Re: typical RL : Thu May 05, 2011 8:09 am  

binks wrote:

I really hope thats sarcasm, if not im embarrassed for you !!

Re: typical RL : Thu May 05, 2011 10:57 am  

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Im rubbish since i turned 40

The Probiz Ref is like this

Yes there would still be sponsors without Sky but the money would not be the same, we would lose players to Union / Oz .

The Money we alledgedly spend on Quins/ Cru is from Sky Not the RFL , if Sky pulled out then yes i would be very worried for those clubs but as there not Sky can spend the money as they wish.

To answer your q. Yes i stand at the railway end near the sc bar, this is because i enjoy the alternative view you get of the game by mingleing with the opposite fans. But that doesnt mean i dont enjoy the other games any less, so no away support is not the be all for me.

Re: typical RL : Sat May 07, 2011 1:04 am  

the_grobs wrote:

People seem to forget that there was life before SKY. There were sell out crowds before SKY, and there many attendance records set that 15 years on with SKY have not come any where near being toppled.

You refer of course to the 1950s, a time LONG before television was affordable for many people and to watch sport you HAD to attend in person. There were massively fewer leisure activities available to the working classes as there are now, so you cannot make any direct comparison to that era.
Lets not forget the times directly BEFORE SL for Castleford as an example and this isn't a pop but just to prove my point. A heartland team with bags of history, other teams within close proximity and you were mustering 4-5K per home game the season before SL started, hardly sell out crowds? Do you know how many 10K attendance home matches you've had from 1985-1996? I'll tell you 4, yes 4 games, the last pre SL 10K attendance at Wheldon Road was against Australia in 1992.

So to Quins who have moved around over a relatively short space of time (losing most of the fan base they may have established) to in effect a new town, at a time when there are a million and one things for kids/adults to be doing. They don't have a 'community' of rugby fans stemming back from over a 100 years, haven't been successful and haven't been helped by the RFL (in the earlier days at a time when they needed support) so really Quins are going to struggle and will do for the forseeable future unless they can somehow be consistantly at the upper end of the table.
That's not to say we shouldn't continue to keep expanding but the RFL have formulated expansion as a panic knee jerk reaction to the popularity of RU and have just made a complete an utter mess of it.

Re: typical RL : Sun May 08, 2011 3:17 pm  

the_grobs wrote:

The game has always been about a competitive game of rugby league played in front of both home and away supporters. This is not a flexible statement that will change with time!

If the geography of teams restricts an away following.....well the geography ain't right for the game. The RFL must be bonkers if they expect that even the loyalist of fans can afford or justify the expense of traveling in their hundred's if not thousands week in week out. Either that or they don't care about the reality of the game as long as it fits with their ideal model.

We are not football, in any way or form. Hence comparrisons to the Champions League are about as far fetched as the tooth fairy. The money involved in RL is not even that which it was in football 40 years ago, and we don't and never will, have the World wide following which football commands.

Spreading the game might look good on a map, but empty seats don't look good on the TV or at the game. Yet the RFL's action confirm that they continue to negate the importance of having visiting fans, it will be the downfall of the game. Banter, singing, chanting is part of what gives a game it's atmosphere. Without this atmosphere....well you might as well save your increasingly hard to earn money and stay at home and cheer and shout at the TV with friends .....or use your £20 on beer and to go to the pub and enjoy the game in a pub atmosphere.

We all know as loyal home and away supporters, both supporters and teams feed off the buz and atmosphere at the game. It's the very same buz that makes us addicted to the game!! It's the very same buz that keeps us coming back, and enthuses our friends socially and at work to come to a game to see what it's all about. It certainly isn't seeing empty stadiums on tv that makes newcomers want to be a part of the game.

Simply put home and away supporters = buz = growing numbers,

NO visiting supporters = a game that your not bothered about missing = falling numbers!

A bang on post !

If I were to miss any game by choice, it would be against Harlequins, Crusaders or Catalans. I'm sure there are hundreds of other RL supporters that would think the same. Now I wouldn't choose to miss these because I have anything against them or devalue their teams. I would choose to miss them because I am paying for the atmosphere. This doesn't mean having a few jugglers walk around the pitch, or watch 2 blokes kick for goal at half time.

I'm not sure that the RL are close enough to todays supporter to be able to make valued marketing decisions. They tend to aim the game at 'tomorrows' supporter, they have been trying to find 'tomorrows' supporter for years. Make the most of what we have, there is a market for the game within the clubs we have in all divisons. The capacity is never maximised as efforts are made to invent a club full of Aussies in Leicester, or Mansfield or Dublin or wherever they want to stick a pin on a map.

Re: typical RL : Sun May 08, 2011 7:57 pm  

Couldn't resist adding my view on expansion , so here goes ...

If I were to make the trip to watch my team ( Leeds) away at Catalans it would cost me roughly the same as it costs me to go to around TEN domestic away games . I really would like to make that trip some time , but having a family and two small kids means that amount of money has to be spent wisely(ish) . It is no surprise that they bring only a small following to their away games . As for Cru and Quins . I don't have a problem attending when we play them away . I can get there and back in the day so they are on my list of things to do .
Via public transport , most away games including match ticket , can be done for around £25-$40 .
Spending £400+ on one game is out of reach for me . Expansion needs to be in areas that is easily and cheaply accessible to existing supporters . Start adding flights/ferries , passports , and weekends away hikes the cost and logistics way out of reach of a lot of people .
Just another thing . If the Sky people could stick to the announced fixture dates then they might get a few more people to commit themselves to attending Cats games . I was planning a trip over not long since . I was going to have it as a mini holiday with the family , but cancelled after the hassle that Quins had with their away fixture with them . The compensation of a ticket to watch an international match would be no consolation for losing your job for not turning up at work on Monday morning .

Re: typical RL : Tue May 10, 2011 7:18 pm  

knockersbumpMKII wrote:

You refer of course to the 1950s, a time LONG before television was affordable for many people and to watch sport you HAD to attend in person. There were massively fewer leisure activities available to the working classes as there are now, so you cannot make any direct comparison to that era.
Lets not forget the times directly BEFORE SL for Castleford as an example and this isn't a pop but just to prove my point. A heartland team with bags of history, other teams within close proximity and you were mustering 4-5K per home game the season before SL started, hardly sell out crowds? Do you know how many 10K attendance home matches you've had from 1985-1996? I'll tell you 4, yes 4 games, the last pre SL 10K attendance at Wheldon Road was against Australia in 1992.

Fair comment KnockersbumpMKII. But how many times have we been 10K+ at the Jungle whilst in SL? I'd be surprised if it was more than about 5 or 6....probably Leeds games.