Team number for RLWC

[Mark Rudd]

How many teams competed in the last RLWC? Are there more/less teams now?

 

[dimitri]

in the 1995 RLWC i think there were 8, with many nations playing in the emerging nations tournament

in the 2000 RLWC there were 16 with a smaller emerging tournament including, japan, usa, morocco, BARLA (british amateurs) Canada


the 2000 RLWC ran at a loss

because it was played in the the middle of british winter in appalling conditions, typically poor League promotion and terrible public transport
some people blamed the amount of teams, but this is totally unjustified


if the RLWC was played in Australia there is no way in my opinion there should be less than 16 nations.

The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit

capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing

places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion

whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne


the key is promotion, a ticket balloting system, plus more promtion


the kangaroos must be promoted rightfully as the premier national sporting team

they must be showcased from the east coast to the west coast


plus televsion is also important

it is important that the tv rights are sold for respectable amounts of money to channel 9, fox, tv 3 nz, sky sports nz, sky uk , plus may other nations around the world

sponsorship is also important

the irb have done great with their sponsorship, clearing all the sponsorship around the grounds and smothering them in the world cup sponsors

we would have to do the same




if the RLWC was done right we could have up to 20 teams

however the right number for a world cup in australia is definitely 16



mostly the same nations as last time, except, leave out nz maori and bring in another qualifier


i think 16 is a must

and id like to see


aus
nz
eng
ireland
scotland
wales
russia
fiji
lebanon
cook islands
south africa
png
tonga
france
samoa
usa

 

[Hollywood Jesus]

I think including the Japanese would also be a good move, possibly at the expense of Cook Islands

 

[dimitri]

that possibly could be a good idea


i think we might need to rank the top 12


which automatically qualigy then have 4 qualifiers

inlcuding japan if they are good enough

 

[Paullyboy]

The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit

capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing

places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion

whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne

There is not a chance in hell there would be any sellouts, no chance at all. That is the biggest pipe dream Ive ever read.

Oh and Im a rugby league fan through and through, I hate union, its just that I dont live in a dreamland.

 

[Tidus_Raider]

What makes you think there wouldn't be a sellout at a stadium say in Gosford? England V USA or a similar match would go close to selling out IMO.

 

[dimitri]

i agree people in wollongong, townsville and gosford like league a lot more than yawnion

why wouldnt they sell out

 

[Alan Shore]

The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit

capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing

places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion

whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne

There is not a chance in hell there would be any sellouts, no chance at all. That is the biggest pipe dream Ive ever read.

Oh and Im a rugby league fan through and through, I hate union, its just that I dont live in a dreamland.

What a load of crap.

 

[Paullyboy]

Seriously guys, Id love it more than anyone, but we cant sell out a game between Australia and New Zealand, we cant sell out club matches, Sydney struggles to sell out State of Origin.

You would get maybe 2 or 3 thousand to any game not featuring australia, most games would probably end up with crowds of about 300.


And yes Townsville, wollongong love League more than union, but how well do the Cowboys or Dragons crowd figures look?



And Tamazoid the only load of crap mate is some of the teams you guys have thrown up as being competitive.

 

[legend]

No worse than some of the teams in the RWC that the gullible public are flocking to see. It's all about perception. Get the media on your side and you're half way there.

Tell the public it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and it's a duck. It worked for RU, why can't it work for us?

 

[Misty Bee]

Exactly.

Remember what the Union market is in Oz generally. North Shore Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane.

The other thing is the perception of a close game. A Wallabies game v NZ or SA is a close thing - whereas a Kangaroos game usually isn't. But that's because the Wallabies are at a lower standard.

Hence, the ARU can promote games in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth as events worth seeing, because the gullible public don't know the difference. BTW, most can't tell the difference between League and Union, and probably bought ickets on the back of the State of Origin series.

Anyway, I'd make it different. I'd include NZ and PNG as hosts. Have the opener in Mt Hagen, and televise it. make it a game between, say, France and PNG. Guaranteed sellout. Atmosphere = televised riot. More passion than at a thousand Super 12 games.

Have the final at the MCG, and the semis at Telstra and Suncorp. Quarter finals at Marathon, Dairy farmers, North Harbour and Wellington. Pool matches at Gosford, Parramatta, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Wollongong, Rotorua, Christchurch, Dunedin, Towoomba.

Promote the f**k out of it.

