Why are Super League crowds still crap.

[bowes]

You'd probably have a similar perception of the place of Rugby league (or union for that matter) in this country if you came to Australia and spent the entire time in Adelaide or Tasmania.

The difference is you'd get that impression in just 50% of Australia, but in 90% of England

 

[WireMan]

I would not let the BBC anywhere near Rugby league until they can prove they will treat it with respect.

Leicester opened a brand new stand for there game that is why the crowd was so large. On average however on a club level more people watch Rugby league matches than Union. The coverage is distorted by the powers in charge.

Union has a full highlights program on a Sunday night with all the weekends action. League gets the cr*ppy super league show if you lucky enough to be in the North, and its on to early to see the tries of the Sunday matches. Its repeated nationwide at about 4am Monday morning! However we in the North get wonderful coverge of France vs Italy on the BBC during the six nations. It does me nut in.

Also while i have rant mode set to max how can i have a program on a thursday night previewing Dutch(!) football yet if you go to Manchester on Grand final night you don't even know there is a game going on!

 

[WireMan]

You'd probably have a similar perception of the place of Rugby league (or union for that matter) in this country if you came to Australia and spent the entire time in Adelaide or Tasmania.

The closest i can think of from an uneductated view (never been to aus so i may be wrong) is Rugby league in a rugby area say where i'm from, the North West would be lot like Melbourne.

Yes there is a team but the coverage isn't the best, and its dominated by a different code of football. In the UK there is no place like Queensland or Sydney where rugby is played by everyone so if you take those players from the Melbourne team you are left with the state of the game in the UK. Us competing with NRL is like a Melbourne team with just Victorians playing in it.

 

[Brutus]

Not trolling but since 1996 english Super League crowds are still f**kin awful apart from Leeds,both Hull teams and the effort made by the french.
Whats happend to the 15000-25000 at Wigan and Bradford and the Wolves and kingpins St Helens are dreadfull.
The Super Leagues idea was about 20000 crowds supporting Rugby League around Europe.

f**k off troll.

 

[Lambretta]

The closest i can think of from an uneductated view (never been to aus so i may be wrong) is Rugby league in a rugby area say where i'm from, the North West would be lot like Melbourne.

Yes there is a team but the coverage isn't the best, and its dominated by a different code of football. In the UK there is no place like Queensland or Sydney where rugby is played by everyone so if you take those players from the Melbourne team you are left with the state of the game in the UK. Us competing with NRL is like a Melbourne team with just Victorians playing in it.

Melbourne is much like Manchester in many ways with City and United (and to a much lesser extend Stockport etc) representing AFL and Salford City Reds being the Storm equivalent.

Melbourne has a code that completely dominates every facet of media coverage and virtually everyone who comes from the City lives and breathes the code.

The Storm gets shown in the middle of the night by a TV station that doesnt promote the code there. There are people who go along to watch and there would be moreinterested if the game was promoted more.

The only real differences is that Melbourne has 9 AFL clubs vs Manchesters 2 enourmous football clubs and that the Melbourne Storm are a successful side, whereas Salford..... well. Ahem.

 

[WireMan]

Melbourne is much like Manchester in many ways with City and United (and to a much lesser extend Stockport etc) representing AFL and Salford City Reds being the Storm equivalent.

Melbourne has a code that completely dominates every facet of media coverage and virtually everyone who comes from the City lives and breathes the code.

The Storm gets shown in the middle of the night by a TV station that doesnt promote the code there. There are people who go along to watch and there would be moreinterested if the game was promoted more.

The only real differences is that Melbourne has 9 AFL clubs vs Manchesters 2 enourmous football clubs and that the Melbourne Storm are a successful side, whereas Salford..... well. Ahem.

That sounds about right. That what makes me laugh when we have threads about the crowds being cr*p in super league. The sport is no bigger here in any place than the storm in Melbourne. I think the RFL is trying to get more interest but it is hard. Especially as we have no Sydney or Brisbane to help promote it.

Oh and in Manchester don't forget the Rugby Union team (Sale Sharks) are a lot more successful than the Rugby League team.

 

[Teddyboy]

f**k off troll.

f**k off bitch.

 

[Lambretta]

That sounds about right. That what makes me laugh when we have threads about the crowds being cr*p in super league. The sport is no bigger here in any place than the storm in Melbourne. I think the RFL is trying to get more interest but it is hard. Especially as we have no Sydney or Brisbane to help promote it.

