Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:11 pm  

Two good games this weekend on free to air TV at prime time slots thats how we start! Union built up its tv audiance over 30 to 40 years before uping its game & selling its coverage to pay to view & it still ensures a good amount of its internationals are free to air. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:33 pm  

I think Rugby League sells itself short across the board, and not just on money.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:59 pm  

Union built itself on a solid domestic game followed by regular, consistent competitive internationals.

That's the way to prosperity as a sport. Which is why international development is so important.
Unfortunately RL has treated internationals like its spotty, ginger, annoying, 6 fingered, 3rd cousin. So we never know when England RL will be playing, where, against whom or in what competition.
The biggest step forward the sport has taken since moving to limited tackles was when we got the World Cup on a set 4 year cycle. Now we at least know when there'll be a World Cup. What we need now is to know about the other 3 years in the cycle.

RL has the solid domestic league but doesn't have the international competition. We desperately need more than Australia and NZ to play against competitively. But whilst we only have them to play against we need to bloody know when and where we're playing next and make sure at least 1 England game is at a decent stadium in London. That's where the money lives.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:01 pm  

Don't forget the "dark forces" at play in both the media and the schools,yes the schools,contribute to this.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:06 pm  

If you don't think there's a southern, London-centric bias to the media then you must live in a cave. Because it's bleedin obvious.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Thu Jul 30, 2015 8:42 pm  

So it's down to the media and the schools that RL fans don't want to spend more than 20quid to attend games?

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:36 am  

Him wrote:

Union built itself on a solid domestic game followed by regular, consistent competitive internationals.

Other way around.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:21 am  

I do not think you can compare the Welsh RU support to the English. Not the many I've met.

I tried to sell the RL World Cup at work to the many RU fans. A couple went (and enjoyed) the games but the common comment was "It's a competition to find the team to lose to Australia". Obviously we know different. But...

We're not under selling ourslves, we're the Aldi taking on the Tesco/Asda/Morrison's. And hopefully we'll be as successful.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:28 am  

I do think RL undersells itself.

That's because we're insecure as a sport always pandering, in fact, begging to certain sections of the market - to accept us, to "try us out". As such as we're always acting like a free trial, an introductory discount offer to untapped demographics.

It's not only internationals. But cheap season tickets. We have a domestic product we're ashamed of. Take the notion of expansion, which whilst good, also infers we're insecure about the geographical roots of the sport.

We need to grow some balls. Be confident and proud of our product and charge what it's worth, and at the same try to accept that some people don't like RL and never will. At least in this scenario, RL may come across as a product that's self-assured and confident, which maybe, just maybe seem subliminally more enticing to new folk.

Re: Is RL underselling itself? : Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:15 am  

Agree with all of that.