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[druzik]

More News from Europe

November 23rd, 2012
By Various

More news from Europe this week with the Ukrainians completing their first full season of Rugby League withe the Ukrainian stalwarts, Legion XIII coming out on top. Also Ben Galea does an interview for Malta Rugby League about this coming season being his last with Hull FC.

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[druzik]

Denmark v Malta

November 23rd, 2012
Via Shaun Orton

This week I received some video links to games and interviews from the Denmark v Malta. I always feel that getting this kind of videos out is important. There are videos of match highlights along with post match comments from Harrod Sammut, Steve Davy, Jarne Vibe and Jostein Ryan. Enjoy.

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[druzik]

Lokomotiva Beroun & Mikulov Roosters win CZRLA Grand Finals

November 23rd, 2012
From Phil Caplan, RLEF

Lokomotiva Beroun completed a memorable season, leaving their best performance until last as they ended the 2012 campaign undefeated, comprehensively taking the CZRLA Grand Final 60-0 against Prague Vikings.

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[druzik]

Russian Rugby League Makes New Friends in Hawaii

November 23rd, 2012
From Keith Whitelock, Overseas Marketing manager, RRL

I’m not going to lie, the main reason I flew 10 hours to the beautiful islands of Hawaii was for a much needed holiday, but that didn’t stop me from learning a bit from Sean the man behind the burgeoning success of our great game in Hawaii.

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[druzik]

Decisions Down Under have Effect Internationally

November 25th, 2012
By Daniel Andruczyk

Finally the New Rugby League Commission in Australia have announced the new leader for the NRL. The person they have chosen is Its a decision that came out. David Smith is a Welsh Banker and has links closer to Rugby Union than League. This is on the heels of probably one of the biggest and most influential decisions to be made in rugby league, the banning of the shoulder charge. Though these are decisions that seem isolated in Australia, they have a far reaching and large ramifications internationally as well.

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[druzik]

The Homer Simpson Effect

November 27th, 2012
By Daniel Andruczyk

One of the things about my job is that once a month I make the 12 hour trek from New Jersey to Illinois. This drive means that I have a lot to think about, after all driving on flat stretches of land dispersed with corn fields does not give you much of anything else to do. Now in the past I have come up with a strategy and a “White Paper” of sorts where by I outline what I hope is a coherent path to growing Rugby League internationally and making nations more competitive with each other.

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[Evil Homer]

I understand your argument but you can't just universally apply things to different cultures and expect them to work. American sport is pretty unique. RL doesn't have enough money, at least in the UK, to be able to shorten the domestic season, and even with a longer period for internationals it still wouldn't compensate for the fact that we don't have enough competitive international teams at present.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

I absolutely agree that the there are too many games in the NRL and ESL. The problem is the clubs and channel 9 love it this way. It would be very, very hard to convince them to do otherwise. The only way would be to take a paycut from the TV contract.

Not so sure about the conferences though.

 

[juro]

Another thing the NFL has over the NRL is the population size and spread of teams.

The NFL has 32 teams and a population of 315 million (9.8 million per team) while the NRL has 16 teams an a population of 27 million (Australia + New Zealand) (1.7 million per team).

This is made even worse when you consider 9 of the NRL teams are in Sydney, a city with a population of 4.6 million (0.5 million per team). The only regions with multiple teams in the NFL only have a maximum of 2 teams (New York - 22 million, San Fransisco - 7.5 million, Baltimore/Washington - 8.6 million).

You could take out the populations of WA, SA, Tasmania, etc, but I guess you could also take out the populations of large areas of the USA who don't have a team too.

What this shows to me is that Sydney's NRL market is ridiculously saturated. This is of course due to the history of the NRL developing from the old suburban Sydney competition of 1908.

What is the solution to that? That is a totally different question. I'm certainly not suggesting forced mergers or transplanting or culling teams.

But this does show that you are not comparing apples with apples!

 

[PacificCoastRL]

I'm not sure what the answer is but here are some numbers from the Canadian Football League. Canada's population is about 34 million, there are eight teams in the CFL (about 4.25 million per team). The smallest crowd this season was 20,005 for a pre-season game. All games are broadcast on national televison, all games are on local radio stations and all games can be accessed on the internet. They must be doing something right. I'm not a big CFL fan, but I do know that their brand is very prevalent in this country. In my opinion the key is the television coverage. I really think the ESL should negotiate to have all of their games televised. That would increase interest as Super League would be seen more often, creating a following, many of those fans then going through the turnstiles after first whetting their appetite on television.

 

[Evil Homer]

I'm not sure what the answer is but here are some numbers from the Canadian Football League. Canada's population is about 34 million, there are eight teams in the CFL (about 4.25 million per team). The smallest crowd this season was 20,005 for a pre-season game. All games are broadcast on national televison, all games are on local radio stations and all games can be accessed on the internet. They must be doing something right. I'm not a big CFL fan, but I do know that their brand is very prevalent in this country. In my opinion the key is the television coverage. I really think the ESL should negotiate to have all of their games televised. That would increase interest as Super League would be seen more often, creating a following, many of those fans then going through the turnstiles after first whetting their appetite on television.

