article.php%3Fnum%3D1178648392

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]That moves in Catalonia![/FONT]
​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Received by the president of Generalitat, in Palau de Pedralbes, the persons in charge for the Dragons and the European federation of Rugby with XIII posed the stakes of a future smiling in southern Catalonia.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The basic work carried out since more than one year by the leaders of the Dragons, bears its first fruits.

[/FONT][/FONT]After the creation of a Catalan university selection, committed this year in several tournaments organized by the Languedoc-Roussillon League, the Catalan association of Rugby to XIII comes to be born. Its president, Sergi Blasquez, influence business lawyer inhabitant of Barcelona, his vice-president, Liberto Lopez, former President de active Saint-Estève then directing of the XIII Catalan, recently pressed the mythical lawn of Nou Camp, with the invitation of the president of the association of the sections amateurs of the FC Barcelona, Josep Cubells. The vice-president of the FFR XIII, Christophe Jouffret, who represented for the occasion the International Federation, gave to him a shirt of the XIII of France, ensuring it that Board treizist chaired by Richard Lewis (in addition “chief executive” of Super League), saw of a favorable eye this new come on the international scene. While waiting for the official recognition of an association which would become federation then, and the creation of the first club (with Junquera?) of Rugby in XIII Catalan south, the President of the Catalan Parliament, M.H. Ernest Benach, and his Minister for the Sports, had invited to “Garden Party” of the Palate of Pedralbes, the President of the Catalans, Bernard Guasch, Enric Balaguer, representing the antenna perpignanaise of Generalitat, MM.Jouffret and Lopez. The occasion, for the latter, to tie invaluable contacts, before taking part in a meeting of work with Xavier Vinyals, president of the sporting platform of Generalitat, Xavier Channel and Ramon Pizjuan, respectively President and secretary general of the Catalan federation of Rugby with… XV, and accustomed this year to attend with matches of the Dragons, Brutus.
A quarter of “Cup”?
M.Vinyals proposed in particular in CH. Jouffret the organization in Barcelona of the next general assembly of the International Federation, in février2008. By then, Rugby with XIII will have perhaps struck a great blow, the town of Barcelona having held the Olympic stage of Montjuic for a possible quarterfinal of the Cut of England, on Saturday June 9. But still is needed that the Catalans eliminate Whitehaven at his place, next Sunday in eighth, and that then the drawing of lots indicates “blood and gold” like receiving club. If such were the case, president Guasch and his friends will have to decide if they cross the step, knowing that they would have a little less than one month to set up a demonstration of great width. All will also depend on the financial support which will be granted to them, but the possibility to see thousands of English supporters going to Barcelona, should not leave insensitive the municipality, whereas TV3 (perhaps the BBC, according to the rival of the Catalans) right now decided to retransmit the meeting on line. Which would take place with 21h, all the sporting installations inhabitants of Barcelona accomodating the same day the annual meetings between the various Catalan selections and their counterparts of good ten country, or areas autonomous. Several thousands of young sportsmen called, then, to furnish the platforms with the Olympic stage. One would have more soon.

H.G.​

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

I hope this happens and we see the Dragons spread the wings, it could be a massive coup for RL.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

If it happens the Catalans management need to do two things:

1. Encourage the Spanish spectators to come to Perpignan to see Les Catalans home games.

2. Recruit Spanish kids to join RL clubs in Barcelona and other parts of Spanish Catalonia. These clubs should be created and guided by Les Catalans and the RLEF. That will be demanding on limited Catalan and RLEF resources but it is a huge opportunity that cannot be missed.

 

[brendothejet]

good news!

I still think that the Challenge Cup is a massive vehicle for growth. The heritage and prestige combined with the development and expansion makes it a powerful tool.

Which other comp in the world can boast teams from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Russia along with over 100 years of competition?

 

[Ari Gold]

http://www.stadiumguide.com/montjuic.htm

That is the stadium they are looking at.

 

[thommo4pm]

Nice stadium, hope they can pull a crowd into it.

 

[ali]

Damn, damn, damn, play it 2 weeks later so i can go! I love Barcelona, brilliant place!

 

[brendothejet]

imagine that joint packed!!!!

UNrEAL!

 

[ali]

Yeah I've been there. It's the old Olympic stadium, can't say I ever imagine Rugby league would be played there. Lets hope they get over Whitehaven, and it goes ahead successfully.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

Yeah I've been there. It's the old Olympic stadium, can't say I ever imagine Rugby league would be played there. Lets hope they get over Whitehaven, and it goes ahead successfully.

They not only have to get over Whitehaven, which I am sure they will. They have to get drawn as the "home" team before they can elect to play in Barcelona.

Mind you, I don't think that the running track makes that stadium the best place to play rugby league. Plus a 56,000 seater is way too ambitious.

Were the next round to be played in Perpignan the best crowd they could dream of, against a top English club like Wigan or Leeds, would be 12,000-13,000 in Aime Giral. I am not sure how many of the Perpignan area and other French fans will travel to Barcelona. But even if all of the French fans travel, and 3,000 visiting English also go (which would be a record travelling number of English RL fans travelling to Europe) it would still require 15,000 Barcelonans and other Spanish Catalans to go as well, to make even a half full stadium and a decent atmosphere. I do not know what interest the Barcelona and other Spanish Catalan population would have in an unfamiliar game like rugby league, but a decent attendance by them would be based purely on the nationalist element.

