RL 25 year rolling plan???

[highland convert]

Superleague is a great sport but held back by several factors that must be addressed. It must start soon but will take about 25 years to achieve. In truth it is a very minor sport trapped within a narrow boundary. In Australia, New Zealand and PNG it is a far bigger sport. You have to ask why. The answer lies in the domination of football and RU as televised sports. Why do they succeed? The answer has to be presentation. Before seeing it on television few would contemplate going to a match. Some will not attend live matches but will become addicted to the spectacle (me). However presentation falls down on commentators. Watch a football or RU match we have pro commentators that can do their job. We have two jobsworths that would not know how so they fill in the blanks with useless mind boggling prattle. If I did not love the game I would switch off. The two boys that did sky commentary on the NRL when they had it were far better. First and foremost we must therefore pension them off to “Boots and All”.
The RL needs a boot inserted to the third lace hole. They do little to promote the sport. The rolling plan should be in place now as to where it wants to be in 25 years time and if that is in a straight line from Wrexham to Hull with a couple of satellites the current fan base will have diminished to bankrupt the sport. I would say in twenty five years time there should be few of the current SL clubs still in top flight. I would see clubs in Barrow/Whitehaven, Newcastle, Edinburgh/Glasgow, Northampton, Coventry, Cardiff, London and a couple from Europe. You might say it could not happen but you cannot survive if it stays the same. The straight line must become a circle being pulled further and further out. Looking at the league tables there are clubs north and south so it is not beyond the realms to raise standards to encompass greater areas. RU is already there. (Magners league). If you let Widnes and Leigh back in you are killing the sport as a viable alternative to other televised sport as the consumer cannot relate to anything local. Castleford, Wakefield, one Hull, Salford, Wrexham, and possibly stains if it does not get its ground sorted will fall by the wayside. Wire and Huddersfield may survive as last to go. Wigan, Leeds, Bradford and one Hull to survive. Four main catchments. It would have to be done in such a way as to change the allegiance of the fans from the disappearing clubs. To Sky viewers count as cash. To clubs fans count as cash. What you have is to maximise fans to one club in a give area and as the francise already spells out too close we don’t want you.
That sets out the topic. Over to you.
Jim

[Panchitta Marra]

Superleague is a great sport but held back by several factors that must be addressed. It must start soon but will take about 25 years to achieve. In truth it is a very minor sport trapped within a narrow boundary. In Australia, New Zealand and PNG it is a far bigger sport. You have to ask why. The answer lies in the domination of football and RU as televised sports. Why do they succeed? The answer has to be presentation. Before seeing it on television few would contemplate going to a match. Some will not attend live matches but will become addicted to the spectacle (me). However presentation falls down on commentators. Watch a football or RU match we have pro commentators that can do their job. We have two jobsworths that would not know how so they fill in the blanks with useless mind boggling prattle. If I did not love the game I would switch off. The two boys that did sky commentary on the NRL when they had it were far better. First and foremost we must therefore pension them off to “Boots and All”.
The RL needs a boot inserted to the third lace hole. They do little to promote the sport. The rolling plan should be in place now as to where it wants to be in 25 years time and if that is in a straight line from Wrexham to Hull with a couple of satellites the current fan base will have diminished to bankrupt the sport. I would say in twenty five years time there should be few of the current SL clubs still in top flight. I would see clubs in Barrow/Whitehaven, Newcastle, Edinburgh/Glasgow, Northampton, Coventry, Cardiff, London and a couple from Europe. You might say it could not happen but you cannot survive if it stays the same. The straight line must become a circle being pulled further and further out. Looking at the league tables there are clubs north and south so it is not beyond the realms to raise standards to encompass greater areas. RU is already there. (Magners league). If you let Widnes and Leigh back in you are killing the sport as a viable alternative to other televised sport as the consumer cannot relate to anything local. Castleford, Wakefield, one Hull, Salford, Wrexham, and possibly stains if it does not get its ground sorted will fall by the wayside. Wire and Huddersfield may survive as last to go. Wigan, Leeds, Bradford and one Hull to survive. Four main catchments. It would have to be done in such a way as to change the allegiance of the fans from the disappearing clubs. To Sky viewers count as cash. To clubs fans count as cash. What you have is to maximise fans to one club in a give area and as the francise already spells out too close we don’t want you.
That sets out the topic. Over to you.
Jim

