Tony Collins advocates moving Cup final from Wembley

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

3 hours ago, Dr Tim Whatley said:

Hull KR* visited our school in Hemel three years ago (almnost to the day, I got a photo with Willie Poching and everything) but that's the only occasion I'm aware of round here.

 

 

*No jokes about 'top SL players' please.

That's the thing, we need to make it regular and get ALL teams involved, not just SL, many of the non SL have an amazing history in the sport, will have either won the cup or done a giant killing. Encouraging kids to at least get down to see their local community team (so visits need to be before xmas) or choose one of the CH/SL teams if none competing and go in a bit later in the spring, as I said, getting them on board with a group of kids to want to consider buying tickets to go to Wembley and drag parents along too.

Sure it's going to cost money, it's probably going to cost more than you reap from ticket sales to the CC for quite a few years, but if you can get more kids interested in RL so they either go down to their community clubs or even start playing other local schools and entering the schools national comp then this is where it starts. You have to speculate to accumulate, something the RFL are micturate poor at.

Get players to go to other parts of the country but getting ex players players going (of any generation) if they're up for it, bring their memorabilia, county/international cap, bring down a trophy or two plus getting maybe a recovering injured 1st teamer and a gaggle of u21s (all from the same club of course) and create a bit of excitement/interest, and then follow it up, don't just do a one off then forget about it, you have to keep going back, if there's quite a bit of interest then increase what you offer, give them more help to flourish, get them wanting you to come back because the kids learnt something, wanted to get active, had fun and because RL is inclusive, everyone gets involved, all genders, all religions, all abilities, all ages, no limits. We even help encourage the parents to consider playing if they want. Don't care what your physical ability is, don't care if you're male or female, we have to try sell this as growing as people, socialising and helping each other and not just about sport, but learning loyalty, integrity. There are so many angles you can use to encourage.

Prices for the CC final are probably the cheapest tickets to go see a top sporting event and for many kids they will never have been to Wembley (because it's pretty much soccer, gridiron or a pop concert) If they can get a large enough groups, the RFL linking in with a travel company so they can get a preferential rate or simply helping out with working out travel times and approximate costs to get to London from that specific area, so they're not having to work it out from scratch, you can get 34% off travelling on a groupsave ticket which includes the discount for underground and LDR up to 9 people.

The sport has to work harder away from the heartlands because as shown, if it doesn't then the game will always struggle to increase (as I've said before we had several schools in Hatfield and St.Albans enetering the national schools comp and now have zero playing ANY RL at all!!)

Whilst you obviously need to continue to go into the local schools and do community stuff, it's almost as if encouraging the next generation of regular fans has stalled and its treading water, no matter how much local input from a SL team there is.

[Colliwobble]

On 1/7/2019 at 3:09 PM, Dave T said:

Do you think that is because the RFL did a better job back then, or the world has changed, our RL journos have all been laid off and there are more events out there for people to enjoy?

I actually think there is a list of probably 20 contributing factors.

I think it's the latter.

The world has changed with regards to how people spend their time and the entertainment business is now ruthlessly competitive.

The plus side is we have a really exciting and brilliant product to promote.

Unfortunately, the RFL want to operate as a big fish in a little pond and would rather be guaranteed to receive a pittance rather than show some real acumen and properly promote the game to try and get bigger crowds.

I think a revolution is needed at the top but then again I dread the idea of more structure changes! 

[Denton Rovers RLFC]

4 hours ago, MattSantos said:

I would love to see all challenge cup games played in heritage shirts.

Celebrate the history more.

If we keep it at Wembley, i want it full. Kids under 16 free, that type of jazz. Make it a proper event rather than just a game.

Heritage shirts, fine, but free tickets, NO, not ever, that simply smacks of desperation and is an easy option. Clubs and the RFL have to work to get interest so that parents will pay to go and for their kids to go because they want to, not because they're being given a freebie.

This rarely works, just like discounting, you just lowered your products value in one swoop. Oh yeah BTW, next time it's £20-£40. Sorry but I'm dead set against free tickets for a premium game at the very least and hugely discounting premium games tickets and season passes hasn't worked either as certain clubs have found to their cost. Our club did a bring two friends for a fiver first game of the season for season ticket holders, after we'd won the CC for the first time at Wembley the previous August, had a good go in the play-offs and the club thought they needed to give tickets away, it was a terrible decision by AP IMHO, those blue moon fans don't come back, they need a very good reason to come back and you can't keep handing out £5 tickets as it's not sustainable, even worse when you pee some fans off who don't happen to know a season ticket holder and end up paying the full £24/£26 or £20 as they've either bought a general membership like myself in the past (so you get roughly £4 off a match ticket) or you're a walk up for a half dozen or so games. Stop underselling grrrr!

Next you'll be saying well some families can't afford it, economic times etc, encourage families to prioritise wanting to spend the money on RL because its good value, season ticket for kids is c£70 at Hull and includes free away games plus a host of other stuff. that's an absolute steal, it's worth more than that but I get why clubs do it. I didn't even start playing 

[Dave T]

I must admit In was surprised to see junior tickets going for as little as £4.50 at the moment.

[Colliwobble]

On 1/10/2019 at 1:41 PM, Denton Rovers RLFC said:

Heritage shirts, fine, but free tickets, NO, not ever, that simply smacks of desperation and is an easy option. Clubs and the RFL have to work to get interest so that parents will pay to go and for their kids to go because they want to, not because they're being given a freebie.

This rarely works, just like discounting, you just lowered your products value in one swoop. Oh yeah BTW, next time it's £20-£40. Sorry but I'm dead set against free tickets for a premium game at the very least and hugely discounting premium games tickets and season passes hasn't worked either as certain clubs have found to their cost. Our club did a bring two friends for a fiver first game of the season for season ticket holders, after we'd won the CC for the first time at Wembley the previous August, had a good go in the play-offs and the club thought they needed to give tickets away, it was a terrible decision by AP IMHO, those blue moon fans don't come back, they need a very good reason to come back and you can't keep handing out £5 tickets as it's not sustainable, even worse when you pee some fans off who don't happen to know a season ticket holder and end up paying the full £24/£26 or £20 as they've either bought a general membership like myself in the past (so you get roughly £4 off a match ticket) or you're a walk up for a half dozen or so games. Stop underselling grrrr!

Next you'll be saying well some families can't afford it, economic times etc, encourage families to prioritise wanting to spend the money on RL because its good value, season ticket for kids is c£70 at Hull and includes free away games plus a host of other stuff. that's an absolute steal, it's worth more than that but I get why clubs do it. I didn't even start playing 

Very good piece and absolutely spot on that the product get's devalued.

Instead of slashing prices, create that buzz around an event and people will be interested. I think RL is good value as it is!