2013 World Cup

[Southern Tiger]

Most sport in the UK enjoy a general wave of support for the Home Nations during a World Cup by the wider or general sport fans community. Rugby League doesn't seem to benefit from this as much as other sports do, partly perhaps, down to the media slating the tornaments viability before a ball has even been kicked.

Could we prempt this and do anything to enhance the support for the home nations and prevent history from repeating itself?

[Robin Evans]

it's not even got wholehearted support from within our game, let alone the wider public!

[RP London]

when you say "most sports" i take it you mean football, rugby union and cricket.. becuaset here are alot of other world cups that go on and we have no idea they are even taking place.. hockey, ice hockey, basketball has a world champs i belive, water polo, polo ( i would assume) etc etc

Football has a huge boost as its a massive tournament..

Rugby Union has only really had this in the last few tournaments.. 1995 onwards really i would suggest becuase it wasstill growing before then but the success in 2003 and going in as favourites didnt half help

cricket.. i'm not sure there is massive increase in interest but i think it depends on where it is and how good we are and how long it goes on for (the last one went on far too long)

RL needs some good money spent on it before this one.. advertising and marketing as a whole to show people it is on, that we do stand a chance (alhtough slim) and that it is worth getting excited about.. until then there wont be huge swathes of support springing up.

[EastLondonMike]

helps hugely when you have a friendly press section and TV station giving as large a push as possible.. two things RL has never had, and probably wont have in time for the next world cup.

[Dave T]

helps hugely when you have a friendly press section and TV station giving as large a push as possible.. two things RL has never had, and probably wont have in time for the next world cup.

The BBC could play a huge part here, although I wonder whether they would actually want to.

I would rather sacrifice broadcasting income for a deal which guarantees high profile coverage on the BBC in the month or so leading up to the tournament. We need to see interviews with our players and personalities on mainstream shows (things like the One Show, Breakfast,) we need slots on the news about the build up, we need special programmes about past World Cups and Test series' in the weeks leading up to the tournament to get the public aware of the history of the tournament, we need adverts for the tournament for weeks building up, and we also need the BBC to treat each game they cover with the respect it deserves.

We haev seen in this country that when the BBC tells people there is an event on, people sit up and take notice. If the Home Nations Teams do well, then there could be a lot of profile raised, look at things like curling (?) and the profile that got when the Olympic team did well, or the way that Olympic Rowers and Cyclists are treated, despite the fact that these are events people aren't generally interested in.

It can be done, we just need to be very smart with the media and broadcasting partners.

[RP London]

The BBC could play a huge part here, although I wonder whether they would actually want to.

I would rather sacrifice broadcasting income for a deal which guarantees high profile coverage on the BBC in the month or so leading up to the tournament. We need to see interviews with our players and personalities on mainstream shows (things like the One Show, Breakfast,) we need slots on the news about the build up, we need special programmes about past World Cups and Test series' in the weeks leading up to the tournament to get the public aware of the history of the tournament, we need adverts for the tournament for weeks building up, and we also need the BBC to treat each game they cover with the respect it deserves.

We haev seen in this country that when the BBC tells people there is an event on, people sit up and take notice. If the Home Nations Teams do well, then there could be a lot of profile raised, look at things like curling (?) and the profile that got when the Olympic team did well, or the way that Olympic Rowers and Cyclists are treated, despite the fact that these are events people aren't generally interested in.

It can be done, we just need to be very smart with the media and broadcasting partners.

agree.. sacrifice a bit of money for more exposure each time for the world cup and watch the money raised away from the world cup go up due to this extra exposure..

especially if we were to get a past world cup programme that pushes the fact that unlike the other "major" sports we have won this damn world cup more than just once!

[The Future is League]

helps hugely when you have a friendly press section and TV station giving as large a push as possible.. two things RL has never had, and probably wont have in time for the next world cup.

Also us as fans can make more people aware about the 2013 world cup. the RFL can't do it all, so us fans must do our bit as well.

[deluded pom?]

Get the car flags and the flags hanging out of the home windows and wait for a bemused neighbour to ask why you have done it. Tell them it's for England who are playing in the World Cup. Then wait for the reply along the lines that it's "only rugby".

[no13benny]

Can someone make a countdown clock on a facebook group which send a reminder of how long to go every month to the members, who can then share it with their friends? We could probably cover every person in the uk that way and they'd get a reminder every month/week for the next 3 years

[The Future is League]

Get the car flags and the flags hanging out of the home windows and wait for a bemused neighbour to ask why you have done it. Tell them it's for England who are playing in the World Cup. Then wait for the reply along the lines that it's "only rugby".

at least that would make people aware of the RL World Cup.

[deluded pom?]

at least that would make people aware of the RL World Cup.

True but it wouldn't make them care. Only football matters to the once every two year bandwagon jumping patriots.

[Maximus Decimus]

There's simply not enough prestige involved.

We're a sport that is small internationally and domestically. There's not really a bangwagon to jump on.

If we were to win the Quad nations we would get a degree of publicity purely from the fact that we haven't won it in so long. That would create increased interest inevitably but for RL to ever get anything like that level of support, it needs more countries playing the game at a good level.

[1976PMJwires]

There's simply not enough prestige involved.

We're a sport that is small internationally and domestically. There's not really a bangwagon to jump on.