Oh and in Manchester don't forget the Rugby Union team (Sale Sharks) are a lot more successful than the Rugby League team.

The closest that England has to a Sydney or Brisbane is Leeds or Hull.

Bradford is also a big City that has strong ties in League, but Bradford has an enourmous Pakistani population that dont really follow league. Cricket is their thing. Take away the Pakistani population figures from Bradfords overall population and it's a much smaller population base.

Lancashire really needed a town like Blackburn or Preston to be a Rugby Town, but their history is steeped in football and you'll have a difficult time getting them to change. I remember a teacher living in Blakcburn posting in these forums during the League World Cup and he was saying that none of students would have been watcing games. It's all football, football, football and that's IN Lancashire. So called League heartland.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

Thanks to those of you that have contributed to this thread. It has been interesting and a real eye opener.

From this side of the world, despite the crowds that some clubs get, I was under the impression that rugby league was a reasonably major sport in some regions. The fact that it is no more popular than, lets say comparatively, league in Melbourne in even its most ardent cities and towns is a bit of a shock to me.

 

[Lambretta]

Thanks to those of you that have contributed to this thread. It has been interesting and a real eye opener.

From this side of the world, despite the crowds that some clubs get, I was under the impression that rugby league was a reasonably major sport in some regions. The fact that it is no more popular than, lets say comparatively, league in Melbourne in even its most ardent cities and towns is a bit of a shock to me.

If you look at most of the towns that actually have League teams - Wakefield, Warrington, Castleford, Wigan, St Helens, Bradford etc - thats sort of like League in Australia only being played in towns like Newcastle, Orange, Bathurst, Wagga, Coffs Harbour etc.

Yes, there's a couple of major centres playing league in the UK, but mainly league is concentrated in old mining communities. The larger centres all played and continue to play football and it completely dominates the landscape.

What amazes me is that for all the negatives, Rugby League in England always has and continues to create great players and a great product.

For a sport that really is a niche sport in England, it's a minor f**king miracle that England or Great Britain can field National teams that are as competative as they are. There are some wonderful talents emerging and if League can pinch just 10% of the market from the Premier League then it has a very bright future indeed.

With the Premier League becoming full of foreign imports - young English lads, given the right development opportunities might start to convert to playing our code. But this needs grass roots development and it will take time.

 

[WireMan]

Thanks to those of you that have contributed to this thread. It has been interesting and a real eye opener.

From this side of the world, despite the crowds that some clubs get, I was under the impression that rugby league was a reasonably major sport in some regions. The fact that it is no more popular than, lets say comparatively, league in Melbourne in even its most ardent cities and towns is a bit of a shock to me.

No probs, always nice to pass on a bit of knowledge to someone.


Remember as well when you list the small towns in Aus in comparison, imagine they are less than 20 miles from the centre of Melbourne. 99% of there media is based in Melbourne, a significant percentage of the towns population is also from Melbourne. That is the state of play over here.

I do find it interesting that the England team get ragged on for not doing well at the world cup. Davies cup tennis and Equestrian (badminton horse trials), gets priority over here on tv over rugby league. Its a minor miracle the sport is going as strong as it is. I guess its lucky to be based in northern towns where there is a population base so it survives.

 

[Teddyboy]

the 1980's the Rugby League final The Challenge Cup used to get upto 90000 for it's finals and until Super League had a lot of interest in the press.
English Rugby Leagues peak was after the first world war and right up till Englands(yawn)world cup vitory of 1966.

 

[WireMan]

the 1980's the Rugby League final The Challenge Cup used to get upto 90000 for it's finals and until Super League had a lot of interest in the press.
English Rugby Leagues peak was after the first world war and right up till Englands(yawn)world cup vitory of 1966.

When rugby went to sky it became richer but probably lost a lot of casual fans. Also the old fans are not being replaced as much. There is more to do nowadays though, and a lot more sport on telly.

The reason it took the money though was Rugby was going bankrupt and there was lots of talk about merges etc. So the 80's were not all that.

 

[deluded pom?]

The closest that England has to a Sydney or Brisbane is Leeds or Hull..

Even a winning Leeds Rhinos still can't attract gates that compare with a third rate football team in the same city. Hull and Rovers combined probably attract as many fans as Hull City who are near the foot of the EPL.