 

[Edwahu]

If we want to be credible we should only include teams who have some sort of real club competition or at least a fair amount of players playing in other leagues. We should avoid grandparent rules, picking the other codes players etc (the fact that Union does all these will help when they inevitably start heaping shit on us)

Im no expert on international league but I think that would mean Australia, NZ, England, Wales, PNG, Russia, France. Whats the story about the pacific islands? Does league really have much presence their anymore.

I dont know about USA, Lebanon, SA, Ireland, Scotland etc, the game seems far to amateur in these countrys. They can play in a amateur comp.

Id say all the sides I mentioned except Russia could field sides of fully professional players and If we stick to that criteria we will have a competition above criticism.

I wouldnt bring the cup near Australia untill NZ and England have proven they are competitve over a long period (meaning multiple series wins) and France, Wales etc are regularly putting up good performances (like the weekends) against good sides.

 

[iggy plop]

The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit

capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing

places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion

whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne

There is not a chance in hell there would be any sellouts, no chance at all. That is the biggest pipe dream Ive ever read.

Oh and Im a rugby league fan through and through, I hate union, its just that I dont live in a dreamland.

It's league fans like this fella who just want to see the game restricted to an east coast product and nothing more.

The real league fans would get off their bums and support the tournament and there are more league fans than yawnion fans in Australia.

There's gotta be more to league than just the NRL.

 

[dimitri]

i agree

the nrl is just the entree'



there are derfinitely more league fans than yawnion fans in aus

 

[Tidus_Raider]

I don't think the cup should be held in PNG. maybe only Aus and NZ. Also I don't think the cup should be held until a long time from now. Say 6-7 years. It's just too early.

One of the great successes of the union world cup is that each side has a respected superstar or recognisable player. Fiji can lay claim to having the best winger in the world. Until something like this develops in our code it's going to be too early.

However league should continue to have an international presence until that time comes. Med cups, Pacific cups, Euro cups, Tri-series and lions tours should all be fitted into an international calendar.

Also top tier teams such as Aus, NZ and ENG need to consistently be playing the lower ranked teams so that they can eventually reach that standard.

The only way I see all the above happening is the NRL and SL seasons have to be shortened (20 rounds?) and everyone working at the RLIF needs to be given the sack and replaced by people that know what they are doing.

 

[Paullyboy]

The fact is that in Australian Spring, when the weather is great, transport excellent, and heaps of rugby league support the tournament can definitely make a huge profit

capacity crowds at places such as newcastle, gosford, townsville, wollongong etc would be assured no matter which teams were playing

places such as gold coast, brisbane, sydney, canberra would sell out easily with a little promotion

whilst respectable crowds would be easily attainable in perth, adelaide, and melbourne

There is not a chance in hell there would be any sellouts, no chance at all. That is the biggest pipe dream Ive ever read.

Oh and Im a rugby league fan through and through, I hate union, its just that I dont live in a dreamland.

It's league fans like this fella who just want to see the game restricted to an east coast product and nothing more.

The real league fans would get off their bums and support the tournament and there are more league fans than yawnion fans in Australia.

There's gotta be more to league than just the NRL.

Mate, I would support it heavily, but the general public wont. Rugby League is too well known to the public, they know that Australia will kill anyone (And dont mention the recent test, we all know what the score would have been if the real Australian team played instead of all the players suddenly becoming 'injured')

It would be a dream if we pulled it off, but it wont happen, the public dont support league anymore

 

[dimitri]

i wonder what the score would have been if NZ had their full squad

they know that Australia will kill anyone (And dont mention the recent test, we all know what the score would have been if the real Australian team played instead of all the players suddenly becoming 'injured')

i wonder what the score would have been if NZ had their full squad


:roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[Tidus_Raider]

That's not really a strong argument dim. Australia didn't have there full squad either although I agree that NZ are becoming increasingly more competitive.

 

[In-goal]

I think a 10 team WC in Australia is what we should aim for, and as someone already put forward i would have the opener at Townsville between France and PNG it would be a cracker.

 

[legend]

Everyone says the Aussies were weakened and that's true but when you look at the number of Kiwi's who were out or not selected, the argument simply doesn't stand up. Missing from the Kiwi lineup was:

Willie Talau
Stacey Jones
Lance Hohaia
Paul Rauhihi
David Vaealiki
Matt Utai
Richard Swain
Tyran Smith