There is no way Super League could have all matches televised, not even Premier League soccer has that. In fact televising all matches would probably have the opposite effect to the one you stated, as regular fans would be more likely to stay at home especially if it was poor weather or an awkward kick-off time.

What we have to accept is that sporting cultures can vary greatly, and there is no set strategy that can be universally applied.

 

[PacificCoastRL]

Homer, maybe you are right, maybe the fans would stay home, but I'll give you two instances where this hasn't happened. The first happened many years ago, in the days before television, when Major League baseball owners resisted the broadcasting of games on radio. The owners felt this would keep fans at home when in fact radio helped baseball develop new fans and propelled the sport into its golden age in the 1950's. Even now baseball is doing very well attendance wise notwithstanding the fact that one can access every game of the Major League season on television, radio or the internet. In the CFL's case, the league had its greatest years, in terms of bums in the seats, in the 1980's. After that the league went into a tailspin and at one point in the 1990's there was a very real possiblity the CFL would fold. In the last few years attendances are once again on the upswing, due in no small part to the role television is playing. It helps that the CFL's broadcaster is TSN, an all-sports network, who have taken the bull by the horn and televises not only games but have an all-inclusive package of showing the CFL from every angle both on and off the field. Comparing England to Canada may be a bit like comparing apples and oranges, but consumers are all the same. If they see enough of a product, sooner or later, if it is a good product, they will buy it.

 

[Evil Homer]

I understand what you're saying, but there is a noted decrease in live attendances for televised Super League matches as it is. The comparison with CFL simply doesn't work because soccer is the only sport in the UK that gets blanket coverage, and that will never change. RL is pretty well represented in terms of television presence relative to other sports, in fact it is the second highest rating domestic sport in the UK after soccer. That doesn't necessarily translate into matchday attendances for a variety of reasons, but it's still a positive as it brings money into the game.

In terms of generating wider interest, RL's biggest problem in the UK is a lack of a meaningful international scene. The only time sports like RU, Cricket, Golf and virtually anything else get mainstream coverage here is during international season, when people are able to able to jump on the bandwagon and stories are perceived to be of national importance. Outside of the international period, those sports probably receive less exposure than RL. Hopefully the World Cup next year will be able to thrust RL into the national conscience in a way that hasn't been done before. As you've said, the quality of the product should take care of itself in terms of drawing people in once they get a taste.

 

[Broncos thats my team]

I know that bad crowds look bad on TV but wouldent it be better that all games on TV for more money that could be used for grass roots and aslo would get more sponsers etc, I dont even understand why all EPL dosent have all mtaches on TV. I guess it is just a toatly difrent landscape?

 

[druzik]

DETAILS OF 2013 RUGBY LEAGUE EUROPEAN BOWL ANNOUNCED

December 4th, 2012
From Phil Caplan, RLEF

The 2013 Rugby League European Bowl will feature the Czech Republic, Norway and Ukraine with the biggest ever prize attached for the victors. The winning nation will be promoted to the 2014-15 European Shield.

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[druzik]

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA CLOSER TO FORMING RUGBY LEAGUE FEDERATION

December 4th, 2012
From Phil Caplan, RLEF

The last few weeks have seen a marked increase in rugby league activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 3rd November Banja Luka hosted the ‘Open Championship of the Republic of Srpska’, which saw four Serbian and two Bosnian clubs face each other at 9s.

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[druzik]

EXPANSION IN SERBIAN RUGBY LEAGUE AS RADNIKI TAKE UNDER 18S TITLE

December 4th, 2012
From Phil Caplan, RLEF

Serbian rugby league is celebrating the crowning of their youth champions and the expansion of interest in the country into a new area, with the addition of a police rugby league programme.

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[druzik]

The Prophet of the Pacific

December 7th, 2012
By Daniel Andruczyk

There are halls of fame, lists of immortals and legends of the game. 100% of the time it seems that its the players who have gone out on the field and slugged it out for 10 or 12 years that get the honours. And rightly they should, but, unlike the being on the front lines sometimes the hardest work is done behind them and its many of these people that should, but never get the recognition that they deserve. As history will see it down the line one of these people will clearly be Dane Campbell. Dane has almost single handedly been able to achieve something that many organisation in Rugby League have not, and that is actually get the greatest game being played in new countries. The Prophet of the Pacific hen should be called, though starting out in the Caribbean in Jamaica he now has helped to spread the game in Vanuatu and now has landed in the Solomon islands. Like a modern day Missionary he has started to show what Rugby League has to offer.

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[druzik]

Stash Sports Wear become official Italia RFL Apparel Partner

December 16th, 2012
From Joel Morgan, FIRFL

The Apparel company ‘Stash Sports Wear’ are now an official partner of the Federazione Italiana Rugby Football League (FIRFL) in a sign of commitment for the progression of domestic rugby league.

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[druzik]

GHANA COMPLETES FIRST TECHNICAL EDUCATION COURSE

December 16th, 2012
From Phil Caplan, RLEF

Ghana Rugby League Development Manager Sylvester Wellington has overseen the completion of a training course for potential rugby league leaders, held at the University of Ghana in Legon, Accra.

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