Lancashire really needed a town like Blackburn or Preston to be a Rugby Town, but their history is steeped in football and you'll have a difficult time getting them to change. I remember a teacher living in Blakcburn posting in these forums during the League World Cup and he was saying that none of students would have been watcing games. It's all football, football, football and that's IN Lancashire. So called League heartland.

Blackburn may be in Lancashire but it's not in what you would call the "heartlands of the game" in Lancashire. This would be the Wigan/Leigh/St. Helens/Warrington/Widnes areas further East and South of Blackburn/Preston.

 

[VictoryFC]

Since the Premier League became all about money, a large section of people in the UK have become very anti football in large parts of the Country. Bling laden prima donnas is how many people view footballers. The players live in Mansions, drive Ferraris, earn millions of pounds every year and they have little in common with the average man who is grafting hard and paying massive amounts of money to go to Premier League games.

How many times are we going to hear this? The working class who built the game have walked away...as far as I can tell, the clubs are doing just fine. Not only that, but people seem to forget that those magical times before Sky took over yielded attendances that were much lower than today's averages. You don't just walk away from a club/sport you've been following for X years. Maybe they can't afford to go every game anymore, but they're still following the team, and another sport just isn't going to fill that void. You only have to ask yourself if you'd stop following League if you couldn't afford to go to games tomorrow (answer: I doubt it)

To an extent you're right but for every football fan who turns his back on the mercenary attitude of the game ther's a couple of more mugs waiting to part with their cash. The media have spun the Premier league for all it's worth and the average pleb believes all that they read about it.

Believe all that they read about it? As far as I can tell, people don't have a gun to their heads. People grow up playing/watching sports, and choose to follow the sports that they do.

Even a winning Leeds Rhinos still can't attract gates that compare with a third rate football team in the same city. Hull and Rovers combined probably attract as many fans as Hull City who are near the foot of the EPL.

Leeds will always be a football town (but so what, the two sports can, and have coexisted). Now if they could hurry up back in to the Premier League that would be great

 

[deluded pom?]

Believe all that they read about it? As far as I can tell, people don't have a gun to their heads. People grow up playing/watching sports, and choose to follow the sports that they do.

Read the story of the Emperor's new clothes. Kids grow up being told by all and sundry what a fantastic product the EPL is. This is the EPL that will be chock full of foreign talent because English players are either too greedy or just not good enough. Are you trying to tell me that kids aren't swayed by the media?

Leeds will always be a football town (but so what, the two sports can, and have coexisted). Now if they could hurry up back in to the Premier League that would be great

I hope they languish in the lower reaches for the rest of eternity. My loathing of Leeds United is second only to that of Hull KR but at least the Dobbins play the right game.
;-)

 

[kiwileaguefan]

Gee todays crowd for Huddersfield vs Dragons looks like 3,000

 

[Teddyboy]

Read the story of the Emperor's new clothes. Kids grow up being told by all and sundry what a fantastic product the EPL is. This is the EPL that will be chock full of foreign talent because English players are either too greedy or just not good enough. Are you trying to tell me that kids aren't swayed by the media?




I hope they languish in the lower reaches for the rest of eternity. My loathing of Leeds United is second only to that of Hull KR but at least the Dobbins play the right game.
;-)

Yeah but most people worldwide who sadly follow the EPL are thick because the EPL hasn't really helped the english international team.
People will believe anything like McDonalds is better then Tapa's in Spain etc.

 

[Lockyer4President!]

Basically in popularity it's like this;

Soccer in England = NRL+AFL combined in Australia
Super League in England = A-League in Australia

That's pretty f**ked up tbh. It also explains why there are so many negative attitudes from UK RL fans.

 

[RedVee]

I had a couple of beers with my cousin, who was on a short holiday, the other day. He has been living in England for just about exactly 20 years. He lives in Hamphire, works in Surry (I think).

I mentioned that I'd read that RL was on the up in the south. He agreed but with the proviso that I understood it is up to a distant 3rd from being absolutely nowhere.

His missus added that they used to go to the occasional game of the London Broncos (he supports St Helens) but refuse to have anything to do with them since they were taken over by the Harliquins. She is not exactly fond of the Harliquins.:?
They watch the 3 games, football, Union & League. Mentioned that the Union is a bit boring compared to League, but added that the English are used to low scoring because of the football.

Thats one couples view.