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Could be interesting to see the response to "hookers needed".......
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4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:
Sorry, my attempt at sarcasm surrounding all the IMG stuff. The reality is that if the Giants did move to the Shay to guarentee SL status then its just another club gaming the system.
Damn, my sarcasm detector was having an off day
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14 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:
There is also now the added threat that 2 clubs could overtake them for a Super League spot this time round unless they can pick up some extra points and a move to the Shay would guarentee them that spot by getting them over that 15 point mark. Exciting isn't it?
Sorry Blues Ox, but that's not exciting to anyone outside of that bubble. Exciting would be significant investment from an ambitious investor/investors which was put into a club in a location that stirred media interest both nationally and globally. But best wishes to Huddersfield, I genuinely hope that they can somehow increase local interest.
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Scoreline sits well with the narrative of the sport shrinking rather than growing to be fair.....
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Hello to all. Apologies if this has been posted but I haven't seen it. The Hurricanes website describes their crowd against Crusaders as being decent. Can anybody please tell me the attendance, I can't find it.
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9 hours ago, Luke HKR said:
No, whilst covid certainly didn't help. The non payment started earlier if I remember rightly, also wasn't there a visa thing as well.
Covid may have quickened the demise, but it had already started before covid.
I think that there may have been a late payment after COVID kicked in prior to them pulling the plug. I do know that they were paying the maximum salary cap and requested to extend the cap showing that they wanted to spend even more money. Of course, non payment of wages is a real bad one though
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On 06/04/2025 at 06:11, Luke HKR said:
Given they were being sued for non payment of wages, and that had been going on for a few years and the players were living in university dorms.
Not very well.
Which was as we all know a consequence of the unforeseeable COVID and it's subsequent effect on revenue streams. Toronto, naturally, hadn't taken into this into account
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I'm going to stick my neck out and say Crusaders to remain unbeaten.
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On 04/04/2025 at 01:17, Sammo said:
What sport has made a success of professional expansion into an area where there isn’t at least a solid amateur/community scene? I can’t think of any.
The reality for me is that if you want semi pro RL to grow, the clubs have to have to be in areas where the sport has a sustained presence, at the minimum. Expansion starts before the founding of a L1 club, probably a decade before, with centrally funded community officers. Of course, this requires cash.
If I was to want to try this on a shoestring, I would focus on the region between the ‘heartlands’ and Birmingham - Derby, Nottingham, Stoke, Lincoln, Leicester. Not so far that community officers can’t travel from the heartlands, and that community clubs aren’t travelling for hours for games. If the game can build upon the presence that there is in these areas already (Elks, Outlaws), then this is where I feel sustainable semi pro success could be found.
None of this answers the question of ££££ though!
How do you think that football went from just being played on England to dominating the world? How do you think that union amongst other sports is spreading so much around the world? The excuses for the failure to spread RL are hard to take
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2 hours ago, londonbronco said:
Indeed. A strong London club would be a genuine asset to British rugby league, not a threat. It would enhance the sport’s credibility, attract new sponsors, and create fresh broadcasting opportunities all of which would ultimately benefit the northern clubs. Yet, because London has never received consistent financial or strategic backing it has become an easy target for sneering fans and short-sighted chairmen. The M62 mindset prioritises protecting its patch, even if that means the sport continues to shrink into irrelevance.
Most M62 clubs are barely keeping their heads above water, clinging to local rivalries and derby gates to stay afloat. With such narrow margins, they see little incentive to embrace expansion when they are struggling to fund their squads.
IMG was meant to provide a long-term, strategic vision for rugby league, but so far, it feels more like a rebranding exercise for the same old short-term thinking. The grading system may have rattled a few cages, but it hasn’t forced M62 clubs to look beyond their backyards. Instead, they remain fixated on box-ticking their way to a Grade A rating rather than considering how to grow the sport as a whole. It’s the same parochial mindset that has held the game back for decades.
If the NRL were to turn its attention to the UK, it could be the catalyst rugby league desperately needs. A trans-hemisphere competition or the NRL cherry-picking elite British clubs would expose just how insular the sport here remains. The NRL’s financial power, broadcast reach, and genuine ambition for growth would make IMG look like little more than a PR agency overseeing a superficial rebrand. An NRL-backed takeover, even a partial one could finally break through the glass ceiling that northern clubs continue to reinforce.
For the sake of the sport’s future, London must succeed. Fingers crossed for a partial NRL/Dolphins helping hand.
Great post, thank you.
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What are the TV viewing figures like this season? Wondering how successful IMG is so far in spreading interest in the sport
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Further indication that the general plan towards reducing the footprint of RL in the northern hemisphere to the area of a postage stamp is working well
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We can look for all the in-depth excuses that we like, and make comparisons with "lucky" other sports. At the end of the day, though, RL seems to blow all opportunities to further itself - except for Austrlia and maybe NZ
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28 minutes ago, Dave T said:
To an extent that's true and there are clearly numbers at play, but there is also brand, prestige, history, perception and loyalty and other softer measures that are important too.
And then we have other logical factors like geography and scheduling at play.
I don't feel like the game takes the whole picture seriously, and just stages some games and hopes some sponsors decide they like it.
Dave, you're a poster who I regard well and I'm sure that you understand my point. I particularly agree with your final paragraph, and that kind of completes the circle for me, aim low and you will reap low.
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Sponsorship is almost universally directly proportional to the number of people who see it, that is the answer. Businesses are only willing to pay for the relative exposure, whether that is the number of people in the stadium or the number of people viewing on screens
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On 12/10/2024 at 11:58, Griff said:
Did they ?
