cpwigan posted:
Rob no avoiding my queston. how does this game promote development? Haven't we had umpteen showcase matches in wales including national teams and the finest rugby team on the planet, the Kangaroos.
It promotes development by the fact that people will attend this match who have never been to an RL game before, or those that have been to the occassional smaller scale game and haven't had the chance to watch SL.
I went down to the Challenge Cup Final the other weekend and before the match Willie C, his wife (both from Cumbria), my friend and I (both from Southport) all had a prematch buffet at the ground. Also seated at our table were a gentleman and his father from Bristol, another gentleman and his father from Nuneaton (both staunch-Union fans) and a gentleman and his young son from Southampton. Had it not been for expansion of RL outside of the heartlands and publicity how many of those people would have been sat at that table? As it happens they all said that they prefer the match in Cardiff and love going down there for the weekend.
All your arguments are based around yourself, no mention of the fans of the sport that may not live in or near an RL town/city or even be an RL fan currently. There will be fans in Wales who will love this opportunity to watch a weekend of RL. Why shouldn't they get the opportunity to watch RL? I expect you will argue that you are a long standing Wigan fan and thus you are more important than some Welsh folk that don't goto games. You may have a point, however, if the RFL thought like that there'd never be any type of expansion and there'd be an even greater feeling of RL being an 'inbred Northern sport' that our RU supporting friends already think.
In addition, an event this size is bound to gain publicity. What other sport does an event of this scale short of a well publicised cup final? Sky Sports will want to show the games, the media will want to produce special reports on it and will be eager to see how it works out. I think it will be a success.
Your presumption are full of holes. To watch the 6 matches, Joe Bloggs has to stay for 2 days. So we are now adding B&B on top of travel expenses / ticket cost / costs incurred whilst there. Joe bloggs could probably take his wife and kids away from the weekend at the same price. Even if Joe Bloggs goes for one day, who in their right mind is going to sit in a stadium all day and watch 3 matches? How many fans go to watch another club when their own are not playing? The RFL are asking 60,000 rugby league fans to fork out what? the best part of £200+ for a SL fixture? More money than sense?
To watch 6 games, our friend Joe has to stay one night in or around Cardiff. As a student a couple of years ago I went to the Challenge Cup Final in Cardiff with my girlfriend. We stayed in student halls of residence, the room cost us £30 for a night. I also looked at train tickets, if you book them at the right time you can get a return from Wigan for £20. So it is feasible to have a reasonably priced fun weekend away if you can be bothered to hunt around to find a decent price. However, it is a lot easier to just sit there and grumble I accept. Now, I admit, it is more expensive for a family travelling down for the weekend, or even for the one day, but it would be no more than if we were scheduled to play Harlequins away twice in a season, as we did this year (or worse still Saints away twice in France).
On the question of who wants to watch 3 matches in one day? Well, I don't think I am the only person who would love it. My ideal weekend used to be watching Wigan of a Friday, watching the NRL Saturday morning, the SL game in the evening, the NRL game on Sunday morning and then Whitehaven on Sunday afternoon. I also enjoy going to the National League Play-Off Finals at Widnes to watch 3 games in one day. I can't get enough of the sport. I love it so much I even started refereeing
haha.
So we have a concept that does what? Gives money to the Welsh RFU, probably rewards clubs like Catalan and London financially. Costs clubs like Wigan and Leeds a significant amount of money. Does the money lost matter to me YES, and it should matter to every Wigan supporter. We need every £ we can get to keep our salary cap limit as high as possible and let us hypothesise which is better, Wigan losing X thousands to placate the RFL or Wigan simply saying we will donate the sum this jaunt would cost and put the money into schoolboy / amateur rugby with Wigan, we will bring some ex Wiganers over for the Riversiders club, David Bolton, Brett Kenny etc.
You've not really explained why it matters to you. This match will bare no relevance on our salary cap so that doesn't make any sense. Wigan RL isn't exactly short on cash so it's not like we're going to struggle from the lack of revenue. The only thing reason I did spot went back to your obvious hatred for Rugby Union.
The last time I looked the RFL had an awful lot to do within its so called heartlands before it got any grandiose schemes into its head.
Would you care to elaborate please?
I love League. I would not give a Union club the steam off my .... . They tried to crucify this sport. I have no time whatsoever for thwem and believe League needs to bloody well wake up, develop it heartlands and build from the bottom up in non traditional areas.
Well to me the line I have highlighted says it all... you hate Union, therefore, you are not happy that they will benefit from this event.
I find it quite sad that you are so bitter towards Union. I can't really appreciate what went on between league and union in the past although I did play Union at school and they talked league down, but isn't that what we do on here, except the other way around?
