Barcelona record crowd?

[Just Browny]

16 minutes ago, EssexRL said:

Again basing this on the people around us in the block we were in who were Spanish (the bit of the ground opposite the main Catalan supporters bit). They’d bought the special top, had flags and followed the game. The separatist link made a difference - lots of enthusiasm for the Catalan anthem and the banners supporting the prisoners and calling for independence. If at all possible it would make sense to build on this and do something else in Barca next season. 

If we make RL about a political movement, we will have little room for complaint when we find RL in Spain banned by the national authorities.

[Oxford]

3 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

If we make RL about a political movement, we will have little room for complaint when we find RL in Spain banned by the national authorities.

Wouldn't be the first time though, would it?

 

[Bleep1673]

8 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

If we make RL about a political movement, we will have little room for complaint when we find RL in Spain banned by the national authorities.

Mike Rylance wrote about this

[Man of Kent]

I was sat next to a rugby union fan from Dominican Republic living in Barcelona. She didn’t have a clue that rugby league even existed and asked me why they kept playing the ball with their foot. 

[Trojan]

1 minute ago, scotchy1 said:

Same way we did Les Catalans preferably 

I was in favour of Les Catalans, because I saw it as a way of reviving the game in France.  But now we're to have another French side engineered  into the British Super league, for me that won't accomplish the revival.    IMO the efforts should go into building a French league back to where it was pre Vichy.   Otherwise, like Celtic Crusaders, with no real local infra structure, it'll collapse.

[latchford albion]

6 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I was sat next to a rugby union fan from Dominican Republic living in Barcelona. She didn’t have a clue that rugby league even existed and asked me why they kept playing the ball with their foot. 

I don't know whether I'm more surprised about a yawnion fan from the Dominican Republic being at the game or the ball being played with the foot.

[Damien]

Some very positive reports on Spanish/Catalan media sites with positive references to the match and the size of the crowd. The Catalan political situation features strongly, as you'd expect and after all that is how the match came about. Use Google translate to your heart's content:

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/deportes/20190517/los-dragons-catalans-quieren-lucirse-en-el-jardin-de-messi-7452511

https://amp.elperiodico.com/es/deportes/20190518/los-dragons-catalans-triunfan-y-animan-la-fiesta-del-rugby-en-el-camp-nou-7461970

https://www.elnacional.cat/es/deportes/dragons-catalans-wigan-warriors-camp-nou-cronica_385753_102_amp.html

https://www.mundodeportivo.com/rugby/20190518/462318657593/el-rugby-13-reune-a-30000-espectadores-en-el-camp-nou.html?facet=amp

https://www.elnacional.cat/ca/esports/dragons-catalans-segadors-camp-nou-himne-catalunya_385729_102.html

https://www.elnacional.cat/ca/esports/dragons-catalans-wigan-warriors-independencia-rugbi-camp-nou_385723_102.html

https://beteve.cat/esports/dragons-catalans-wigan-warriors-rugbi-superlliga-camp-nou-maig-2019/amp/

https://www.elcomercio.com/deportes/victoria-record-asistencia-dragons-catalans.html

https://www.lesportiudecatalunya.cat/mes-esport/article/1606260-dragons-sense-cadenes.html

https://www.ccma.cat/esport3/el-camp-nou-empeny-els-dragons-catalans-cap-al-triomf-contra-el-wigan-33-16/noticia/2922842/

Nice to see highlights and photos on the Barcelona website too

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/videos/1222909/highlights-dragons-catalans-wigan-warriors-33-10

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/photos/1222882/catalans-dragons-wigan-warriors-33-10

 

 

[Oxford]

54 minutes ago, Bleep1673 said:

Mike Rylance wrote about this

About : politics, Spain and TGG?

 

7 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I was sat next to a rugby union fan from Dominican Republic living in Barcelona. She didn’t have a clue that rugby league even existed and asked me why they kept playing the ball with their foot. 

That describes the nature and size of the task perfectly.

And below

 

5 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Same way we did Les Catalans preferably 

Pretty much.

The other end of the task and just as huge is taking TGG fans out of their small box and into the unknown.

 

[deluded pom?]

13 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Celtic crusaders, for all their problems, did bring a revival in the Welsh game, we went from 0 Welsh clubs with pretty much 0 Welsh developed players pre Celtic to now 2 Welsh clubs, the player Celtic brought through like flower, Dodson, Kear and others like Grace seeing the game as an option. 

