eal
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Will 2024 be the best NRL season ever?
eal replied to Damien's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
The Spencer Leniu 8-week ban is an interesting situation. He clearly didn't mean to be racist and had no idea of the history behind the word he used and aboriginals. Also interesting that the NRL hasn't punished any of the players who offered their own opinions on the judicial process, despite that typically being a punishable offence. -
On an international scale, every NZ city outside of Auckland is a sleepy provincial town - maybe Wellington is in between international city and provincial town? Christchurch is pleasant enough but it is small.
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Will 2024 be the best NRL season ever?
eal replied to Damien's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Magic Round does seem to work well in Brisbane but Perth would be an interesting experiment. -
Will 2024 be the best NRL season ever?
eal replied to Damien's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Unfortunately many English rugby league fans aren't even fans of sport, they just like rugby league. I'm not quite sure what ranks higher, their hatred of any other sport, or their love of rugby league? -
To represent the All Blacks one has to play for a New Zealand Super Rugby franchise, apart from a few sabbaticals granted to veteran players for half a season or something. The Crusaders have been the most successful domestic franchise in world rugby so they are seen as a great team to play for - no better pathway to the All Blacks exists. If there is an NRL Christchurch team they are going to need to be successful fast as they will be up against the dominant Rugby culture of Christchurch and the hyper-successful Crusaders. People will lose interest in a League team down the bottom of the table pretty fast. Even the Warriors drop from relevance pretty fast when they aren't good.
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A lot of talented Kiwi RL players don't want to stay in Auckland and prefer hitting the big time over in Australia. I imagine Christchurch will have even more trouble than Auckland in retaining and attracting talent.
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I'm not sure after almost 30 years if the Warriors have yet found and kept enough quality locals - they have been mediocre for most of their history after all.
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AFL has one or two games per week on FS1, one or two per week on FS2 (which has limited reach), and then the rest on Fox Soccer Plus (which has extremely limited reach). The NRL game times were no doubt chosen with Australian time zones somewhat in mind, but starting the games at 9:30 and 11:30 PM in the dominant Eastern US timezone is too late, particularly the 11:30 PM game.
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The beginning of the game (likely the first 10-15 minutes) has been bumped to Fox Sports 2 which has a much smaller reach than Fox Sports 1 due to a College Basketball Game running long. Unfortunate for the NRL.
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This Las Vegas gambit is mostly (solely) about gambling money. I doubt even the most ardent Rugby League fan really thinks the game is going to take the USA by storm or even gain a minor foothold. Even in Las Vegas it won't be getting that much attention as the city is a non-stop venue for things from all over the world - for all we know the city will be flooded with people from France next week for an acrobat convention! The sports market here in the USA is completely saturated. Cricket gets a bit of a look in simply because millions of people from the subcontinent live here - I went to a couple of Major League Cricket games in Dallas and I was one of about 30 white faces in a crowd of 12,000. All this being said, if it brings more money into the game and provides a notable international event on the RL calendar it is a good thing. I do fear what will happen to the World Club Challenge if the NRL champions are also chosen as a Las Vegas representative though.
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SL USA/NRL America (Merged Threads)
eal replied to Gomersall's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
I'm not sure this is the most objective comment I've ever read. Living in the USA I have taken neutrals to live Union and Cricket games and they've enjoyed them. If neither of these sports appealed to neutrals they'd never grow at all. -
SL USA/NRL America (Merged Threads)
eal replied to Gomersall's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Rugby League doesn't have the money necessary to make a serious go of it with a professional competition in the USA. Major League Rugby has struggled mightily, and cricket has required a billion-dollar investment from the Indian subcontinent. -
The big concern with Christchurch will be recruitment, which is the big concern with Auckland and Perth also. Producing local talent will be imperative as few top tier Australian players will be willing to live in Christchurch. This doesn't mean expansion is doomed, but it will be a challenge to build a regularly competitive team.
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SuperLeague+ Streaming Platform Launch
eal replied to Wellsy4HullFC's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Super League+ is at a price point I can't really justify, unless I cancel all my other streaming services. I was hoping it would be $5-10 per month like most streaming services. -
SuperLeague+ Streaming Platform Launch
eal replied to Wellsy4HullFC's topic in The General Rugby League Forum
Is Fox Sports still showing Super League in the USA? I didn't any evidence of todays game on Fox Sports.