I spoke about the dying depth in NZ league a couple of years back. With the rise of basketball and futsal numbers, as well as playstation (which pops up on sky sport as a sport) a lot of kids are looking to those rather than the full contact rigors of rugby league.
It's good people are finally talking about this. It's a real concern for NZ rugby league.
good points. And probably coincides with the much increased availability of American sports where people can see games on tv or stream them on their phones or tablets.
Kiwi kids role models nowadays are just as likely to be Steven Adams or Stephen Curry or Lionel Messi, than an Allblack or an NRL star like Shaun Johnson. My own son was an avid basketball player in highschool and his idols were Lebron James etc. Those Basketball shirts arent cheap either lol.
As a side note I've been following league since i can remember but after marrying an American citizen ( she had lived in NZ for 17 years (kiwi dad) when i met her so considered a yankiwi lol) I became invested in American sports particularly NFL and NBA. Havent got enough time to follow NHL and MLB.
With my inlaws in the Bay Area my teams became Golden State Warriors (endured some hard times before they finally came good again and 49ers who are struggling at the moment).
I find that the NFL in particular does things really well. Shortish season of 17 regular games plus playoffs and superbowl. If you are into fantasy football, this is an ideal number of games to get a bunch of people committed to a league. NBA is 82 games which is not so friendly.
Then in the offseason, theres still a lot of things going on, with the Free Agency season, followed by Combines for Draftees, then finally the NFL draft itself. Huge event. All the bad teams have a chance to get elite talent from the college systems cause they get to pick first so if you support the 49ers (like me) who are the 2 pick this year, you have your fingers crossed you will get a player that will really help your team get better.
Plus theres always trades going on between teams to swap draft positions. Can be very intriguing. Same with the NBA.
Its big business so players come and go from teams much like the NRL but way more ruthless.