The FA see RU or RL as no threat to their game as basically it is the national sport of Great Britain, backed up by its fanbase and television rights on the back of that.
I agree that presentation of a sport is vitally important and within Rugby League this is a big let down. This is not just TV presentation, but the sport as a whole as put forward by the RFL.
The RFU defend their sport to the hilt, even to the level of trying to disable its nearest enemy (League).
It isnt the RFL that decide Ray French should commontate on the BBC, its the people within the BBC making these decisions. Its the very same BBC that also decide to have Clive Woodward and Johny Wilkinson present trophys to Saint Helens and Paul Sculthorpe when they won the Sports Personality "team of the year".
This suits the RFU down to the ground, as it makes League inferior to Union.
For the game of Rugby League to go forward it needs the RFL to grow some balls, present its sport in a stronger manner and stop all the negative controls being put in place by others.

[GeoffN]

In purely TV terms, RL dominates RU (at club level) if we go by the ratings. SL games are consistently in the top ten sports programmes, whereas RU games are nowhere to be seen.

[gpartin]

In purely TV terms, RL dominates RU (at club level) if we go by the ratings. SL games are consistently in the top ten sports programmes, whereas RU games are nowhere to be seen.

yet I assume Sky TV pay more for premiership Union given the amount of advertising time it gets. Also don't ESPN also show some games or is that just European Cup or something similar in addition to ITV getting highlights which seem to be longer than BBC? It seems to me that we're selling ourselves short and at the next round of negotiations we need to look at the exclusivity of the deal we do with Sky and get a bit of competition going between Sky, ESPN and even Premier Sports rather than just selling out to the highest bidder and accepting that we'll go on Sky Sports 2 when Union is on 1 and that kind of thing. Clearly interest that Union will undoubtedly get from terrestrial tv is greater than for league because they obviously don't give a stuff about us at ITV or the beeb so I can understand why Sky would have to pay more for less but someone needs to grow some balls and let Sky know they need us as much as we need them as soon as we can get more offers on the table we should be going for a deal where another channel are able to show one game a week or something similar.

[Panchitta Marra]

In purely TV terms, RL dominates RU (at club level) if we go by the ratings. SL games are consistently in the top ten sports programmes, whereas RU games are nowhere to be seen.

Geoff, all the major Union club competitions are televised from the Aviva Premiership, the Magners League, Heinekin cup, Super 10's, Currie cup, even the New Zealand ITM cup. This is a substantial amount of matches televised telestrially or on Sky and surely outnumbers the Superleague, Challenge cup, NHL1 games & NRL matches ?

[GeoffN]

In purely TV terms, RL dominates RU (at club level) if we go by the ratings. SL games are consistently in the top ten sports programmes, whereas RU games are nowhere to be seen.

Geoff, all the major Union club competitions are televised from the Aviva Premiership, the Magners League, Heinekin cup, Super 10's, Currie cup, even the New Zealand ITM cup. This is a substantial amount of matches televised telestrially or on Sky and surely outnumbers the Superleague, Challenge cup, NHL1 games & NRL matches ?

True, but viewing figures are dramatically less than for RL games.

[Panchitta Marra]

In purely TV terms, RL dominates RU (at club level) if we go by the ratings. SL games are consistently in the top ten sports programmes, whereas RU games are nowhere to be seen.

Geoff, all the major Union club competitions are televised from the Aviva Premiership, the Magners League, Heinekin cup, Super 10's, Currie cup, even the New Zealand ITM cup. This is a substantial amount of matches televised telestrially or on Sky and surely outnumbers the Superleague, Challenge cup, NHL1 games & NRL matches ?

True, but viewing figures are dramatically less than for RL games.

The RFL must account for this with better deals for viewing Rugby League.