taste2taste said:
OK so im in London for work (out from OZ) so its not the best place to be a league fan, im not sure how popular League is up north but i still havnt seen any coverage in the press here.
That's the main problem - League is massively popular in the North but doesn't get anywhere near the media coverage it deserves. It's very slowly improving I think, but the only way to gain proper recognition is to develop the game country-wide. Which is happening rapidly through the amatuer scene. You have to remember that there wasn't even a club in London 20 years ago, and since then they have done nothing but bounce around an area the size of Yorkshire, so have failed to attract a proper fan base. In the future, I would hope there would be a fair number of Super League teams in London but the one thing they must be is built from the bottom up rather than fast-tracked in, which is obviously going to take some time. On the other side of the coin, for the first time we are seeing London juniors in the Harlequins Super League team. London is now the third biggest area in the country for junior participation, and hopefully some of these kids will become league enthusiasts and help to develop the game. While it may be a culture shock for you being from an area where league is the dominant sport, in England it's very much a case of slow, steady building.
Firstly League has to do something to counter the 6 nations. Sold out stadiums to watch penalty goal kicks and blokes spending 5 minutes trying to pack a scrum correctly. League is a far superior product and needs to start selling the game. Im no advertising genius or am i a development officer but something needs to be done before our great game gets eclipsed by the slow moving, hands on hips spectacle that is rugby.
Like what?
With the media coverage and hype Union gets, there's no wonder they sell out Twickenham. This is because traditionally RL has been the working class game, whereas Union has been played by the public school snobs who have then gone on to control the media. At domestic level, League is just as popular if not more so than Union, the only thing seperating the codes is the international game, which admittedly Union is about 20 years ahead in. You've come at a bad time really - for the majority of the year, nobody gives a shi+ about Union, but the British mentality is of supporting the national team, whether it's bowls, badminton or Rugby Union. To put it into context, when the World Cup comes around
everyone in the country is a football fan, even people who have never attended any games and don't know any teams other than Chelsea and Man United. Ditto cricket. Equally, when Leeds beat Melbourne, while not a proper international game it was the lead story on BBC Sport and gained masses of publicity. These international games steal all the coverage, and with no real international competition in League there is no way we can compete media wise with these other sports. Hence the inclusion of the Catalans.
Secondly i really believe the Super league should be expanding, i wrote a crazy post a few weeks back about this, but what i was trying to say is the best way to expand the game, and without loosing tons of money is to put teams in city's that have big populations and a hunger for sport. I know the SL is the english domestic comp and its not its job to expand the game but it would benefit them in the long run if the game starting to gain a following in other countries.
Super League needs to concentrate in expanding the game throughout Britain first and foremost. I agree fully that a strong international game is a must to compete, however your post about a 'world super league' was absolute pie-in-the-sky garbage. It's a fine balance in the UK, because too many foreign teams would turn the league into a farce - I've already had a few casual supporters ask me why Catalans are in the English league. The UK is very city-orientated, rather than region which is why the initial Super League proposals in 96 with all the talk of mergers and 'European Super League' etc was a massive failure and still makes me cringe. As I put in the other thread, international development at grassroots level needs to continue for a long time before we consider putting teams from any other countries into the Super League, and ideally then there would be no more than two foreign teams in a 15/16 team league. We're talking very long-term here.
Your argument about putting teams into cities is not valid, because sadly these cities don't exist. There are plenty of heartland cities in the North, but fast-tracking teams into Super League from other cities would be absolute suicide and would send the RFL into bankruptcy once again. The grassroots development is ongoing, but there is absolutely nowhere in the UK anywhere near to being ready for a SL team. Even a semi-pro National League team woud probably not be a success, as has been shown in Blackpool. RL in the UK is a funny one, in so much that you can be in somewhere like Wigan or a village in the middle of nowhere such as Keighley where all you can see is League, and then you can jump in the car and drive for 10 minutes and there's no rugby at all to be found. RL does not have any sort of consistent national market, and while there's thousands of casual fans around the country (over half the Super League viewers on Sky come from the South), there's no sustained presence to develop with in any one area at the moment. It is being built up, but slowly.
Lastly small things make a huge difference.
Super League must do a deal with one of the free networks and get the games seen by a large national audience. Having the game tucked away on Sky isnt going to bring in any new fans. also
We can't make a deal with a free network because none of them would be willing to pay anywhere near the amount Sky is, an amount which is needed to keep the game alive and full-time. To be honest, I don't think there's any domestic sport shown on FTA television anymore because of the money Sky and Setanta are willing to pour into sports. The sport on FTA television is almost exclusively international competition, which we haven't really got as I explained earlier in my post.
The SL has to stop top players switching codes. This is seen by the general sports fan as "leaguies are always switching to rugby so rugby must be better" What about we sign one of their elite players. Thats the only way rugby gets any press in Australia, when their chasing our players. also
No top players have switched codes since Iestyn Harris in 2001.
What about an advertising campaign "faster, stronger...better" something like that, a subtle dig at rugby. A tv ad a few billboards let people know that league does exist.
What would be the point in promoting League in an area with no team? That would be like going to Darwin or somewhere and sticking up posters for League, only even more ridiculous than that because RL is heaps more popular in Aus than it is here. Plus, a billboard campaign and adverts on mainstream TV would cost the RFL an absolute bomb. You have to remember that Rugby League in this country was is massive debt a few years ago, we haven't got the money to be wasting on a billboard campagin in London or anywhere else. Besides, if it was as easy as a poster campaign I think it would probably have been done by now. Everyone knowns League exists, they just don't really know what it is, and are not likely to until we get internationals on FTA television and thus media coverage. There are 'casual' league fans all over, probably about 1 in every 5 or 10 people nationwide.
That's partly why I'm so outraged by the World Cup format, because what may seem a good idea to some Aussies has absolutely no credibility in this country. What British people want to see is a fair, meaninful competition, not some contrived joke of a tournament where only one of the groups has any meaning. To be honest, I'm absolutely dreading it because with the 10-team format I can see it being a massive farce and another massive setback to RL in this country. In a way, it's probably better that it will be shown on Sky and not FTA television to protect the majority of the British public. While there may be close games, they don't actually mean anything, and that is one thing that British people hate.
Maybe i should mind my own business and stick to the NRL, but it would be nice to know the game is being a bit pro active in the UK... just in case Sky's money dry's up one day.
It is, and without trying to be patronising you do come across as an Aussie who has had a massive shock after coming from a League heartland and who has no real idea about British culture or RL in this country. Which is understandable really, hopefully apart from being the longest in history my post has given you a bit more of an idea.
