Big Picture

Those tournaments were terribly organized, what moron thought it good to put Russia and England in the same group after the thrashings Russia received in the 2000 World Cup?

His point is that you don't want that to happen when you're trying to attract new fans, because — especially when the visitors put up that big lead — that will turn them off.

It's Ottawa, not "Ottowa", haven't you learned that in all this time? With the sort of Canadians the unpaid ranks which exist here at present can attract, France coming over to play Canada would likely see France put even more points on the board than in 1995. Fresh off the plane on their way back home from New Zealand I watched as they put 72 points past that Canadian team.

Does Joe even know what the NRL is?

I completely agree. The rule book defines obstruction as "impeding an opponent who does not have the ball", in my view that can only apply to an act of one of the ball carrier's teammates but never to the ball carrier as the latter is seeking to avoid contact with the opponents so as to advance the ball.

Was that presence a good presence (i.e. one appealing/inspiring/enticing etc. to the public) though?

Obviously I was asking about the number.

Does anyone know what the crowd was?

Scratch England Knights, making someone else's national team play England's reserve team is insulting to that other nation.

There wasn't in Toronto either, until the Wolfpack created one by offering Torontonians something unique and different from other sports' offerings: intercontinental transatlantic play. If Birmingham is like the way various posters have characterized the rest of non-RL-heartland Britain, most Brummies don't know that two versions of rugby exist and most of the remainder who do have a negative view of RL because they perceive it as a small time regional sport with limited appeal. Any effort to establish pro RL there consequently requires a way to break through the wall comprised of lack of awareness, indifference and opposition to the game in order to attract a following and succeed. I'll repeat here what I've said elsewhere: a franchised multinational, intercontinental and transatlantic league with teams in a blend of familiar and exotic cities is the one possible way to do that. More than likely no one would believe such a thing to be possible for "Rugby League" in view of how the game is apparently perceived by other Brits, so such a league would probably have to rename the sport and call it something else altogether to overcome that perception.

Done right (e.g. as the home of a West Midlands franchise in a new franchised multinational league with the franchises all based in comparable big cities) Birmingham would certainly give Brummies something they wouldn't get in other sports and be an asset to the game. Starting at the bottom of a league structure where should they succeed and get to the top they'd get to play opponents from less than inspiring places such as Warrington, St Helens and Wigan, they'd probably struggle to establish themselves and fail like other expansion efforts.

Assuming that I can find any of those that's three countries, hardly "most of the world" though.

Now that you mention him, Koukash would likely be on a very short list of individuals who might be interested.

The question is though, with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group out of the picture now and Pérez having likely already spent the bulk of the money he got from selling his company in Toronto (don't forget that he also bought out Hemel the other year), who would provide the capital to back it?

Do you have some evidence that most of the world did it? I've only encountered it in RL circles and never seen it anywhere else.