New Zealand 2 will deal a massive blow to NZ rugby

[Wb1234]

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Reddit thread discussing poor Auckland blues crowds vs wahs

 

[Matiunz]

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Reddit thread discussing poor Auckland blues crowds vs wahs

Obviously Eden park is similar to Accor in its game day experience if the crowd isn’t past a certain level but find it interesting the U-turn on MtSmart.
Pre Covid most were desperate for a new site, yes you have your ‘Carlaw park traditionalists’ but the location for Mt Smart is still pretty shit and hard to get to

 

[Dark Corner]

Obviously Eden park is similar to Accor in its game day experience if the crowd isn’t past a certain level but find it interesting the U-turn on MtSmart.
Pre Covid most were desperate for a new site, yes you have your ‘Carlaw park traditionalists’ but the location for Mt Smart is still pretty shit and hard to get to

I always thought New Zealand Rugby Union NPC/Ranfuly crowds were up with the old ARL before Super League and Super Rugby.... Super Rugby was a gimmick and the old farts of all Union countries fell for it bar France and Ireland.

 

[Canard]

I always thought New Zealand Rugby Union NPC/Ranfuly crowds were up with the old ARL before Super League and Super Rugby.... Super Rugby was a gimmick and the old farts of all Union countries fell for it bar France and Ireland.

Don't both England and France have club Rugby comps??

Has SR ever consistently drawn big crowds in NZ? Particularly against Australian sides? honestly don't know.

Not sure what the baseline is here.

I think people are trying to assert that RL is killing Union in NZ, when in reality Union is killing Union, just like in Australia.

 

[Dark Corner]

Don't both England and France have club Rugby comps??

Has SR ever consistently drawn big crowds in NZ? Particularly against Australian sides? honestly don't know.

Not sure what the baseline is here.

I think people are trying to assert that RL is killing Union in NZ, when in reality Union is killing Union, just like in Australia.

Not sure but you think the All Blacks win in 2015 (excellent final and world cup in England) would of helped Super Rugby but it didn't and no different to South Africa as despite the love of the Boks for a country of nearly 60 million they don't support Rugby in great numbers.
Me thinks that NZ and SA Rugby love is like the Olympics and just a international dick measuring contest.

 

[Penrith fan]

All anyone really cares about in Rugby Union is the World Cup every 4 years.

Maybe home tests which are only over a 6-8 week period.

Other than that, Rugby Union goes vacant for most of the year.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

I always thought New Zealand Rugby Union NPC/Ranfuly crowds were up with the old ARL before Super League and Super Rugby.... Super Rugby was a gimmick and the old farts of all Union countries fell for it bar France and Ireland.

The early days of SR were well supported. It was still obviously relatively new so there was the novelty factor, but more importantly, it was competitive. NZ teams still won most of the titles but the Brumbies nabbed a couple during the SR12 era and other SA/AU teams regularly featured in finals games.

Things started to turn to shit as SANZAR got more and more greedy with expansion, especially with SR18 and its conference model and ridiculously manufactured finals qualifications. If SR eventually dies, SR18 was the point at which its death started with greed being the underlying cause.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Don't both England and France have club Rugby comps??

Has SR ever consistently drawn big crowds in NZ? Particularly against Australian sides? honestly don't know.

Not sure what the baseline is here.

I think people are trying to assert that RL is killing Union in NZ, when in reality Union is killing Union, just like in Australia.

Spot on. With key factors being a flawed 'top-down model' in both NZ and AU where the national teams generate most of the revenue and are therefore prioritised over the domestic scene, as well as a lack of local influence on the game's laws and law interpretations.

I've said before on these boards that RL's biggest advantage is the NRL's autonomy to create a product that fans and stakeholders are willing to pay for. RA and NZR are full of people desperate to make the game more fan friendly, but WR is dominated by NH bloc voting which almost always stops any SH initiatives in its tracks.

 

[Wb1234]

Spot on. With key factors being a flawed 'top-down model' in both NZ and AU where the national teams generate most of the revenue and are therefore prioritised over the domestic scene, as well as a lack of local influence on the game's laws and law interpretations.

