[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

It's very unlikely that a tournament this size will return more money. 

Gate receipts are a big income driver, along with the associated ancillary sales it drives, and that higher engagement and wider presence leads to higher sponsorship income. Sure costs have to be balanced out, but we do know that the last few World Cups have made money for the IRL's development. 

 

If you keep fleecing the same fans to attend more games, then the average gates will probably decline, and you might make a bigger loss as fan attendance wil not cover the extra costs of the extra games.

in 2013 for instance Bristol was a sell out for two minor teams (cook islands vs USA), yet no games played anywhere near their last year in the WC

[Toulouse or London]

Right now there is no point for any sport apart from Football, looking more than 5 years ahead.  In the UK there is a lot less money around and all sports are suffering with one exception (again looking at UK only).
 

I really think more clubs will go bust next 2-3 years regardless of what IMG do

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

10 hours ago, 17 stone giant said:

But I'm not concerned with what other sports do. They have their reasons, based on history, the need to compete as GB for Olympics entry, etc.

It's my opinion that a GB team works better for rugby league. If Scotland and Wales had made progress in the past 30 or so years (1995 was the last time I can recall Wales being good), I'd probably think differently.

But I haven't seen much progress, and I don't expect to see any in the next 30 years either.

I follow Union as well as League.  I've been on a Lions tour and it was probably the best sporting occasion I have attended (Ryder cup comes a close 2nd).  But I would never want to see a RU world cup featuring the Lions, I'd always want to see England in that.

For me the Brand is England not GB. GB just dilutes the sport in my opinion.  I'm not in favour of heritage teams either. I don't mind having a GB as well if the sport could support it, but right now International RL is on its knees. We need to stick with England and make it work.   Can always look at having GB starting again once International RL is strong (which will also take your 30 years probably)

[Dave Woods]

26 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

What's that game called where they poke coloured balls into holes with a stick?

croquet ?

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 hour ago, 17 stone giant said:

I'm in agreement with you - I would play as GB for all major events, because I think it's what works best for rugby league.

I also agree that it doesn't matter if it's 13 Englishmen - if they're the best 13 rugby league players in Great Britain, then that's who you pick.

We do that at the Olympics with Team GB. We don't say the 4 x 100m relay team must have 1 English, 1 Scot, 1 Welsh and 1 Northern Irish, because otherwise it's not really a GB team. We pick the best four no matter where they're from.

Olympics is not an applicable comparision as it contains both individual and team sports

Lets look at team sports

1) Football :- England
2) Cricket :- England
3) Union :- England
4) Field Hockey :- England
5) Ice Hockey :- GB
6) Basketball :- GB

7) Netball :- England
8 ) Volleyball :- England (I think)

So its pretty much England apart from the US related sports

[Toulouse or London]

2 hours ago, Michael Bates said:

It's a win / win situation. If London go up they'll suddenly be attracting crowds of 4 million every week due to the size of the city. If Toulouse go up they'll bring in millions from a new TV deal as everyone in France would suddenly want to watch rugby league. Can't wait!

As Long as they also buy tickets to the gold lounge

[Toulouse or London]

Just now, Chrispmartha said:

It's not just the amount of 'bums on seats' It's also about the demographic of those bums on seats and what that means to advertisers.

This is 100% correct.  Which is why the game HAS to expand out of the M62 if you ever except SKY to pay more, or another broadcaster to come in.

If your not Football right now you in trouble. Its not Just League struggling

[Toulouse or London]

13 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Didn't both Toulouse and London take it to the last week/2 weeks in their most recent super league seasons before they were relegated?

London had a pretty good FT team back in 2018 which had been blooded in several previous seasons in the middle eoghts vs SL teams, so where much better prepared than the current PT squad.  Assuming a big IF they get past Tolouse, I don't see them getting close to the 2019 performance (but I do think they will win 2 or 3 games)

[Toulouse or London]

I very much doubt either London or Tolouse will spend a lot on improving the quality of their squads if they think they will be back in the Champ in 2025.   The only way you will get them to really invest is if they know they have 3 or so years to build a competitive side.

But if you give them this, whats the incentive for Champ sides to then invest if they know they can't move up until 2028.

There is no easy answer (unless you happen to be a chairman of the 11 other SL clubs who are safe in mediocrity right now)

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

TBH I'm now guilty of diverting a thread away from its original purpose, which is the joke of the format of the next world cup and the fact the sport is again going backwards.

Whether its Eng or GB does not stop the fact that a 10 team WC which is 4-3-3 is a Joke.
 

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

I never said you did and I never quoted you.

apoligies, did not mean to imply otherwise

[Sun 8th Oct: Ch S/F: Featherstone Rovers v London Broncos KO 18:30 (Viaplay)]

A quick google give average salary in Merton (where Wimbledon are) ar 44.5K...   Wakefield area comes in at 25K.   So that shows how good value 199 is for london when you factor this in

[Sun 8th Oct: Ch S/F: Featherstone Rovers v London Broncos KO 18:30 (Viaplay)]

18 minutes ago, Bulls2487 said:

Bradford are charging £220/£210

Sheffield £220/£195

London and York £199

It appears Fev are overcharging for Season Tickets compared to playoff rivals.

