Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:07 pm  

Dunbar wrote:

Fair enough. Do you regularly attend an Aviva Premiership club or more of a Union fan in general? (not a dig by the way, I am a 'floating' League guy)

No I'm only a fair-weather fan, but I imagine a lot of people are which is probably why interest is down.

I've only watched Union for a few years. I go for Sale in the Aviva Prem, been to a handful of games. Tickets are cheap so I probably should go more but without my own transport and nobody to go with it's a bit of a pain in the booty. Last time I went I spent an hour too long in the pub, missed the bus back from Manchester Centre, had to wait 2 hours for a train home, and the train in question stopped at Blackpool for repairs or something for 3 hours - Was daylight by the time I got home

I like Rugby more much than I like Sale, mind. If the Super Rugby comp was on at the moment I'd probably find time for it

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:11 pm  

I'm sure Shark J wouldn't mind standing next to you at Sale rancid. He comes on here quite a bit during the union season.

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:38 pm  

Dunbar wrote:

Really? So the increased awareness of the game through the World Cup has a negative effect on the game

I would understand if the games were in the UK and people were tactically deciding which games to attend but you are saying that people will not bother watching the team they support until after the World Cup has finished?

If the FIFA world cup was held during september/october would Football Premiership attendences increase or decrease over the the same period the previous season? Evidence suggests the last two world cups does have a negative impact when the World Cup is held outside Europe in the European off season. Regarding the London double header similar thing happened four years ago.

Likewise if GB&I/Eng had played 3 test in four weeks preceding SL to crowds of 7k+, 80k+ and 48k plus, would the attendence to season opener of MM be affected significantly the following week? As with the previous world cup The London double header was significantly down (in this instance to the same level of 3 years ago), Newcastle crowds was down about 1.5k (so they are probably concerned) Leicester was slightly up and northampton's slightly down (so not much change there, Worcs as expected. All this on a full weekend of international football fixtures to be followed tomorrow and wednesday by another set important international football matches.

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:53 pm  

Thoth wrote:

If the FIFA world cup was held during september/october would Football Premiership attendences increase or decrease over the the same period the previous season? Evidence suggests the last two world cups does have a negative impact when the World Cup is held outside Europe in the European off season. Regarding the London double header similar thing happened four years ago.

Likewise if GB&I/Eng had played 3 test in four weeks preceding SL to crowds of 7k+, 80k+ and 48k plus, would the attendence to season opener of MM be affected significantly the following week? As with the previous world cup The London double header was significantly down (in this instance to the same level of 3 years ago), Newcastle crowds was down about 1.5k (so they are probably concerned) Leicester was slightly up and northampton's slightly down (so not much change there, Worcs as expected. All this on a full weekend of international football fixtures to be followed tomorrow and wednesday by another set important international football matches.

All perfectly valid points

Regarding the international matches – we don’t tend to see the Autumn internationals or the 6 Nations games having a negative effect on Premiership matches so I am not sure why the one home England warm up game for the World Cup would have a major impact

I guess I am just struggling to see why a World Cup that is played on the other side of the world where the majority of games will take place during the middle of the night would affect UK attendances

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:07 am  

Dunbar wrote:

All perfectly valid points

Regarding the international matches – we don’t tend to see the Autumn internationals or the 6 Nations games having a negative effect on Premiership matches so I am not sure why the one home England warm up game for the World Cup would have a major impact

I guess I am just struggling to see why a World Cup that is played on the other side of the world where the majority of games will take place during the middle of the night would affect UK attendances

For the majority of the 6N and AI games Aviva Premiership games do not take place on that weekend, but when they do teams that not regularly sell out their games do see a reduction so to say those games have no effect on domestic fixtures is at best wrong though more accurately being deliberately misleading. There is a pattern here, when world cups take in RU domestic fixtures during that world cup and during the start of the season take a hit.

It should not take too much to figure out why that is the case. During the last world cup why do you think the London Double had a similar fall in attendence? Attendences will be affected because people will be attending games on a continent the other side of the world. The other thing to bear in mind CL/T14/AP will be missing 200 of their best players, it does not take a genius to figure out that will affect attendences, now on this very forum people were stating that SWB and Marshall playing in a test against Australia would add 15k to 20k to the attendence; now something has to give here. The european games will be in most cases played in the morning not the middle of the night. I can see where you are coming from but most of your points are not backed up by reality or knowledge.

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:16 am  

Thoth wrote:

For the majority of the 6N and AI games Aviva Premiership games do not take place on that weekend, but when they do teams that not regularly sell out their games do see a reduction so to say those games have no effect on domestic fixtures is at best wrong though more accurately being deliberately misleading. There is a pattern here, when world cups take in RU domestic fixtures during that world cup and during the start of the season take a hit.

It should not take too much to figure out why that is the case. During the last world cup why do you think the London Double had a similar fall in attendence? Attendences will be affected because people will be attending games on a continent the other side of the world. The other thing to bear in mind CL/T14/AP will be missing 200 of their best players, it does not take a genius to figure out that will affect attendences, now on this very forum people were stating that SWB and Marshall playing in a test against Australia would add 15k to 20k to the attendence; now something has to give here. The european games will be in most cases played in the morning not the middle of the night. I can see where you are coming from but most of your points are not backed up by reality or knowledge.

I am happy to accept your rationale behind the attendances and as I have stated above, they are all fair points. I was just seeking to understand the mind set a little more (as I have stated on these boards many times, the sport of RL is dominated by the club scene and I envy the International focus that is seen throughout the sport of Rugby Union)

I’m not sure though why you would state that I am being deliberately misleading or that my points are not backed up by reality or knowledge as this seems to be confrontational for the sake of it during a polite conversation

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:34 am  

Alan Tait: Newcastle Falcons at our lowest ebb Tait added: “You have got to give praise to the Bath defence, and their coach Brad Davis is an old rugby-leaguer like myself. "He has Bath defending like a league side, and I am keen to bring a bit more of that into our own repertoire. They shut us down well, and made life tough for our danger men." Love the first comment too

Alan Tait: Newcastle Falcons at our lowest ebb Tait added: “You have got to give praise to the Bath defence, and their coach Brad Davis is an old rugby-leaguer like myself. "He has Bath defending like a league side, and I am keen to bring a bit more of that into our own repertoire. They shut us down well, and made life tough for our danger men." Love the first comment too

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Thu Sep 08, 2011 1:02 am  

Australian rugby union fans are apparently fuming after Channel 9 decided to delay the telecast of the opening RUWC match for Friends and Scooby tomorrow night.

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:34 am  

Catalancs wrote:

Australian rugby union fans are apparently fuming after Channel 9 decided to delay the telecast of the opening RUWC match for Friends and Scooby tomorrow night.

I'm sure the two of them will manage some how. Although they have made league fans happy by showing the storm game live in victoria.

Re: If you must discuss Union, do it here II : Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:55 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

Australian rugby union fans are apparently fuming after Channel 9 decided to delay the telecast of the opening RUWC match for Friends and Scooby tomorrow night.

Nice one,them Aussie union fans are so full of themselves anyway.

When the union WC was based in Aus in 2003 they thought it would be the death of RL all over the world,stuff em.