Cowardly Fan

Wary of turning this into a stats forum, but I wouldn't see getting comparable data on amateur players as a great hurdle for any serious research project. Without reading it in detail I'd give it some trust as it will likely have been peer reviewed.

They can do it now, we already have decades of data. Sample size is a problem, but you can manage that by expanding the group up you're looking at. For example they have an 8x higher incidence for professional players, look at those who played amateur level and see if they are above average (even to a lesser degree). Edit - I think it's been misread. It's not 16 examples, it's combining results of 16 different scientific studies.

How does media coverage of this adversely affect clubs in France? I doubt that article even has a noticeable impact on the work in Valencia.

Yes I'm still not sure to be honest if I had £20m that would be my priority, but IF we put pins in a map (or better had some actual investor) it's a good way to assess the potential and wastes some time while we're waiting for the season. I'd say just 1 professional football club and combined attendances seem to be less than 5k, plus you might get some of the wider population given there doesn't seem to be much sport there. You might question why RL would be able to get more than football, but I'd hope a higher level of competition would help there.

Sure it's difficult and I'm not really coming up with answers, particularly in London I just don't know the city well enough and in the end I think you're driven more by availability of a ground rather than any other strategy. Cambridge for example there are about 100k non students in the city and 260k in the metropolitan area, with minimal sporting presence, which is reasonable. I think you would need to do research on it - how does it compare for TV viewing figures, are their preconceptions and is that purely about being working class or is there something else putting them off? Then you can come up with a plan to give the games more of a upmarket image with other entertainment, street food festival or whatever. If we decided we needed to expand into a couple of new areas (and you'd likely need £10-20m to do it) then it's worth doing some in depth research on 10 different options before you start. Start with the macro data on population, growth, economy, sport attendances, etc then narrow it down to some for further research. Milton Keynes looks like an under served market as well for example. I do think there are some opportunities still in the UK, even with the big football clubs they seem to be pricing out some fans and going much more international and day trip. That may open up some potential and we may also get more of them as casual fans.

It's often said that certain cities have a crowded market, but I've never seen any stats so I did some quick analysis looking at attendances for all UK football clubs in the top 4 leagues (granted in some cases RL, union or other sports may have a reasonable following but this is the majority of the sports market) vs metropolitan populations. Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool are all ranked 5-10 (out of 36) for attendances relative to the metro population, so relatively high but on football alone London has 1/2 the penetration of Manchester and is below average overall. The other point is we don't necessarily need 10k fans. If we're basing a club in a poorer area it may be, but in say Cambridge (lowest penetration of football fans in UK) the average income is higher and we could be profitable with say 6k with the right mix.

I doubt there's much in this other than a bit of PR. I think generally government strategy on sport has failed. With 2012 Olympics and various other events in a similar period, the idea was 'inspire a generation' and a lot of focus was on attracting and running these events. However, grass roots has struggled and in particular I find the number of schools selling their playing fields concerning. That's an apolitical point - it started under Labour and continued under the Tories. Hopefully we see a shift in focus though I doubt it, because it costs more money. It's an issue for society as a whole, we're exercising less and that's costing a lot in health problems.

You've misunderstood my point. I expressly said I wasn't talking about this case and instead that your argument was flawed. You may say RU remains irrelevant despite the bias, but that doesn't mean it hasn't elevated RU even if to a small degree.

I've not seen the show so won't comment on that specifically, but this is a flawed argument. Hundreds of these small slights add up, often subconsciously to change perceptions. Your argument is similar to what people use to dismiss the extent of sexism.

I also discussed with them about a similar suggestion, though I'd suggest the team is centralised and they can use a portion of the time of everyone. That way you can have specialists available for a few hours a week for each club. I understand money can be tight, but something new like this should have been the priority when they received Toronto's share of the TV money.

It also isn't a player. It's fair to question what qualities we are looking for in the role. Is it an administrator, an ambassador or something else?

You're not familiar with sarcasm and irony are you?

They have a responsibility, but we do too. Why do they have little pride in the national team? I'd argue part of it is what it is associated with - play second grade teams and/or in smaller stadiums. I don't think it's any coincidence their worse results have come in Leigh, and they have a negative impact. Imagine if their best players turned up and they had a close defeat or even a win, what would be the outcome? I doubt it would be a game against the full Australia team or England in a big stadium.

I agree it's damaging, but part of the reason for the dropouts is surely due to playing the junior kangaroos. If we treat them as second class we shouldn't be surprised if they don't treat it seriously either. That said there are clearly problems with the federation as well.

We have the advantage in events, but can learn from other sports in different areas it doesn't mean they are aspirational as a whole. I'd argue it's beneficial to look at less well resourced sports too and how they approach their challenges. What works for football may not be feasible for RL. We seem to have pockets of success on participation, but there's no sign of a clear plan across the country or insight being shared. Netball may be a step ahead in this area.