You're talking rubbish. You can't just blame another sport for everything bad that happens to league.
League has trouble in many countries due to Union, but it is nowhere near league's biggest problem. Even in the worst example, Vichy France, league came back and became super popular in the 50s. Why didn't they go on with it? Our leadership is rubbish that's why.
The discrimination against RL in England and such actually helped us, as players who defected from union were then blacklisted and had to stay in League. Again, we failed to capitalise as the professional sport and Union dominated once they became pro.
In most other places Union beat us to the punch and like most sports we struggle to gain a foothold. But our leaders aren't helping. They rarely give a shit about anything outside their own backyard, literally. I know firsthand what apathetic admins can do to sports. I am one myself now, and the amount of bullshit we deal with from higher-ups while we are trying to grow the game is astonishing.
In most cases Union hasn't even had the opportunity to affect league's growth, because they just do their own thing and aren't bothered by us. If we actually pushed to grow the game and Union retaliated then you would have a point, but our administrators don't even get to that stage. If it's not the NRL or ESL or going to directly benefit the NRL or ESL they don't give a shit. We are even going backwards in NZ because all we care about is the NRL.
