Will the Super League ever go truly global?

[taste2taste]

10 years ago one of super leagues main selling pionts was that rugby league would have a global competion the envy of all other sports.....so where is it?

I know the SL plans to invite 2 new teams into the comp soon ( probably in France and Wales) which is a great start but i dont see why they cant spread out further.

RL is a great product, fast, skillfull, big hits, 80 mins of non stop action. Im a firm beleiver in if you build the castle the people will come. If you put a team in Italy, Russia, a floating team in South Africa and a floating team in America (by floating i mean the team isnt locked to one city, they could play one week in Durban then the next home game in Joburg) im sure all these large markets will produce profits. They would only need an average crowd of about 15,000 to produce profits, and we just saw an exhibition game in Jacksonville pull a crowd of that size and then there's TV rights which would produce even more revenue.

I may have had one too many beers tonight but i would like to see League branch out before other codes beat us to it (the NBA for example)

It may be pie in the sky stuff but i really dont see why this isnt possible.

 

[eels_fan_01]

Meh, get the top 4 atleast right.

OZ, GB, NZ and hopefully France.

Then think about other countries, you can see the potential with Wales though.

Good idea but you may have had too many beers suggesting NBA is our biggest competition.

 

[deluded pom?]

Basketball has to be one of the worst spectator sports around. It'll never be a global sport with attendances and tv interest to make it viable.

 

[Evil Homer]

What a strange post. Super League is the British domestic league.

 

[deluded pom?]

Read the first post again Homer.

 

[Evil Homer]

I read it plenty of times. He seems to advocating putting teams from Italy, South Africa, Russia and America in the Super League and having some sort of 'global league'. Which would be an absolute disaster.

As far as I am concerned, Super League is the British domestic league, currently being used to develop the game in France. This talk of a 'European Super League' is absolute garbage, IMO. Once Catalans, Toulouse and perhaps one or two other French clubs are strong enough, I would expect them to rejoin a new, full-time Elite league in France. Obviously we're talking long-term, but I would be massively disappointed if there were no plans to ever remove Catalans and Toulouse from Super League. Equally, if teams from other countries come into the league in the future, I would expect these teams to retire back into a revamped domestic league once they are strong enough. Then, a Champions League/Heineken Cup type competition would be a possibility. I know they were trying to organise a similar thing for some of the NL1 and Elite 1 clubs, but I don't know if anything is going to come of it. Certainly though, the idea of some sort of 'European League' with one or two teams per country is never, ever going to happen, and would be an absolute disaster if it did. By all means, Super League should be used as a development tool for European countries but definitely not should it be a European (or even worldwide, as the original poster was suggesting) league. The very concept of a European league is illogical and makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[deluded pom?]

Sorry EH, I thought you meant my post was a strange one

 

[ali]

Where was the WCC shown on TV?

I mean Richard Lewis has been quoted in a couple of articles saying this WCC was watched in the most countries ever?

So at least they are making an effort to spread the TV coverage.

 

[The Wood]

As far as I am concerned, Super League is the British domestic league, currently being used to develop the game in France. This talk of a 'European Super League' is absolute garbage, IMO. Once Catalans, Toulouse and perhaps one or two other French clubs are strong enough, I would expect them to rejoin a new, full-time Elite league in France. Obviously we're talking long-term, but I would be massively disappointed if there were no plans to ever remove Catalans and Toulouse from Super League. Equally, if teams from other countries come into the league in the future, I would expect these teams to retire back into a revamped domestic league once they are strong enough. Then, a Champions League/Heineken Cup type competition would be a possibility. I know they were trying to organise a similar thing for some of the NL1 and Elite 1 clubs, but I don't know if anything is going to come of it. Certainly though, the idea of some sort of 'European League' with one or two teams per country is never, ever going to happen, and would be an absolute disaster if it did. By all means, Super League should be used as a development tool for European countries but definitely not should it be a European (or even worldwide, as the original poster was suggesting) league. The very concept of a European league is illogical and makes no sense whatsoever.

Totally agree 100%. I would take a guess at this being a possability in aproximatly ten years or so. A little long I know, but it may take that amount of time to develop young French players so there is enough quality to be able to form the better Elite 1 league.