Next seasons fixtures

[mario]

ste lord posted:


It will be benificial to clubs so long as the rfl can assure clubs of some sort of financial support package,

It wouldn't surprise me if all the proceeds go to the RFL. At best the RFL will sort out the money for the clubs after the event and in the past they've managed to make seemingly successful events lose money!

[DaveO]

waterside glens posted:
to be honest could this not have been a one off preseason thing. to move things about all the time makes the league look stupid.

Now there is an idea! Instead of all this messing about arrange a pre-season competition at the stadium

I can't see any argument against this. Anyone who planning on going to Cardiff already who says "people won't go because its a friendly" would be guilty of double standards.

Dave

[DaveO]

robjoenz posted:
These grand schemes may appear to be worth little on the surface

That is because they are.

because there are no Welsh people at the next Wigan game you goto. However, who knows what value they have underneath? Will it plant a seed into a fresh mind? Will a few fans that haven't been for a while recatch the bug? It's the small things that matter possibly more than the massive steps.

I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land if you think this event is going to have any great influence.

People in Wales and from around Bristol or whatever will go and watch it (perhaps, it as after all a bank holiday weekend...) and then go back to their normal lives having been to an interesting sporting event.

I dare say the local population have sampled many varied sporting events at the Millenium stadium but I also expected they they go along enjoy the day out and than that is it.

They are not all suddenly going to be seeking out RL in their areas and if they tried they may well find there isn't any anyway which means the effort is wasted on them. Cart before the horse.

There will be fans from the existing SL clubs there so they are already into the game.

In my opinion the amount of new people this will enthuse enough to get into the game in some way could range from zero to a few hundred at most.

And enthusing a few hundred does not warrant all this effort.

I also expect the RFL/SL to follow this up in Wales with nothing more then they are doing now (whatever that is).

Trying to justify this as something to develop the game is not possible in my opinion.

Dave

[Wigan Watcher]

I agree the only way people from Cardiff and surrounding areas will buy into Super League is if they had a local team doing well. They may go and watch our teams from up north but that will be it.

They have got it wrong again, but it may be a good day out for us lot!

[cpwigan]

Just a question to everybody. One of the presumptions of the RFL is that Rugby Union areas are somehow more receptive to Rugby League than say Football areas. Now thinking about this briefly, is this truly so? Surely a football area has nothing akin to rugby league and thus the people inclined to like rugby per se will more readily accept rugby league whereas in areas where a code of rugby is already very popular are we not simply competing for the very same people?

[robjoenz]

DaveO posted:
They are not all suddenly going to be seeking out RL in their areas and if they tried they may well find there isn't any anyway which means the effort is wasted on them. Cart before the horse.

It's more a a case of 'the chicken and the egg' than the 'cart before the horse'.

People may well go back to their lives in their non-RL communities with no local RL sides but it will have raised awareness of the game. Without raising awareness of the game then how will anyone ever set up an RL side in that area?

In my opinion the amount of new people this will enthuse enough to get into the game in some way could range from zero to a few hundred at most.

And enthusing a few hundred does not warrant all this effort.

What is this based upon Dave? I'm guessing it's a finger in the air estimate. I think research that the RFL will have carried out is of more valuable than a rough guess.

I also expect the RFL/SL to follow this up in Wales with nothing more then they are doing now (whatever that is).

Trying to justify this as something to develop the game is not possible in my opinion.

You expect the RFL to follow this up with something you don't know? I don't understand that Dave and I'm not sure you do :doz:

I fail to see how a major event of this scale which will attract media attention and has the potential to attact new fans can be anything less than positive for the game.

[cpwigan]

Rob, the problem is we have seen these grandiose big matches time and time again. Rugby Leage and Wales goes back decades. We even had a Cardiff Rugby League Club back in 1951/52. I can remember Wigan playing a Charity Shield match at the Vetch as I recall in the 1980's/early 90s

[robjoenz]

mickw posted:
what i want to know is how many home games we get early on after last season`s fiasco. is the tail still wagging the dog!

We can complain all wewant about that Mickw but it was to our advantage in the end. Had some of those later games been away we may have found it more difficult.

[cpwigan]

Yes the way fate transpired the fixture list became an advantage. Although maybe IM will argue things might have been different for him had he had more home fixtures. There are a million spins you can put on this, when you played Catalan was important this season. However, the facts remain we have won our last 8 home matches so it has been beneficial at the right time.