London is a early season deal until end of Nov, then its £230.....   But still cheaper than Fev, and if you consider London being usually double or more in terms of cost of living, £230 in London probably equates to £!50 in Lancs \ Yorks

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

5 minutes ago, Damien said:

Well don't have Scotland then. That doesn't mean we need to scrap England.

Thats not what I said.  What I said was only have GB if its representitive of GB.  If its all english players then make it England.

Lions works in Union as you have representitives from all the contributing countries.  (Alhough you would be hard pressed to select more than a couple of English or welsh for the next team, seeing the gulf between Ireland, then Scotland then England and wales a long way behind right now).

OFC next tour is Australia, who in Union are in real trouble, so you could have the most lopsided Lions tour ever coming up

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 minute ago, BladeHearts said:

How about an 8 Team tournament comprising credible RL playing countries

1. Great Britain
2. Australia
3. New Zealand
4. Samoa
5. Tonga
6. Fiji
7. Papua New Guinea
8. France

For it to be GB it has to feature players from Scotland and Wales, or you won't get buy in as they will say its just a a rebranded England

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 minute ago, HawkMan said:

With Australia being so good, I can't see England winning it unless they become a heritage team full of fair dinkum Aussies !

Two questions; is that even possible? Are there NRL players of Aussie birth but who could qualify for England.  Would England fans be OK with that?

The scary thing is that might end up being the future, if we can't grow the game out of the M62

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

8 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

OK, I formally give up trying to find some things that we may be able to look forward to with the next World Cup... and the one after.

The only thing IMHO which will spark Neutral peoples interest of RL in the UK would be a world cup win. For me that has to be the aim.   So I would happly embrace any group approach in the next WC which gave England the best chance of winning it. So I'd have Aus, NZ, Tonga, and Samoa batter the hell out of each other, and hope England don't slip vs Fiji and PNG (but knowing England they would even blow that)

[Dave Woods]

Bolton is not RL (I come from Bolton as well), but you have Swinton, Oldham, Leigh, Wigan, Salford, Rochdale all pretty close so you do see RL tops around (well you used to, not been back since 99, apart from the odd day trip)

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

10 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I have to be perfectly honest.  I don't think a 10 team format World Cup down under will have any impact at all on the neutral sports fan in the UK.

 

Neutrals would only tune in for games which have the Home nations.  So yes if only England are playing from the UK, and no Wales or Ireland, then I don't think there would be much difference if the WC was 10 teams, 12 teams or 6 teams if the only UK representitives would be England.

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

It isn't.

But I have to admit, as an England fan, I would rather be in a group with New Zealand, Austrlian and Tonga/Samoa and take my chances of a semi and then a final over what we got last time which was two games against Samoa and one each against France and Greece.

Espicially if I am travelling over there - I want to see England play the big nations.

You missed the QF vs PNG but I get your general point

But if we are aiming to grow the interest in the game in the UK for Neutrals, I would say you would get more interest in a SF if England was playing Aus etc than if we missed out and finished bottom.  Considering the games are played in the SH in the next world cup, Eng not making the SF's would be a disaster, as nobody apart from the converted few would bother to watch the SF or Fina;

[Toulouse or London]

I guess its becoming typical of these threads that by the time you get to page 3, the posts have nothing to do with the Thread title.

All we need now is another post about Fev Fan behaviour and we are set

[Dave Woods]

On 02/10/2023 at 08:14, iangidds said:

Just wondering what Dave does ! There is no mention of the Aus Grand final on the BBC despite it been the games biggest game and spectacle of the season with some saying it was the best game ever!

Would the superbowl be treated like this ? Why do we not promote ourselves better ?

Superbowl is not an accurate comparison?   A better comparison would be the final of RU Super 12's which the BBC don't cover either.

In fact outside of football, (not including US sports as they don't have an international game) the only sport where you see other Leagues covered is Cricket and thats only due to the amount of SE Asians living in the UK who follow these Leagues.

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

8 minutes ago, Anita Bath said:

About time the international game adopted super leagues greatest invention…club call. Aussies choose who the want to play in the final.

Austraila B?

[Toulouse or London]

7 hours ago, Cowboy said:

Interesting to see what either club will do with the victory.Alot of Super League talent will need to added to the roster with a short amount of time until pre season approaches. More so London then Toulouse

Do you think London will add lots of talent if there is a potential that they will only be their one season?  They will try and bring in some cheap 2nd rate Aussies to but I don't see our current owner opening his checkbook unless he get some assurance that London would not be falling out of SL in 2024, before making any sort of spendng.

[WC 10 Teams, structure going bad]

If they are worried about cost then why not just have 3 groups of 3 and put Aus directly in the SF,  This way those Aussie players would still be free for NRL pre-season friendlies while the group games are going on.

NZ, Fiji, France

Eng, PNG, Cook Islands

Samoa, Tonga, Leb

This way you have 2 SH and 1 NH team in the groups, and then can still have a  AUS v NZ semi and Eng \ PNG V Tonga or Samoa

Week 1 would looks like

NZ V France

End V PNG

Samoa V Leb

Penrith v Manly
NQ Cowboys V St George

etc

 

OFC I'm having a laugh, but this is the state International RL has become