Jacob565

Low- realisation that the North isn’t really that interested in the sport outside a small core fanbase.

26,000 in Bristol tonight watching Bristol bears play the springboks B team.

Oh dear, what a jumbled mess of messaging. Not sure it hangs together at all. No one attended, no one watched it on tv and no one cared. Full credit to the Wheelchair and Womens game but a world cup has just taken place for the men and it’s made next to no impact. number of those sponsors will have done the professional legal, financial, consulting work for the World Cup and been paid for it.

Yep agreed. It’s the strange mentality of ‘if we build it they will come’ as a marketing strategy. I do think they convinced themselves that it would be like the commonwealth games, Womens footy etc where people wanted to be part of the experience: fear of missing out.

For me the World Cup has bought into sharp focus how little the game has grown in 10 years. I don’t have an easy answer but to me at the very least surely pricing should have been cheaper and free tickets handed out to schools etc. The Scotland rugby team for years dumped cheap tickets on schools to cover up the fact that they couldn’t sell out Murrayfield.

35000 went to the spurs stadium on Sunday to watch a b-list barbarians team play the NZ A team. Puts the semi-final crowd into a bit of context.

RU ex player and fan, for RL follow Leeds and Keighley (go to one game a year typically). Didn’t want to sound dismissive just get annoyed when I don’t see any proper attempts to grow the game but then we try and shoot for the stars by picking big stadiums etc! i enjoyed all the South Pacific teams.

Just accept the sport for what it is. Highly entertaining but only appealing to a small passionate population with limited growth potential. Reality is we want the spot to be head-lining but then need to take a look in the mirror: run down club stadiums, few sells outs, no high profile stars.

The sponsors are another interesting factor. Big brands aren’t backing the sport and that again is impacting profile. I don’t buy into any cost of living argument because football stadiums, commonwealth games, union matches all packed out. it’s about supply / demand and how to advertise the product. “Field of dreams” comment is spot on. It’s like to organisers think that despite 100 years of trying, people are suddenly going to back RL. Litmus test- did kids park run this morning, kids were either talking about the football or the womens union final.

Yep. That’s what’s frustrates me. The sport does nothing to build the brand beyond Toronto, no high profile players, repeated celebrity endorsements from err Claire Balding and Stuart Pearce…. It’s perceived now more than ever as a minority sport for a small northern audience. I took the family to Halifax for a 2013 game. Packed out stadium for an Italy game. Kids loved it. This time round the location/stadium didn’t appeal to me, yet as a sports fan I’ve been happy to take the kids to x2 Bradford city games and I rugby union international.

Sadly the game’s profile has shrunk in the UK in the last decade. Ticketing and stadiums aside, it simply hasn’t captured the imagination of the wider public. Reading the Sunday times this morning it’s on the back pages after pretty much every other sport. For the tournament to be deemed a success it needed Eng in the final and a few iconic moments along the way. How can we not sell out a semi/final in a sports mad place like London! That’s a daming indictment of the way the sport is run.