Disappointing

[Pommy]

There are a lot of lessons the game could take from the Wolfpack experience of the last 3 years.
Unfortunately, we will almost certainly take the wrong ones.

The key one, I think, is the power of good marketing. None of the faults of TWP can take away from the fact that they consistently drew 7000+ fans to watch Rugby League in a city that wasn't Brisbane, Sydney, or Yorkshire.

It doesn't take millions in cash to do this.
A well located venue, a few hundred $ on social media campaigns, some interviews in local media to talk up the game.
Get a couple of food trucks, a local brewery, a DJ or band to the game for a bit of buzz and atmosphere.

For me the biggest issue to getting crowds in the home nations is people don’t want to watch a team of foreigners running out for them.
Being of mixed Scottish, English, Welsh heritage just doesn’t hold the same weight as it does for the island nations. People just see a team of Englishmen singing flower of Scotland and they’re not going to get behind that, to be honest I’m pretty surprised how adamant deluded Pom is that he’s welsh.
Plenty of people were critical of the ECB for having Jofra archer (British citizen at birth) Ben Stokes (resident since 11), Jason Roy (resident since 10) playing and winning a World Cup for England.
I don’t see the home nations getting good crowds until they get a good number of home grown talent in the super league.

 

[adamkungl]

For me the biggest issue to getting crowds in the home nations is people don’t want to watch a team of foreigners running out for them.

I'm sure there's a ceiling on what can be achieved with the limited grassroots of the game in Scotland and Ireland, but I'm also sure that it's higher than 250 people showing up to a World Cup qualifier.

Rugby League needs to sell itself. Quality, professional presentation. Many in the game seem to think it deserve's attention because "its a better game than Union" without actually investing in the promotion to let the world know that.

People fight over whether top-down or grassroots is the right path to developing the sport (see: Euro XIIIs as a more recent example) but the answer is obviously both.
A professional international scene would encourage grassroots pickup, and grassroots participation will encourage more attention on the top level.
Or from another angle - grassroots isn't going to grow significantly in Scotland without a high level team to look up to, and professional RL in Scotland isn't going to grow without grassroots players and fans feeding into it.

So the first step, control what can be controlled. The game's leaders can't magically buy grassroots participation, but they can buy a professional presentation and broadcast.