pmarrow wrote:
I dont see what relevence this mud slinging match has. Australia will always be a bigger draw then New Zealand. FWIW I think outside the heartlands is better as more nuetrals will buy into it, I doubt many will travel to Hull or Warrington if they are giving the sport a try for the first time.
Its being poorly organised in my opinion, they have certainly missed a trick. At this stage to have Eng, Aus and NZ playing on the same day is dumb. Especially giving NZ a game in a "heartlands area". Id imagine youve got some fans in Hull off to the England game, some actually going to the game, some will be at Hull City and most will have probably invested in the quarter final game.
The group stages are not selling that well but it seems the latter stages are, which will generate more interest. I mean the positive of Australia, NZ and England trouncing everyone is that it will project the status of the semis to another level IMO.
My take on it too, the group stages arent going well but fingers crossed the knockouts are big events.
They wont ever get big crowds to the Scotland, Wales and Ireland games until they start playing even just friendlies at home to try and buikd even just a few hundred of diehard support. Crazy that they didnt play in Edinburgh, Dublin and Cardiff or Wrexham the other week as a warmup to at least drum up some interest for the world cup.
