Big Picture

So most didn't know another form of rugby existed and of the few who did most were indifferent or negative leaving a tiny minority of your sample who like it. That's what I thought was the case. That's not going to work though. Toronto showed that a quality pro team can spark interest in new territory like nothing else can.

You've said a few times before that in your past travels up and down the UK, when you tried talking the game up with locals in areas outside the heartlands you found that most of them either had never heard of the game or had but viewed it negatively. I've asked you at least twice what the mix of those views was, i.e. were there more who had never heard of the game or more who who had but viewed it negatively, and how much bigger was the bigger of the two groups? You've never answered that AFAIK.

Not sons of current players, sons (or more accurately grandsons) of past players. Not just of past players, but past fans too. We know that the fan base is aging, and stagnant for some clubs and shrinking for others. We know the player pool is shrinking too. If the sons and grandsons of the RL players and fans of yesteryear were all still interested in the game that would not be the case. If they were all still interested, they would easily be enough to replenish the fan base and player pool by themselves wouldn't they. But that evidently isn't happening, as the stagnant and slowly shrinking fan base shows. Therefore it's reasonable to conclude that their interest has waned, and it makes sense to inquire why. And I think it very likely that when they compare what RL has to offer them to what other sports offer they see RL's offering as poor and uninteresting.

What you're overlooking is that the audience problem is a direct result of the geography problem. The game can't cater to those other demographics you mention without a lot more money to spend on upgrading its presentation, but its stunted geography means that it can't attract the sort of money needed to make those upgrades. The sort of money needed is nowhere to be found in those heartland towns, and there's no way to attract it into those towns either. So yes, having top-tier teams in Leigh, Wigan or Castleford does stop the sport from doing that because they're nowhere near fashionable enough. When the norm in other sports is national and international competitions with the top teams based largely in big cities, I suggest that there's no evidence that those other demographics can be attracted to a small regional competition whereas the notion that they can't be is much more likely.

The problem is that as a small, poor, low profile regional sport locked into smallish, unfashionable towns the sport has no way to do that. That picture simply doesn't have enough appeal now, even in the game's heartland. This is why more and more of the sons and grandsons of the RL players and fans of yesteryear aren't interested and only go to matches if their parents drag them along. If it doesn't appeal to them, how is it supposed to appeal to outsiders? As a result IMG has precious little to work with and all they've been able to come up with is rehashing past ideas which didn't work and/or the clubs resist. And just how do you expect the Aussies to change the fundamental problems which I just spelled out?

@Eddiementioned it, I was just clarifying things. Lacrosse might not be your radar but as you can see here World Lacrosse has 96 members in four continental federations, not that different from RU and cricket and way bigger than RL.

That would never happen in lacrosse. As you can see here, in lacrosse at least 85% of players on any national teams must be citizens who hold that nation's passport and the rest but all be eligible for citizenship under its laws. That's serious international sport for you.

Of course they haven't. With a steady procession of visiting teams from places which Londoners don't rate because they've either never of them or they have a negative impression of them, how could you imagine any other result?????

Wrong. What Auckland has there are New Zealanders with Samoan heritage, that doesn't make them Samoan unless they get Samoan citizenship and passports.

Are they Samoan citizens, or just Aussies and Kiwis pretending they're Samoan?

ROFLMAO that would just depress the price they can get for their next 10 expansion franchises. No rich guy in his right mind would ever pay the 500 million US$ they can get now without a guaranteed place in the league and guaranteed income from its TV deals etc.

The top teams are in smallish, unfashionable, economically disadvantaged towns in a part of the UK with a steadily declining share of the country's population which the British public doesn't rate because they don't associate those towns with big time major pro sport. Just how is anyone ever going to make that box office???????????

That's how I've felt ever since the Wolfpack misadventure and the small time response to it from so many in the sport. In time today is liable to be seen as another nail in its coffin. As I said earlier, the FFR XIII is even more hard-up than the RFL, which itself always does things on the cheap precisely because of how hard-up it is. Assuming that they have the know-how to do things much better (an assumption we can by no means guarantee), neither organization has the money needed for that, and no way to get it either.

You're forgetting that the FFR XIII is even more hard up than the RFL, and the RFL always does things on the cheap because they're so hard up.

OMG just how close to the edge are they if they can't even afford a bit more than 6,000 £ in one-time payments for the players???