It was more a tongue in cheek comment than an actual dig. A lot of the traditional big clubs were affected badly by the advent of professionalism, Orrell were far from the only ones, West Hartlepool (Liam Botham's first full time Union club) were another, Liverpool St Helens and Waterloo have both played in the top flight and are now way down the pecking order. Newcastle only survived because of John Hall's money. The point you made was valid, that particularly in the League Stronghold areas, the pro-model was unsustainable because the fan base simply isn't there. As I said, I am a rarity in that I will attend games for both but I am very much in the minority there. League fans might go to the odd game of Union for something to do but they're not going to go week in, week out and vice versa with Union fans watching League.morley pie eater wrote: ↑Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:03 pm Thanks Jobo. You're right that I wasn't poking fun at Union (tho I'm by no means a fan!).
I guess my point is that most sports, apart from soccer, are struggling to a greater or lesser extent. Our plight may be more obvious/publicised than others, but it's not easy to establish a team in a new area - for any sport.
American football have the once a year big game in London, sure. But remember London Monarchs? And a team in Germany (Frankfurt?). How many $million have they pumped in to try to expand into Europe?
Me & Mrs Morley went on holiday in Ireland in the mid-90s. Passed through Tipperary and Limerick. It was semi-final time for either Gaelic Football or Hurling. Every other house we passed had a flag hanging out, supporting their team.
The sports are unknown in the rest of the world. They're (supposedly) amateur, and a player can only play for the county they were born in. Yet they survive, even thrive.
For all the doom and gloom about RL, and I have concerns about its direction, I think there's a community/inherited aspect to supporting a team or a sport that would take centuries to overcome. RL is ingrained in Wigan, in Hull, in West Yorks, Cumberland, even Sentellins!
It may change, it may even become semi-pro in the next few years, but it's more resilient than we sometimes fear. The failure of Union at Orrell and Leeds is evidence that it's extremely hard, despite money, hype or whatever, to displace a sport which is deeply ingrained in local communities, and in the minds of people....people like us.
The point you raise about American Football is a valid one as well. I Do follow NFL and have attended International series games in the past, but I don't think a UK Franchise would work. When you go to the games, 90% of the crowd are wearing jerseys. We all have teams. I am a Bengals fan (Don't ask, i know they're dreadful....) I've been to 3 London games, 2 involving the Bengals and one which didn't. The one which didn't I wasn't all that bothered about and I said after it, i'd only go again if the Bengals were involved. That is what the people in the US don't seem to get. If all of a sudden you had the London Lunatics playing in the NFL, i'm not about to ditch the Bengals and become a London fan, and neither are the vast majority of NFL fans in the UK. Theyll do what they do now and pick one or two games each season to attend, OR will like me simply go when their team are in town which might only be every 4 years given how the NFL Scheduling works.
I've digressed but what i'm saying is that I agree with you. At the current time, RL would do well to take a step back and stop trying to sell the game to people who don't want to buy it, and focus on re-selling it to the people who've fallen out of love with it. Crowds are dwindling everywhere, Get your core fanbase back involved and for the love of god, bring Cumbria to the table!!!
Cheers!
