They’re going to come up with a strategy in the next few weeks, according to the release.
There’s a few ones I don’t really get in there.
The plan for London, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. London makes sense. They’re a growing club and brand. Ireland, Scotland and Wales, why? There’s 6 clubs in Ireland, a similar number in Scotland and Wales isn’t that far ahead. We have France on our doorstep, two clubs in our system and a semi-pro league in France. France are England’s closest opponents in terms of quality this side of the equator and there’s a whole country (or at least a pretty large area of the south) where there isn’t a tv deal. Are we going to see investment in the shape of sponsors and massive uplift in tv packages with Sky with Ireland?
London also gets a subtle mention with moving the cup final, I’m not sure if that is counter productive if you’re looking to develop a strategy for the capital. Wembley is probably costly and I get that but it produces one of our two best attendances each year in the sport. We need a big presence in London if we have a plan to develop there. Even if we move the final and stay in London, you have 62k at Tottenham and 61k at Arsenal. We only managed 51k when we had a final at Tottenham and we’ve only had 3 non-covid affected crowds smaller than 62k in the last 10 finals. Why are we capping ourselves at 62k when we want to grow the game?
I’m not sure we need a Charity Shield and to revive that. Does anyone yearn for that? I’ve never heard anyone say we should bring it back. It’s also an additional game and adds another game, as well as the WCC. How does that even fit in? If they want to push Rugby League Cares have a whole month dedicated to raising money for RLC. That way clubs can plan for it - charity shirts, events, make it fun like the NRL do with try celebrations. One game in deepest January that isn’t really wanted is not the one.
The Magic weekend style last 16 in the cup is a massive nonsense. That means you’ll have 3 consecutive rounds of the cup played at neutral venues and who will pay for that? I think part of the cup is stripped away as well with the loss of home advantage for sides. You’ve also got to think of fans. You’ve got season passes to pay for, merchandise if that’s you’re thing, you’ve got trips to France and if you’re attending a magic style event, the chances are you attend a fair few away games. There’s only so much disposable income around and I’m not sure we need more events at this time when we have events now that divide opinion, aren’t well attended or a combination of both.
