Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:46 am  

Great to see one in Limerick.

We'll organise a match day savings club at the start of the coming season to pay for a long weekend there in 2013.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:40 pm  

Stolen from Bilko

Bilko wrote:

I just hope they make it affordable in such you can attend multiple games.

Here's the match schedule btw (no dates or venue allocation yet).

Group A - Top 3 Progress to Quarters
Australia v England
Fiji v Ireland
Australia v Fiji
Ireland v England
Australia v Ireland
England v Fiji

Group B - Top 3 Progress to Quarters
New Zealand v Samoa
Papua New Guinea v France
New Zealand v France
Papua New Guinea v Samoa
New Zealand v Papua New Guinea
France v Samoa

Group C - Top Team Progresses to Quarters
Scotland v Tonga
Tonga v Italy
Italy v Scotland

Group D - Top Team Progresses to Quarters
USA v Wales
Wales v Cook Islands
Cook Islands v USA

Group C/D Inter Group Matches
Scotland v USA
Tonga v Cook Islands
Italy v Wales

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:42 pm  

Cragganmore Kid wrote:

Is that right? If so, it's no wonder we missed out on a quarter final having the most apathetic 'fan' base in RL.

The enthusiasm criterion was nothing to do with the fanbase. It was to do with the Council/Club. As every Saints fan knows, Saints are crap at marketing anything. And St Helens Council is equally crap at marketing. The only events and venues the Council promotes are those they have organised themselves. They won't even allow the Theatre Royal to have signposting. That is just ridiculous and so narrow minded and blind as to be utterly thick.

I was working in Warrington at the time the bids were submitted. Not only was Warrington the first in with its bid (followed by Wigan and then we trailed behind), but it used one of its centrally located empty shops to be a big advertising board, clearly seen by everyone in the town centre. The Council and the Club worked in partnership to promote the bid, including setting up a text line inviting people to text in their support, to 'back the bid' (which was their promotional line).

St Helens Council and Saints both need to spend time with their Warrington counterparts and learn how to win a bid or indeed market anything. They both seem to have thought that building a new stadium was sufficient. Just like all Saints do to market their own games is stick something on the website. That's just preaching to the converted.

Both the Council and the club have missed a real opportunity here. They would never be granted a semi final as the venue isn't big enough. But they could have secured a quarter final if they'd worked together to convince the RFL that they would reach out to the people in town and enthuse them to attend. Warrington did that very well and so they deserved their two games. St Helens, both Council and Club, did not and so they didn't deserve two games. In fact, I think the only reason we got a game at all was that we had built a new stadium. That was the bit which was referred to in the RFL announcement anyway.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:58 pm  

It will be good to save wear and tear on the new pitch frankly. Let Leeds and their bafflingly (and suspiciously) Licence "A" Grade crumbling ruin and the rest have whatever games they want I say.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:13 pm  

Excellent analysis there Saintsfan. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:35 pm  

Northampton_Saint wrote:

It will be good to save wear and tear on the new pitch frankly. Let Leeds and their bafflingly (and suspiciously) Licence "A" Grade crumbling ruin and the rest have whatever games they want I say.

The Southstand will be built by then and then the rest of the stadium the western terrace and north stand which is not crumbling,just old.Its not just the stadium which gets the grade A as you should know, and of course the city of Leeds has proven good support for rugby league at club level

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:07 pm  

to be fair, our stadium isnt even finshed yet, so showing how good we are at dealing with big events is tricky. I'd imagine that next time the 4 nations is here we'll be hosting a game, and more in future world cups.
We also have a world class training facility at Cowley, surprised no teams are using that

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:29 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

to be fair, our stadium isnt even finshed yet, so showing how good we are at dealing with big events is tricky.

Saints have held big events before, just not in the recent past as KR was a health hazard to everyone who went in it. I don't think that has anything to do with it. Crikey, Whitehaven haven't even started building their ground and yet they've been awarded a match! If you read about the work Bristol Sonics put in with their Council for the bid as well as Rochdale, making a big play in their 'back the bid' campaign for a match specifically involving Fiji, then you will see how woefully inadequate the reaction of St Helens Council and Saints were to the whole thing.

I find the unwillingness of the Council and the Club to promote the sport locally very annoying, in case you haven't guessed.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:44 pm  

also, we havnt even had any ramp up events yet, so giving us a quarter or semi final is asking alot. Add that to the fact thats saints will have been busy getting it built, instead of trying to sell it to the rfl for a game or two that wont bring us hardly any income.

Re: world cup grounds : Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:04 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

Given most games will be very, very poorly attended it's not a big deal anyway. The RFL will lose money on most of the games I'd imagine, so they've no doubt had to negotiate cheap rates for the grounds.

Spot on. In the 2000 World Cup in England, three of the four quarter finals (ie the ones that didn't include England) had gates of 5000 and the Wales v Australia semi at Huddersfield only had a gate of 8000.

In fact in the 2008 World Cup even Australia's semi in Sydney in the heart of rugby league only got 15000 to turn up.

There is no market for international RL, fans are not interested. They might watch the games on TV and talk about them on forums but they aren't going to buy a ticket and watch the matches live, it is not a product that sells.