Les catalans have been an unqualified and unmitigated success story, they are a big, strong, stable attractive club, we have gone from 1 or 2 French players playing pro to 20-30. If we can repeat that with Toulouse the results will be exponential.

This idea of 'going back'is crazy. If you achieve success you repeat and build on that success. You dont then focus on doing what was unsuccessful again. 

I don’t disagree with your post scotchy but the Vichy puppet government confiscating French RL assets, never to be returned, wasn’t exactly a RL policy. It was also the choice to ignore television that began the spiral to what the French game became in the 1970s.

[deluded pom?]

6 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Possibly so, but the game is where it is in France. Throughout the world the game is littered with what ifs and if onlys but we are where we are. We cant really affect those things now but we can look to the future

All I’m saying is it wasn’t a RL decision to set French RL back. It was a deliberate act by  rugby union. Sabotage if you will.

[Pulga]

39 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

I was sat next to a rugby union fan from Dominican Republic living in Barcelona. She didn’t have a clue that rugby league even existed and asked me why they kept playing the ball with their foot. 

It's a good thing.

I've spoken to literally hundreds of Latin Americans (because I cold call them). This is extremely common.

[The 4 of Us]

46 minutes ago, deluded pom? said:

I don’t disagree with your post scotchy but the Vichy puppet government confiscating French RL assets, never to be returned, wasn’t exactly a RL policy. It was also the choice to ignore television that began the spiral to what the French game became in the 1970s.

Wondered how long that would take. Surprised that no one has mentioned this! 

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, scotchy1 said:

Throughout the world the game is littered with what ifs and if onlys but we are where we are. We cant really affect those things now but we can look to the future

If we look backwards for answers that's what will happen again and again, RL does not learn from its past and is forever doomed to rleive it.

I think it was a commentator who turned his back on RL in France that caused a great deal of the damage and left FR XIII looking inwards.

32 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

Wondered how long that would take. Surprised that no one has mentioned this! 

I think they did!

And

"Super League chief executive Robert Elstone says Saturday’s game at the Nou Camp is a big statement of ambition and intent for the competition.

Challenge Cup winners Catalans beat Super League champions Wigan 33-16 in front of a new Super League regular season record crowd of 31,555.

Elstone said: “The whole of Super League was excited by Nou Camp. It is such big statement of ambition and intent and we should salute the two Chairmen involved – the vision and enterprise shown by Catalans’ Bernard Guasch, and the unhesitatingly support offered by Wigan’s Ian Lenagan."

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/super-league-chief-robert-elstone-hails-nou-camp-occasion/

[TboneFromTO]

21 hours ago, Dave T said:

You are missing the point on this one. That principle is fair enough for UK clubs, but tourism is a big part of the Catalans success story. 

The local authorities and sponsors will be less interested without these tourists selling the coffers.

It's unsustainable to depend on tourism long run though.  

The team needs to build its local base (and appears to be doing that well). While it has been a big part of the success story, there is no way that has been the vision from the club (tourism dependent) as a long term model.

[winnyason]

This is massive not just for superleague, but code. There doors opening toulouse is pretty well on mark to play at ernest next season and stade getting along.

Look some people some supporters will get upset if toulouse where drafted in. Given the beating they coped v twp depth is again an issue. 

 

[JonM]

1 hour ago, The 4 of Us said:

Wondered how long that would take. Surprised that no one has mentioned this!

Spain's most popular brand of bottled water as sponsors ?

[JonM]

38 minutes ago, TboneFromTO said:

It's unsustainable to depend on tourism long run though. 

France is the world's most popular tourist destination, with tourism 10% of the country's GDP. I doubt tourism is going away as a big chunk of the economy anytime soon. I've been to France dozens of times over the last 25 years to watch RL games.

Think I saw a quote from Guasch saying that their total income for the season from sponsorships was now over 4.5 million Euros. I'd guess that's comfortably more than the total revenue of several SL clubs. 

[EssexRL]

3 hours ago, Just Browny said:

If we make RL about a political movement, we will have little room for complaint when we find RL in Spain banned by the national authorities.

Not what I was suggesting but clearly a feature yesterday. 

[Rupert Prince]

59 minutes ago, TboneFromTO said:

It's unsustainable to depend on tourism long run though.  

The team needs to build its local base (and appears to be doing that well). While it has been a big part of the success story, there is no way that has been the vision from the club (tourism dependent) as a long term model.

Would it not also be nice to see 5000 French supporters go to Magic Weekend?  Will they?  We cannot expect any significant numbers to travel away every week (although there are a lot of the French in London)  but is there any appetite to travel?

