Wigan_forever1985 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:13 am
I think there are multi-faceted problems with the World Cup attendance i dont think its as simple as just ticket prices
1) Ticket Prices - its on an obvious one but they priced out the casual rugby league fan and therefore getting neutrals was going to be near impossible
2)
Advertising and coverage - overall the coverage has actually been pretty good but there was zero hype in the lead up to the cup to get anyone interested. I dont know why Rugby League is so bad at marketing its product, we have multiple opportunities and manage to spurn them all, the Womens world cup stole the nations attention - it was only a short run to our WC after that we could of jumped on it as a filler between that and the mens football WC. The fact that myself and my dad both rugby league fans have to keep reminding eachother when the games are on shows it.
3) International Rugby League is a joke - Lets face it Mickey Mac played for England-Ireland-England at senior level, you will never capture nations imagination with people who are clearly not from nor nothing to do with that country. Barring France we are still largely in a situation in which we have England/NZ/Auz and then teams around them made up of people who arent good enough to get in those teams. There are some exceptions but on the whole the full time players in those squads are from those 3.
4) only 3 teams in it - Again this comes back to the point above, the reason you see so much attendance at group games in football is the tickets for the finals are so prized, but really hosting it in this country we know the final will be Australia vs either England/New Zealand (possibly tonga) Australia have done their best to make a mockery of the international game over the years, you arent going to see huge amounts of following from any of those countries coming over, or anyone else for that matter so the pool of competition for finals tickets will be low, so theres no need to waste money on group games when you can get final tickets and you know there's a high chance the teams playing.
5) No one cares - sad but unavoidably true, no one cares, even if we win, no one will care. I've said this for over a decade now - no one knows rugby league players and its players who capture peoples hearts and minds not teams or even countries. I can ask some random off the street to name a rugby union player and they would be able to the world cup win for England centred around Wilkinson. If people dont feel a connection to a player they wont then follow their journey. Until we start creating superstars rugby league will continue to be a sport no one cares about. Look at how many people are watching boxing matches featuring youtubers with zero boxing pedigree in farcical bouts - because its human interest that draws people to a sport. Allegiances to teams and countries follow but the initial bait on the hook is a person who someone connects with.
I think the advertising has been abysmal! The BBC should be ashamed of themselves. As you say we have to keep looking for, when & where games are being played. I have the Men’s game synced to my calendar on my iPad & phone, but have to rely on a Twitter page that tells you what games are on tv, when, time & channel.
I can remember when RL used to be reported on the full back pages of newspapers. And that was when we played in winter competing with Soccer! Nowadays, you will be lucky for a few lines buried with the adverts of newspapers except the specialised RL papers.
Even RU wasn’t reported on as much as RL.
That’s all changed since the big sponsorships of of RU, them going professional** & the toffee nosed luvvies, private school guys at the Beeb decided RL wasn’t a gentleman’s game, failing to see the more exciting game to watch of RL.
**They’ve always been professional with the boot money handed out on the sly
Anyone can support a team when it is winning, that takes no courage.
But to stand behind a team, to defend a team when it is down and really needs you,
that takes a lot of courage. #18thMan
