RUGBY LEAGUE supporters throughout the country have apparently responded enthusiastically to the announcement of the impending Ashes series last week, with the RFL reporting that ticket and hospitality sales are already extremely strong, particularly for the second and third Test matches at Everton and Headingley respectively.
Along with everyone else who loves Rugby League, I’ve felt a spring in my step over the last few days as we anticipate the first visit of the Kangaroos to these shores for an Ashes series since 2003, although they have made visits here for World Cups and Three and Four Nations matches since that date.
The challenge facing the Rugby League authorities in this country is quite simply to get as near to capacity as possible for the first Test at Wembley Stadium.
To try to draw 90,000 spectators to the national stadium, even for an Ashes contest between England and Australia, will require some very smart marketing of the event, although I was glad to note that Warrington Wolves owner Simon Moran, who is almost certainly the most successful concert promoter in the country, has offered his help in boosting the attendance at Wembley.
I’m sure that the other two Tests, played at much smaller venues and in the north of England, will be easier to sell, although there is potentially a problem with Everton’s new stadium that I hope will be solved before November 1st.
The new stadium, which is said to be extremely impressive, has still to pass all its safety tests, with perhaps the most worrying issue being the access points to the stadium, given that it can apparently be approached from only one direction and there are some quite narrow access roads and a narrow bridge that all spectators will have to cross.
The Everton club recently held a test event with a half-capacity attendance of around 26,000 people and there were very significant delays in moving people in and out.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen when the second Test is played there.
What’s going on at the RFL?
A journalist called Matt Hughes wrote an article in the Guardian on Friday, repeating recent anonymous allegations of a culture of misogyny at the RFL.
The article was based on anonymous sources and with information that is very non-specific.
In his article Matt makes the following points:
“The Guardian has learned that:
Several formal complaints have been made in the past fortnight alleging a historical sexist culture and the use of misogynistic language.
Sport England, which is providing £11.9m of government funding to the RFL over five years until 2027, has been made aware of the complaints, with senior officials expressing concerns.
Australia’s National Rugby League is unhappy about the RFL’s board changes, leading to fears they could jeopardise its plans to buy a stake in Super League.
The International Rugby League board is considering removing England’s seat from the 10-strong board that runs the international game.
The complaints are understood to have been made anonymously a fortnight ago via the RFL’s whistleblowing email address. The RFL chief executive, Tony Sutton, is aware of the complaints and is taking them seriously.
Sutton has also told RFL staff that anyone else with concerns should feel safe to raise them with him in person, or via the whistleblowing hotline. The RFL has yet to open a formal investigation, but a source at the governing body told the Guardian it is likely to do so in line with whistleblowing policy.”
That article is hardly flattering for the RFL and it raises some questions in my mind about what is actually going on at Rugby League HQ.
For me, it raises the following questions.
How many formal complaints have been made in the past fortnight alleging a historical sexist culture and the use of misogynistic language?
How many people signed each of those complaints?
Could the RFL name the senior officials at Sport England who have expressed concerns about the complaints, or if it can’t name them, can it indicate how many Sport England officials have expressed concern and at what level of the organisation they operate?
The only comments I have seen linked to the NRL are those by Shane Richardson, who, as far as I am aware, is a club official and not an NRL one. So could the reveal which NRL officials have expressed unhappiness.
Who at the IRL board has suggested that England’s seat could be removed from the 10-man board that runs the game and how would the RFL react to this threat, if indeed it is true?
Do the RFL intend to open a formal investigation, as Matt’s article suggests, into the anonymous complaints?
How many women are employed by the RFL and RL Commercial at the Etihad offices and how many of those women have either confirmed that they support the anonymous allegations or, on the other hand, have distanced themselves from those complaints.
I put all those questions to the RFL and inevitably it was reluctant to give much detail about what is clearly a highly sensitive subject. You will see its response in this story.
I obviously don’t know how much truth there is in these allegations, although I don’t like to see people smeared by anonymous allegations. If there are people behaving misogynistically at the RFL they should be named and shamed.
Otherwise everyone is tarred with the same brush. I would certainly be astonished if most of the people who I come into contact with at the RFL behaved in that way, although that doesn’t mean that there might not be some bad apples.
The importance of Thursday nights
Who says the NRL is better at marketing itself than we are in England?
I’m not too sure about that, having seen the highlights of last Thursday night’s game between South Sydney and Penrith at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
There was a crowd of just over 10,000 in a stadium that seats 82,000 people.
I know the weather was bad in Sydney over recent days, but I struggle to understand why they schedule a Thursday night game, when so many eyes will be watching on TV, that is likely to be played in front of a virtually empty stadium.
As in this country, the Thursday night game should surely be a big match that will generate plenty of atmosphere, persuading people to head out to the other matches in the competition over the weekend.
The same is true in this country.
Thursday nights usually don’t have any football to compete with Rugby League, so let’s put on some local derbies with big crowds on those nights, as we saw with the opening game of the season with the game between Wigan and Leigh.