London game confirmed

[adiddy]

I was sat by a group of around 12 Londoners non of whom had been to a league match before, but had watched super league on TV, they all paid £20 each, thought it was a bargain, and all thoroughly enjoyed the game, stating they'd come and watch again, and more to the point, had more friends that would be interested next time!

Well done IL for taking the risk, my family and I had a great time, and will go down for the weekend next time!!

Matt

[josie andrews]

I was sat by a group of around 12 Londoners non of whom had been to a league match before, but had watched super league on TV, they all paid £20 each, thought it was a bargain, and all thoroughly enjoyed the game, stating they'd come and watch again, and more to the point, had more friends that would be interested next time!

Well done IL for taking the risk, my family and I had a great time, and will go down for the weekend next time!!

Matt

Missed you on Saturday Matt, sorry bout that

[markill]

I love the posts that are saying things along the lines of "I told you it wouldn't work and even though it might have done this time (even though it didn't) it definitely won't work next year".

Good persistence guys! Dogmatic beleif is definitely a popular choice. Analysis and ambition is an alternative though, but fair play to sticking to your guns.

8K crowd in London for RL is up there with the NFLs roadgames when you take into accout relative market and marketing budget sizes IMO.

Well done Wigan. At least we are trying and right now we're not making idiots of ourselves.

I believe they gave loads of free tickets for this event

The Wigan game or the NFL?

Wigan did not go down the freebie route.

Yeah, they did. 1000 of us for free coach trips to compliment our free tickets

They sold discounted tickets through local amateurs clubs down there though rather than freebies.

[markill]

We get a few views on the London game concept on the podcast this week. Mostly from non Wigan fans. Mostly thinking it's a good thing we did.

[josie andrews]

Whilst promoting RL in London is important I think you will find the club are aiming even more to attract the commercial investment that London offers. Hence, the London business club.

Re Fans. Actually, RL, every club needs to move away from season ticket culture which is increasingly becoming a negative as much as a positive. At its best the sport had several competitions and supporters habitually purchased tickets alongside their season ticket. Nowadays, less competitions means once a season ticket is not valid for a game and purchases are required; attendances drop no matter what the competition or venue. Perhaps RL as a whole should be looking to membership schemes.

Strange you should say that. Saints have just reclassified their ST holders as 'members'!

We were all named as 'members' instead of Season Ticket holders at the beginning of this season, so saints are once again behind us & following Wigan's lead

[Exiled Wiganer]

**Rugby League have been trying since at least the early 1970s, to promote the game in the South and it as still not worked or taken hold it never will

**Fixed your post - Josie
[/quote]


Just a quick couple of points about whether league has taken hold down here.
What hasn't worked is a top level side. There are loads of reasons for that, the main one being that London has no single identity in the same way as a town like Wigan, which is why you don't see "London" teams in any other major sport, as opposed to teams based in a locality within which they have roots. Without those roots, you are wasting your time.
My main point is that this does not mean that league has not taken hold. Londoners will come out in big numbers for events. There are many thousands of sports lovers, people brought up in the north, and Aussies/Kiwis who like the game and will turn up to watch it played to a good level. Hence 70k for the Wembley semi in the World Cup, the large majority being from the south. Events like Saturday are exactly the way to go to tap the London market. People would rather watch Wigan, Leeds etc once than a rubbish team like the Broncos. Don't under estimate the audience for league in London.
Finally, in my 25 years down here the number of clubs and the number of teams run by those clubs has grown every year. It's not Wigan's primary concern perhaps, but Clubb, LMS and the other Londoners scattered around SL didn't wake up as SL level players. There is a market in players and talent that Wigan could benefit from.

[adiddy]

I was sat by a group of around 12 Londoners non of whom had been to a league match before, but had watched super league on TV, they all paid £20 each, thought it was a bargain, and all thoroughly enjoyed the game, stating they'd come and watch again, and more to the point, had more friends that would be interested next time!

Well done IL for taking the risk, my family and I had a great time, and will go down for the weekend next time!!

Matt

Missed you on Saturday Matt, sorry bout that

No worries Josie, we had a walk around looking for people we knew, must have missed you due to the amount of Londoners at the game ???? lol

Matt