However, while I think it is worth trying, --- especially if it is televised in Spain and M. Guasch can attract new long term sponsors from there --- I will be very pleasantly, very surprised if 15,000 Spaniards show up and create even a half full stadium for the match.

A 30,000-35,000 seat Barcelona area soccer stadium without a running track would have been much smarter from every perspective.

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

i agree, the first thing i thought when i saw the pic... was the running track, then the capacity of 50K. Too much IMO, a 25-30K stadium, purpose bulit for soccer would go well IMO.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/07/05/13/RUGBYL_Whitehaven_Quotes.html

DRAGONS CONSIDER STADIUM SWITCH

By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport Rugby League Correspondent




Catalans Dragons are set to take rugby league to Barcelona's Olympic Stadium if they land a home tie in the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The Dragons booked their place in the last eight for the second successive year when they overcame National League One club Whitehaven 24-14 in front of a passionate 3,000 crowd at the Recreation Ground.

Super League clubs will occupy all eight places in Tuesday's draw and Catalans chairman Bernard Guasch confirmed the club are considering switching the match on June 9 or 10 across the border into Spain if they are drawn at home.

Last year's wooden spoon winners are averaging crowds of 8,000 since their close-season move from the Aime Giral stadium they shared with Perpignan's rugby union club to their spiritual home of Stade Gilbert Brutus, and they see an opportunity to cash in on the extra interest.

"Gilbert Brutus is little," said Guasch. "It holds 8,000 or 9,000 people.
"At the Olympic Stadium, there is the possibility of more people, as well as things like marketing and media. For French Catalan, rugby league is very important in Barcelona."
If it comes off, the tie will be played at the Olympic Stadium almost 14 years to the day since Barcelona staged its first rugby league match.

A crowd of around 10,000 watched Huddersfield beat XIII Catalan - the forerunner of the present club - in June 1993 in a match billed grandly as the European Cup final.
Dragons captain Stacey Jones has given his backing to the idea. "I heard someone whispering about that," he said. "It would be fantastic for the game.

"We're Catalans Dragons and that's the Catalan area so it would be a fantastic opportunity to take the game there and try to promote it."
Catalans secured their passage with a patchy performance against their gallant part-time opponents, who dominated the match for long periods.

Coach Mick Potter admitted "We made far too many errors and the score reflected the game. They scored some tries off kicks and made a game of it so the crowd enjoyed it.
"I'm happy to get in the next round, but if we play like that next time, with our ball control, we'll get beat by plenty. We can't do that against teams left in the competition."

Whitehaven trailed just 6-4 until conceding crucial tries either side of half-time but a late rally brought tries to three-quarters Rob Jackson and Steve Maden, delighting coach Dave Rotheram.

"I'm very proud of my players and very pleased with the effort they put in. They worked hard all week and showed lots of character today as well as effort and commitment. They were as enthusiastic in the last minute as they were in the first," he said.

"The French have a big physical pack and our boys stood toe to toe with them. It seems the tougher the opposition, the better Whitehaven play.

"It has been a good day all round. There was a fantastic crowd and none of them went home early.

"We came up a bit short but it has given our players the confidence to move on to the rest of year. We will learn a lot from today."

Lets hope they do some good promotion if they decide to take this game away from it's heartland.

I'd love to see the Spanish side of Catalans get into the game.

 

[langpark]

I think if Les Cats plan to play this match in Barca and then just leave then it's a waste of time and they shouldn't even bother. This match needs to be followed up with some sort of Rugby League development in Barca, put a few teams in place at least. If not, then what's the point?

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

I read somewhere a while back people trying to set up clubs in Spain, this could be the needed jolt to help them along.

 

[roughyedspud]

i agree, the first thing i thought when i saw the pic... was the running track, then the capacity of 50K. Too much IMO, a 25-30K stadium, purpose bulit for soccer would go well IMO.

my sentiments exactly....the olympic stadium is too large...catalan would be far better off playing the game @ the mini estadi, barcelona's 16,500 capacity reserve stadium

a 10,000+ crowd would look far better in there than them rattling around in a 55,000 capacity stadium like the olympic stadium....

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

That would be an awesome stadium for the dragons to play in.

Could come in handy in a few years time for a spanish RL club.

 

[roughyedspud]

or if catalan want to try other towns in catalonia,and theres no reason why they should given there name..then what about a town called lleida, in northwest catalonia and twinned with Perpignan,or it was?

they have a very nice stadium aswell..

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Good stuff, the more options the better.

 

[AlbertRosenfeld]

Unfortunately there will be no home game in Barcelona. Les Catalans was drawn away to Hull FC. At least they got the weakest possible opponent.


Here is the draw, home team first:

Quarter-final draw


Wigan v Harlequins

St Helens v Warrington


Hull FC v Catalans Dragons

Bradford v Huddersfield .

 

[Coastbloke]

So what if Catalans beat Hull FC.....??