Re: North America : Fri Dec 29, 2017 7:30 am  

JEAN CAPDOUZE wrote:

How exactly could this possibly happen? What would be the process?

It all depends on just how many N. American clubs were included in SL and how many British clubs were in there.
For instance, IF there were 3 or 4 N American clubs and say, 2 French clubs, with 6 UK based clubs, what would happen to the number of fans attending games in this country. Would numbers go up or down ?

Also, "demoting" any number of English clubs could bring about their demise. At the very least it would see a huge drop in fan numbers in this country, something that the game can ill afford and lets face it, the domestic game isn't exactly in rude health, is it ?

Of course, it may well be that the N. American "experiment" is so successful, that the game takes off over there, which would be great for the sport. However, on the basis that for some time they will have to draw ALL of their players from either the UK or Australia, what will this do the quality of the comp in SL ?

Lets not even contemplate any of the N. American clubs going pop, ala Paris etc.

Re: North America : Tue Jan 02, 2018 8:29 pm  

wrencat1873 wrote:

Toronto home fixtures will be similar to Catalan home fixtures, in so far as the crowd will be made up of 95%++ of home fans and it's their own fans who they have to please and IF they can fill their ground and make it look full/pretty for the cameras, any broadcaster would be happy, after all, they are chasing revenue from advertisers and not bothered about who may be at the game.

Toronto games on Premiere last year looked very empty and exceedingly tin-pot. Unlike this time last year, the Perez-Pipeline isn't awash with press releases about sponsors, TV deals etc, rather lots and lots of "buy a ST" posts....buyIng 23k followers on FB isn't the same as having them BTW.

wrencat1873 wrote:

With respect to your comments regarding Batley and Wigan, I doubt that too many Canadians will have heard of either of them and if Mr Perez & Co can sell "the product" AND if they are competitive, especially at home, then maybe, the locals will get on board.

Lots of maybes there.......and as I have said, they are apparently being chased by suppliers for payment left right and Centre whilst their sponsors contribution is vastly reduced for 2018......it's walking like a duck and quacking like a duck.......and Perez et al would rather discuss New York now......all good con artists managed to attract attention elsewhere.

wrencat1873 wrote:

Of course, this doesn't get rid of the elephant in the room as to whether The Championship/ Super League are compatible with the inclusion of North American clubs, which is a far greater issue than whether Toronto can actually make it that far (SL).
The inclusion of N. American clubs in SL could kill the sport in the UK and perhaps a little more building of foundations needs doing before anyone considers the next step ?

Not one North American has taken up the sport as yet......but what has happened is that 30 UK/ANZAC players have been removed from the English player pool....not a fatal blow but something akin to the use of leeches to treat disease back in the dark ages.....

Re: North America : Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:07 pm  

bramleyrhino wrote:

There's a couple of ways to look at this.

You don't want to necessarily be charging into a "crowded market" because, as you said, you're competing with established sports for what is theoretically a finite level of supporter spend and media time.

Somewhere like Hamilton Ontario has been mentioned before, and that seems like a good shout - a decent-sized city region with a decent media market and only one top-flight team (Hamilton Tigercats in the CFL).

However, I'd argue that somewhere like New York isn't necessarily a "crowded market". Yes, it would look that way in the traditional sense of the term, but when you scratch beneath the surface you can make a business case that RL, offering some unique USPs, can actually find its niche in that market.

Look at the NY sports market as an example, and you'll see that it's actually quite difficult for your average Joe to "consume" that sport. It costs at least $100 to see the Giants or Jets (that's if you can actually get a ticket in the Gods), and that's before you've paid $50 to park the car and $12 for a pint of Bud Light. It's very difficult to get tickets for the Knicks, and it's expensive to watch the Yankees and the Brooklyn Nets.

In the cities, college sports doesn't attract that much of the market (perhaps with the exception of LA). Where college sports are big are the middle and southern states - with the exception of perhaps Florida I suspect those aren't the regions being alluded to by Nigel Wood.

So what you have is a big city population that, whilst it has a lot of sport to choose from, is actually unable to consume that sport - either because tickets are so scarce, or because they're prohibitively expensive. That's a USP that RL can really aim for.

It's also worth noting that as a summer sport, we're not competing with the NFL, NBA or NHL. We are competing with the MLB and MLS, but that's potentially where (in the case of New York in particular) the media market suits us.

There are two local sports broadcasters in the US. MSG covers basketball, the two NFL teams and ice hockey, but jack-all in the summer. YES covers the Mets, Yankees and NY Soccer, but little in the winter. For a broadcaster like MSG, we'd be prime content - similar in nature to ice hockey and NFL, but without the schedule clashes.

I agree that charging into cities with no real plan isn't a good strategy. If we are going into a city, we really need to understand the market we're reaching and what we offer that market. I'd argue that whilst NY is a busy market, it isn't necessarily a saturated one. There are 8 million people in New York - they can't all watch the Giants, Jets, Knicks and Yankees. Marketed properly, with the right USP, there's no reason why RL can't attract an audience.

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