"When" Catalan get to the Cup Final again... it will be interesting to see how big the crowd is.  Will they out shout the Bulls fans?

[Chris22]

I think what has been forgotten amongst all this is that the centre of Perpignan to the Nou Camp is 122 miles. Regardless of the prestige, that's a hell of a distance for Catalan fans, who are no doubt mainly Perpignan based to travel for a home game. Particularly as Perpignan is, like many rugby league heartlands, a working class area.

For context, that is the equivalent of St Helens playing a home match at Craven Park, or vice versa. To get the buy in that they got, and more fans that attend a usual home game to go to Barcelona is incredible. Also very pleasing to hear from the Guardian that a quarter of sales were from Barcelona (although call me a cynic, but I'm sure that figure is rolled out for every non-heartland rugby league game!)

I said once this was announced that we should calm our expectations, and that breaking the attendance record would be a huge success. To not only do that, but break it by over 20% is a remarkable achievement. I don't think any other club in this country could achieve that kind of figure if they took a one-off match to a larger, local stadium.

I hope we go back there and try and grow it further. Sadly, I read on Twitter that the stadium is being renovated shortly, so that may not be possible. But for now, it was a good new story for the sport and the largest rugby league attendance for a game in mainland Europe in living memory. What a great occasion it looked and I'd love to be at one in the future.

And to think how different this all could have been had Catalans been relegated in the Million Pound Game in 2017, which at one point, was very much staring us in the face.

[Just Browny]

36 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

I think what has been forgotten amongst all this is that the centre of Perpignan to the Nou Camp is 122 miles. Regardless of the prestige, that's a hell of a distance for Catalan fans, who are no doubt mainly Perpignan based to travel for a home game. Particularly as Perpignan is, like many rugby league heartlands, a working class area.

For context, that is the equivalent of St Helens playing a home match at Craven Park, or vice versa. To get the buy in that they got, and more fans that attend a usual home game to go to Barcelona is incredible. Also very pleasing to hear from the Guardian that a quarter of sales were from Barcelona (although call me a cynic, but I'm sure that figure is rolled out for every non-heartland rugby league game!)

I said once this was announced that we should calm our expectations, and that breaking the attendance record would be a huge success. To not only do that, but break it by over 20% is a remarkable achievement. I don't think any other club in this country could achieve that kind of figure if they took a one-off match to a larger, local stadium.

I hope we go back there and try and grow it further. Sadly, I read on Twitter that the stadium is being renovated shortly, so that may not be possible. But for now, it was a good new story for the sport and the largest rugby league attendance for a game in mainland Europe in living memory. What a great occasion it looked and I'd love to be at one in the future.

And to think how different this all could have been had Catalans been relegated in the Million Pound Game in 2017, which at one point, was very much staring us in the face.

Wish I could like this more than once. Spot on.

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, TboneFromTO said:

It's unsustainable to depend on tourism long run though.  

The team needs to build its local base (and appears to be doing that well). While it has been a big part of the success story, there is no way that has been the vision from the club (tourism dependent) as a long term model.

I disagree. A team based in Southern France playing in an international league is likely to always play on their appeal to visitors.

It would be outright bizarre not to have that as a part of their plan tbh.

[Oxford]

23 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I disagree. A team based in Southern France playing in an international league is likely to always play on their appeal to visitors.

It would be outright bizarre not to have that as a part of their plan tbh.

More than bizarre,  it would be stupid.

[winnyason]

5 hours ago, Trojan said:

I was in favour of Les Catalans, because I saw it as a way of reviving the game in France.  But now we're to have another French side engineered  into the British Super league, for me that won't accomplish the revival.    IMO the efforts should go into building a French league back to where it was pre Vichy.   Otherwise, like Celtic Crusaders, with no real local infra structure, it'll collapse.

Hmmm comparing welsh local scene to french and strength. What ever floats your boat

[Trojan]

1 minute ago, winnyason said:

Hmmm comparing welsh local scene to french and strength. What ever floats your boat

It may not be a direct comparison, but both areas are very strong Union areas, and winning fans over will be difficult. Obviously the other problem in France is the distances.  Three hours by road from Toulouse to Perpignan.  France has the same population as the UK and is possibly three times the area.   I went to Toulouse in 2017 to watch Fev play.  The ground administration seemed a bit lax.  Many people got in for nothing.  TBH I can't see it thriving in SL.  Toulouse is great for a visit though.  If the big bash was there I'd be off like a shot.