: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:02 pm  

Southport Saint wrote:

poop idea

Agreed.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:35 pm  

Edinburgh, Wembley, Four Nations, Old Trafford, South of France and now (maybe) Cardiff, do the RFL think the average fan is loaded.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:51 pm  

rover49 wrote:

Edinburgh, Wembley, Four Nations, Old Trafford, South of France and now (maybe) Cardiff, do the RFL think the average fan is loaded.

I don't think the RFL expects the average fan to travel to every game. They're obviously trying to expand their market.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:56 pm  

Wellsy13 wrote:

I don't think the RFL expects the average fan to travel to every game. They're obviously trying to expand their market.

I agree with him. I get to every SL game if I can and don't like missing games but these 400+ mile round trips are getting silly. I don't mind 1 or 2 a season.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:29 pm  

RB wrote:

I agree with him. I get to every SL game if I can and don't like missing games but these 400+ mile round trips are getting silly. I don't mind 1 or 2 a season.

I get to every game I can also, but at the end of the day the RFL are trying to spread the game. If they were bothered about how far fans had to travel, they'd keep it as a northern sport.

If the RFL had the chance to add franchises in Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Ireland, Scotland and another in France (hypothetical, just pretend they meet the criteria) do you think they will be bothered that northern fans won't travel to every game away as well?

Football fans don't find it silly and neither do RU fans. RL fans only find it silly 'cos they've had it so easy for the last 100 years. Time to get into the next century.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:18 pm  

Wellsy13 wrote:

I get to every game I can also, but at the end of the day the RFL are trying to spread the game. If they were bothered about how far fans had to travel, they'd keep it as a northern sport.

If the RFL had the chance to add franchises in Bristol, Leicester, Birmingham, Ireland, Scotland and another in France (hypothetical, just pretend they meet the criteria) do you think they will be bothered that northern fans won't travel to every game away as well?

Football fans don't find it silly and neither do RU fans. RL fans only find it silly 'cos they've had it so easy for the last 100 years. Time to get into the next century.

If it wasn't for the 'traditional' fans there would be less than 5,000 there and the RFL know this and rely on us turning up to make it work.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:51 pm  

Surely after how the welsh tourist board let down the RFL they wouldnt take the games back for a few years.

City of Manchester stadium is a great idea, lots of space outside to create the 'festival' atmosphere, or as a change, Goodison Park?

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:53 pm  

I think they should wait until the draw is made for the Semis e.g. if it was Bradford v Leeds, Galpharm would be miles more suitable then Cardiff or Manchester. Likewise for us v Hull, Headingley would be perfect.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:43 pm  

rover49 wrote:

If it wasn't for the 'traditional' fans there would be less than 5,000 there and the RFL know this and rely on us turning up to make it work.

But how many traditional fans turn up to the semi-finals as neutrals?
If you offer so many events to the traditional fans in the heartlands, they'll pick and choose their games. They're trying to create a market outside of the heartlands.

: Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:49 pm  

Wire On The Telly wrote:

Surely after how the welsh tourist board let down the RFL they wouldnt take the games back for a few years.

The WTB offered the RFL money to stage a round of fixtures which enabled them to reduce their fixture list, hardly letting them down. Yeah, they didn't promote it as much as they said they would, which resulted in it getting moved due to a better offer, but they hardly let the RFL down in the bigger picture of things.

If the WTB offered money to the RFL again (not saying they will/are going to), then would you honestly turn it down? We'd be getting money instead of spending it on the facility. We'd be promoting RL in an expansion area. We'd have a big attractive facility that doesn't have a limit so can grow with the event. We can plan ahead instead of wait until the semi-draw. And we'd have a new event on the calendar.
If the combined crowd ended up being lower than in the heartlands for the first few years, they'd be making up for it from money paid by the WTB.