Elstone describes Wigan salary cap penalty as "perplexing"

[Damien]

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 7:05 PM, Denton Rovers RLFC said:

Sorry but define 'general public'? I bump into people from all around the country and the vast majority of the 'general public' know about RL, they just don't watch it either on TV or live matches. I could ask you how many of the general public know anything about the premier league and actually bother to watch a match or MOTD on FTA?? In the worlds biggest sport in (arguably) the birth country of said sport, 340,000 go watch live top flight soccer every week, in a season that's not far off what RL was attracting in the late 40

Viewing ratings for Premier league matches on SKY and BT are circa 0.9M and 0.6M per game respectively, that's not households I believe

MOTD gets an overspill/crossover of subscriber.punters. So maybe 1 in 40 either watch or attend top flight soccer, hardly in the general public's hearts and minds is it?

What do you mean by know about RL? From my experience most people's perceptions around the country of knowing about RL are either Martin Offiah or Wigan. That's like me saying I know about Cycling because I can rhyme off a couple of cyclists or that someone knows about American Football because they remember the Fridge from the 80s.

If you don't think that top flight soccer is in the general public's hearts and minds then you are deluded. RL has never got anywhere near the figures Football has. Many RL clubs highest ever crowds, in over 100 years, don't even exceed the Premier League average. Over 30 Football clubs have an average attendance of over 20,000. Over 50 have an higher average attendance than Super League last year. All of these attendances would be even more if it wasn't the fact that many clubs are restricted by their capacity. Non League soccer gets attendances Championship, and some Super League clubs, would be envious of. What happens in Football is the talking point at workplaces up and down the land in a way no other sport is. Even in some RL towns you are lucky to find people who care about RL. There is simply no comparison.