I've said before on these boards that RL's biggest advantage is the NRL's autonomy to create a product that fans and stakeholders are willing to pay for. RA and NZR are full of people desperate to make the game more fan friendly, but WR is dominated by NH bloc voting which almost always stops any SH initiatives in its tracks.

Rugby league was improving its rules over union well before the nrl came around

 

[Wb1234]

Obviously Eden park is similar to Accor in its game day experience if the crowd isn’t past a certain level but find it interesting the U-turn on MtSmart.
Pre Covid most were desperate for a new site, yes you have your ‘Carlaw park traditionalists’ but the location for Mt Smart is still pretty shit and hard to get to

Yet somehow people are managing to get to mt smart in ever increasing numbers but not to Eden park

 

[Matiunz]

Yet somehow people are managing to get to mt smart in ever increasing numbers but not to Eden park

Hence the laugh about the U turn. People were endlessly bagging MT Smart pre covid but all of a sudden it’s the place to be

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Rugby league was improving its rules over union well before the nrl came around

Weather its NRL or NSWRL is besides the point.... which is that RL here, by and large, has the autonomy to make its own decisions. Obviously the right decisions still need to be made and to its credit, its done that as well.

 

[Matiunz]

The early days of SR were well supported. It was still obviously relatively new so there was the novelty factor, but more importantly, it was competitive. NZ teams still won most of the titles but the Brumbies nabbed a couple during the SR12 era and other SA/AU teams regularly featured in finals games.

Things started to turn to shit as SANZAR got more and more greedy with expansion, especially with SR18 and its conference model and ridiculously manufactured finals qualifications. If SR eventually dies, SR18 was the point at which its death started with greed being the underlying cause.

Was very popular early on as all nations had competitive teams. Noticed this change in a big way about 2010, whilst early on was great to see the NZ teams dominate it got a bit boring after a bit (same as with Bledisloe). Aus steadily declined in standard, SA got too political and obvious other factors have turned fans off

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Hence the laugh about the U turn. People were endlessly bagging MT Smart pre covid but all of a sudden it’s the place to be

The power of the bandwagon eh...

To be fair, I've always been ok with Mt Smart just because its not a lopsided compromise like Eden Park. I was at the AB v Bok game last year and the 32k-ish that squeezed in then made for a far better atmosphere than 50k games at Eden Park IMO.

 

[Wb1234]

Weather its NRL or NSWRL is besides the point.... which is that RL here, by and large, has the autonomy to make its own decisions. Obviously the right decisions still need to be made and to its credit, it’s done that as well.

Ru has been like this since before 1895

 

[Wb1234]

The power of the bandwagon eh...

To be fair, I've always been ok with Mt Smart just because it’s not a lopsided compromise like Eden Park. I was at the AB v Bok game last year and the 32k-ish that squeezed in then made for a far better atmosphere than 50k games at Eden Park IMO.

Mt smart is still a bit meh

it only looks good cause it’s full

 

[Penrith fan]

Rugby League does itself no favours with very ordinary stadiums.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Was very popular early on as all nations had competitive teams. Noticed this change in a big way about 2010, whilst early on was great to see the NZ teams dominate it got a bit boring after a bit (same as with Bledisloe). Aus steadily declined in standard, SA got too political and obvious other factors have turned fans off

Yea agree; someone in that reddit thread touched on the general apathy of NZ sports fans which has always been a weird one.

With Aus, their addition of the Force and Rebels has absolutely killed them in terms of SR by diluting a talent pool that couldn't support it. Since they first added the Force in 06, AU teams have only made the SR final 4 times and haven't done so since 2014. It's been terrible.

And again it comes back to the code's overall greed in chasing broadcast dollars with more games, but without doing the groundwork to make it sustainable.

SA is a complicated beast for many reasons, but I've always felt the time/distance factor was a massive disadvantage to them right from the get go.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Ru has been like this since before 1895

I'll have to take your word on that because I have no idea, nor any interest, in what either code was doing 130 years ago...

 

[Wb1234]

I'll have to take your word on that because I have no idea, nor any interest, in what either code was doing 130 years ago...

The history is amazing

New Zealand and the kiwis played a huge role in the establishment of the nswrl and the rule changes the Northern union (English league) insitited