http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/rugby-league-world-cup/discord-is-international-rugby-league-less-commercially-viable-than-it-was-two-months-ago-20171129-gzv5jz.html?promote_channel=edmail&mbnr=NTQ4NDg1MA&eid=email:nnn-13omn609-ret_newsl-membereng:nnn-04/11/2013-league_hq-dom-sport-nnn-smh-u&campaign_code=13ISP011&et_bid=29106947&list_name=10014_smh_leaguehq&instance=2017-11-30--21-37--UTC
Steve Mascord's take in today's SMH:
Discord: Is international rugby league less commercially viable than it was two months ago?
For all the positives of this World Cup, could it be that international rugby league is actually a weaker product in Australia than it was before the tournament started?
Discord makes the attendances for Australian matches heading into the final between Australia and England at Suncorp Stadium this Saturday as 165,656.
In Australia, we've always relied on Brisbane to save us when it comes to international rugby league at this time of year. At the start of the week, only 30,000 of 52,500 tickets had been sold for the World Cup final.
Because World Cup organisers managed to extract decent whacks from state governments, a profit of around $7 million will be returned to the Rugby League International Federation.
But the former ARLC chief executive, David Smith, reportedly promised $12 million to get a $10 million bid for this tournament from South Africa off the table.
No one is now predicting Smith's target will be reached.
Here's a sobering thought – the World Club Challenge on February 16 will likely sell out a venue that had 8000 empty seats for international rugby league's blue-chip event: Australia versus England.
Sure, ticket prices and myriad other factors are at play but surely there must be some credence to the idea that Australians consider rugby league club sport and that the international version just doesn't stack up, that its second-rate to other international sports.
They can go watch those sports. Rugby league has to battle on and try to make the most of international competition.
So while the emergence of Tonga and Fiji has been almost phenomenal in a footballing sense, getting a commercial benefit from these developments is going to be tricky.
We can't host world cups in those places because there is very little money to be made there – and the same goes for PNG.
On top of all this, the 2017 World Cup has eroded the draw of New Zealand in places where we can make money as a sport – Britain, Australia, New Zealand itself and possible "neutral" venues for events, like the United States, Canada, the UAE and Hong Kong.
The Kiwis admit their brand has been weakened and we didn't have many marketable international brands as it was.
So when we pore over the tournament on Sunday upon its completion, we have to ask ourselves one stark question: where can we stage international rugby league events that make money to boost the expansion of the sport?
We can only say, with any certainty: the north of England and Tonga and Samoa playing in New Zealand. If we get a full-house this weekend, we can keep Brisbane on the list.
That's it, right? Where else? Not good.
What it does tell us is that the 2025 World Cup
must go to the United States because Australia pretty much does not want it back … unless we split the whole thing between, say, Darwin and Brisbane plus places that didn't get a shot this time like Wollongong, Newcastle, the Gold Coast and … Belmore.
Otherwise, how many state governments and event corporations got enough value this time to jump at the chance to do it again?
Bottom line: whatever Jason Taumalolo and Jarryd Hayne did on the field over the past six weeks, our administrators have to match and exceed those feats off it during the next eight years.
