moto748 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 6:49 pm
pieman's comments about the Nines are surely fair; the BBC RL site (the obvious first port of call) has been deafeningly silent about it. Personally I only even knew about it at first because of posts on Aussie league sites I follow. Not even highlights (do nine-minute long halves need highlights?) for the many who don't have Sky on the Beeb? I have a watchnrl.com subscription, but that doesn't seem to cover it either.
another example from this weekend of the RFL & broadcast partners shooting themselves in the foot.
The BBC aired the Tonga v GB game on Saturday morning with extended highlights later in the day on BBC1, yet on their own TV coverage overview of sport on for the weekend, there was not 1 mention of the RL.
so this week i knew about the game because i had been on here last week and my dad reminded me on Friday that it was on.
i watched the 1st half of the game on Saturday morning and then had to go out so put the radio on. i generally listen to talk sport, but switched to talk sport 2, BBC radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra, not one of the stations had the game on or even mentioned it during the time i was listening. i appreciate that the RU world cup is on so 5 live had that on, but there was some cricket on 5 live sports extra but think that was just some Ozzie club match so shows where RL fits into the wider picture
josie andrews wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:52 pm
I post as much as I can regarding everything to do with national & international rugby on here, on FB & Twitter. If you have failed to read about it on any of those platforms I don’t know what else to do.
Josie, i and pretty sure most others on here appreciate the time and effort you go to posting as much as you can generally about RL, but it shouldnt be down to an individual as such and i wasnt having a go at someone like yourself who clearly loves the game. The point i was / am trying to make is that the clubs, rfl and broadcast partners should be putting time and effort into promoting the game at all levels.
if i was to take Wigan with regards to 1st team games, ladies games and academy i cannot fault as i see them on FB or twitter, but that is because i am a ST holder and follow them on social media. The challenge and the wider context of my point is that if i wasnt following them how would i know what was going? The club / RFL need to work on expanding the fan base, so need to be targetting somehow people that arent going to go to every game, fans who attend every now and then or have never attended a game.
what does the club do in local schools these days?
i think the local amateur clubs is a good way to try and attract fans but by default they already like RL as they are playing it, so it could only potentially swing young fans towards a club if they were based in Haydock and had Wigan or Saints to choose from?
i used to see a billboard at a local pub in Hindley, but that hasnt been there that i can recall for the past 2-3 years. Pretty sure that wasnt that expensive to keep there but was damned effective as there are thousands drive past it on their way into / out of Wigan. Ok that would only be promoting Wigan games / merchandise or whatever they were putting on it, but got lots of views.
with regards to the RFL and the bigger picture my frustration is the general lack of marketing / promotion of the game. i have had tickets for Challenge cup, grand final and internationals off them for over 30 years, but they do little to promote the game, and back to my original point i had seen nothing about the 9's. if fans of the game dont know who are people outside of the game going to know.
i havent seen 1 advert on the BBC for the Tonga game or the upcoming games v PNG or NZ, but i guarantee that the 6 nations will be advertised for weeks in advance and that is the point i am making. why should RL be made to feel 2nd class v any other sport (this isnt a gripe about RU). on SKY it gets good viewing figures, but gets little promotion and now stuck on one of the also ran channels. we are never going to compete with football, RU has the international game nailed down with big marketing and sponsorships but why can RL not look to emulate or replicate half of that. i used to watch GB in the 80's / 90's and we had sell out crowds at OT / Elland Rd but now we are made up with under 25k and saying the game is flourishing