If we were to win the Quad nations we would get a degree of publicity purely from the fact that we haven't won it in so long. That would create increased interest inevitably but for RL to ever get anything like that level of support, it needs more countries playing the game at a good level.

Sad but very very true.

[amm]

Can someone make a countdown clock on a facebook group which send a reminder of how long to go every month to the members, who can then share it with their friends? We could probably cover every person in the uk that way and they'd get a reminder every month/week for the next 3 years

There's already a page/group

see here

[The Future is League]

Can someone make a countdown clock on a facebook group which send a reminder of how long to go every month to the members, who can then share it with their friends? We could probably cover every person in the uk that way and they'd get a reminder every month/week for the next 3 years

Good idea. we will need to do things like this make more people aware of the 2013 RL World Cup. we need to get as many as smart people as possible on our side in the build up and during our World cup.

done properly the 2013 RL world cup will be a huge success for Rugby League in this country, and Worldwide.

Edited July 13, 2010 by The Future is League

[no13benny]

Seems that South Africa and Italy are both pushing for the World Cup in 2013, keep posting news here on the event regards nations aspirations, development, appointments, matches, qualifying etc!

[rlno1]

There's simply not enough prestige involved.

We're a sport that is small internationally and domestically. There's not really a bangwagon to jump on.

If we were to win the Quad nations we would get a degree of publicity purely from the fact that we haven't won it in so long. That would create increased interest inevitably but for RL to ever get anything like that level of support, it needs more countries playing the game at a good level.

Surely the game can plan to grow.

Look at the past, in 1970 GB won the Ashes and in 1972 they won the World Cup, however in 1971 v the Kiwi tourists (who had months earlier beaten Australia) only 13,000 watched the 3 tests and in the 1973 series v Australia only 36,000 watched the 3 matches.

By 1990 133,000 watched the Kangaroo series and in 140,000 in 1994 there was also 73,000 at the 1992 WC Final.

[RP London]

Why not sort out the support for England first?

8000 at Leigh (seriously...) was an embarassment for the france game. 1 home test all season, and they regress from last year. Why not just concentrate on getting people from these 'RL hotbeds' to follow their own national team?

put it into context with the timing and placement and the opposition and we see the problem... we have a poor international scene and we dont help ourselves with poor planning..

sort ourselves out, then look at selling international games seperatly for more exposure

get more regualr internationals

have a euro nations involving england yes england may walk away with it for awhile but until england are involved then the "prestige" will not be there etc..

get rep rugby up there in the consciousness... it gets new people more involved from around the country becuase thy have a team to support.. their country.. its how cricket has grown and rugby union.. though pushing the international scene and letting the club game grow from the knock on..

[Dave T]

There's simply not enough prestige involved.

We're a sport that is small internationally and domestically. There's not really a bangwagon to jump on.

If we were to win the Quad nations we would get a degree of publicity purely from the fact that we haven't won it in so long. That would create increased interest inevitably but for RL to ever get anything like that level of support, it needs more countries playing the game at a good level.

We need to stop comparing to other sports or tournaments. We need to see what they do and learn from them, and realise some of the benefits that they do, but it won't necessarily happen on the same scale, and that is fine.

Our challenge needs to be to get more people interested. To get people who don't normally watch the game, watching, whether that is through increased viewing figures, or whether that is through more bums on seats.

We shouldn't be looking at the coverage a football or RU World Cup gets and beat ourselves up about the fact that we don't get that. Those sports invest heavily in their international game and have fans who are prepared to support it in the main, and they deserve a hell of a lot more coverage for their internationals than us.

Our aim needs to be to get the highest profile possible for our sport, compared to our previous best, not benchmarking ourselves against other sports WC's. Our last WC was low-profile and came across as a dour affair. We can do a lot to change that this time. It is in our hands, and whilst we may not be watched by 10m in our big games, we can do much better than we ever have before, and that needs to be our aim.

[Southern Tiger]

We need to stop comparing to other sports or tournaments. We need to see what they do and learn from them, and realise some of the benefits that they do, but it won't necessarily happen on the same scale, and that is fine.

Our challenge needs to be to get more people interested. To get people who don't normally watch the game, watching, whether that is through increased viewing figures, or whether that is through more bums on seats.

We shouldn't be looking at the coverage a football or RU World Cup gets and beat ourselves up about the fact that we don't get that. Those sports invest heavily in their international game and have fans who are prepared to support it in the main, and they deserve a hell of a lot more coverage for their internationals than us.

Our aim needs to be to get the highest profile possible for our sport, compared to our previous best, not benchmarking ourselves against other sports WC's. Our last WC was low-profile and came across as a dour affair. We can do a lot to change that this time. It is in our hands, and whilst we may not be watched by 10m in our big games, we can do much better than we ever have before, and that needs to be our aim.

I agree with all that but lets be constructive and positive about what we can achieve realistically. A perceived newness can be reconstructed as a positive but we have to believe it ourselves to get the message across. I like all the web ideas, its something we can all do our bit with and the new Wales RL site is excellent too. I'm not trying to compare our sport with others but as you say find the bits of marketing which make people take their home nation to their heart and get behind them with a realistic expectation of what might constitute a successfull tournament.

[no13benny]

^I think the biggest bit of marketing that helps is general 'awareness'

If it's in the public's minds and gathers momentum, suddenly every major company and beer seller etc will jump on board because they want the public's backing too, to sell stuff.