Why are they not still here ?
Because of Covid depriving them of the significant income streams they were going to make from home games in SL with crowds above the average for the league, and because of a vote by other teams with vested interests in kicking them out. Your analysis is ridiculous and bitter
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3 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:
Wtf is that doing on here?
Good question. I am not interested in banging on about Union (which I watch sometimes) on this board. The problem is that this particular article invites a response, and compares the internation game of RL and RU. People who have read my posts know that I am pro expansion domestically and internationally, and it is a source of disappointment to me that RL fails to spread itself effectively (with a couple of exceptions). To claim that the international game is catching up with RU, though, invites ridicule, and I am just one of a few who are trying to point that out. On these boards we should be focussing on what RL can do to further itself.
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14 hours ago, Ackroman said:
I don't care how many toff's drink champers with their hampers at an RU game. Name one world class Argentinian rugby player and do your own credibility some justice.
As far as RL is concerned, we have a problem in riches on the park. The RFU are looking squarely in our direction. However, there is the Burgess factor (I hope). Who, in their right mind, would cross code to become the scapegoat? No matter how much is tabled? I wouldn't, I bet he wish he hadn't and hopefully, very loudly telling others not to.
You see you can't name 1 Argentinian, Italian, Canadian, Spanish, Georgian, Scottish, Japanese, Romanian, Namibian, Welsh even, RU player or where ever they ruck, who could lace Dom Youngs boots? Or Herby Farnworths tash? Or straighten George Williams nose, polish Liam Marshalls head or even tickle Danny's fancy?
Lol you say I can´t name playyers from these teams, but you haven´t even asked me to. You seem to have a lot of anger that is manifesting itself in nonsense posts. In this article you will find several world cup players from the current Argentinian team alone (for the record I´ve watched them play a number of times and am familiar with many of the names);-
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20 hours ago, Ackroman said:
Portugal v Uraguay. The best talent on the planet. If only the size of the crowd made their nations rugby players world class. Give me a break.
Regardless of code, there are only 3 European nations with world class rugby players of note. 1 African nation, NZ and Aus.
If you went second tier then maybe Wales, Tonga, Samoa, PnG, Argentina.....
Scotland? Mmm
With this post you further undermine any credibility that you have in this discussion. Argentina second tier lol - they beat the All Blacks this year, play in front of large home crowds, and have reached three world cup semi finals including the last one. Wales second tier and no world class players? They are currently on a downer but still play to over seventy thousand and have professional clubs with home grown players and a history of winning the six nations. I could go on but these two cases alone blow your argument out of the water. (PNG second tier - wrong code)
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2 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:
Wales, NZ, Samoa, Tonga, Argentina, Italy, Canada, USA, Spain.
Yes indeed, and now others coming through like Japan and Georgia who have both had home international crowds over 50,000, and countries like Portugal and Uruguay where there has been significant improvement
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15 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:
If i made my money in mining I'd set up a new RL club in North America. Somewhere cool like Toronto. I'd join the system in Europe with the aim of getting to superleague. Let's hope the money doesn't dry up once we rise through the ranks and get to Super League.
And I would see crowds touching on 10,000 in the second tier. But then when an unforseen global pandemic kicks in we are unable, due to the scheduling of fixtures, to reap the financial benefits of even a single home game in superleague before getting voted out.......................
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On 23/10/2024 at 08:56, gingerjon said:
According to Rugby League Project, Oldham had an average home crowd of 2,025 this season.
However, Rugby League Project does also include this game in their 2024 season stats for Oldham.
Looks interesting - even if it's 126 years out of date and mismarked.
Back on topic, clubs are going to have to be on or around 5,000 average in the Championship if they have legitimate ambitions to be in Super League, really. And this should always have been the case - yes, even for London. Not least because, way back in the day, 5,000 was the breakeven figure for them per game in the top division. So, if you're not getting those numbers then you will be in trouble in the long run if you're running a full time squad or similar.
Surely this analysis does not recognise the fact that a Championship club on somewhat less than 5,000 average crowd would obviously gain a significant percentage increase in terms of crowds from a) the interest of their fans of being in SL as opposed to the championship and b) the larger on average away following. This for me is one of the reasons that IMG are creating a closed shop with subsequent negative impact on the sport in general. Throw into the mix that some SL clubs struggle to get 5000 despite the advantage of being in SL and this argument makes no sense sorry.
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1 hour ago, Archie Gordon said:
I completely agree. I'm just trying to understand IMG's motivations.
If I were Sky, I wouldn't be much impressed by the grades increasing unless it was accompanied by increases in TV viewers.
Maybe I'm not reflective of a significant number of potential viewers of the sport, I don't know, but for my tuppence worth I've lost interest in watching SL over time having seen the Celtic Crusaders leave, the rise of Toronto (which really inspired me) and their removal, the initial loss and now repeated loss of London from SL, and the shut-out of them along withToulouse despite both having massive populations that could be exploited. The new stringent financial terms put upon Catalan are also indicative of the direction of movement, for me. Whilst I will continue to check out what's happening in the sport I have lost interest in watching any SL because to me it feels like a regressive league in a world of sports that are trying to sell themselves to others outside their comfort zones. So, yeah, here is at least one potential viewer lost as a result of the predictable block-out of London and Toulouse from SL.
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3 hours ago, Forever Trinity said:
Or Wakefield Trinity just played them out of the game and gave them a thrashing returning the favour Toulouse delivered to Wakefield earlier in the season
Wakefield have been great all season and worthy winners well done.
London Broncos (Merged Threads)
in The General Rugby League Forum
Posted
Surely that remains to be seen