Super League rebrand

[Chrispmartha]

2 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

The real question is, "Did Elstone consult, or even speak to, David Argyle about this rebranding?"

There it is for ya...what he is coming out with better be good...all that he would have had to have done is ask.

LETS SEE WHAT HES GOT.

He got game?

Elstone is in charge of SL, HTH ;-)

[Kayakman]

Just now, Chrispmartha said:

Elstone is in charge of SL, HTH

For now.

[Oxford]

2 hours ago, Kayakman said:

For now.

I'm pretty sure Parky is not holding auditions for his scriptwriter Kayakman.

 

[Kayakman]

11 minutes ago, Oxford said:

I'm pretty sure Parky is not holding auditions for his scriptwriter Kayakman.

 

I think it might be time to put a North American in charge of the whole thing....how about Perez?

PEREZ FOR PRESIDENT!

[Odsal Outlaw]

Ok, it needs to be three letters, all big leagues have a TLA!! How about:

RSL - rugby super league

NSL - national super league

RPL - rugby premier league 

SRL - super rugby league 

I think it needs rugby in the title - quite like RSL - also starts to reclaim the word rugby again!! 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

5 hours ago, deluded pom? said:

Has it ever been known as the Premiership?

Yes, i still call it that most of the time 

[Wholly Trinity]

We need the brand and the sport to be easily and quickly identifiable. That means instantly distinguishable from other sports (especially RU). Soccer has claimed 'football' (at least in Europe) and union has claimed 'rugby' (unfortunately).

Some ideas: 

Name: Elite RL (ERL)

- Drop 'rugby league' from the official name, refer to it only as RL (compare with LG, BP,  BT, BMW etc.)

Unify brands across clubs, as suggested.

Play with a yellow/orange ball (like the snow ball used last year) 

Make the markings on the pitch distinctive.

- the modern game is all about dominating position and possession. It's important to know where play is taking place at all times. This is obviously not a problem at a live game, but with TV shots mainly focussing on a 10 square metre block, it's sometimes difficult to tell where you are on the pitch and how much progress a team has made.

- a suggestion:

The 20m zones in front of the try lines shaded red in some way (I think this was tried once?) and the 20m zone each side of the half-way line shaded another colour (yellow?). 

- A 40-20 would then need to be kicked from outside the yellow zone and find touch inside the red zone.

- Perhaps it could be achieved with lines parallel to the touch at 5m intervals? Not sure how easy this would be and it could cause problems for the soccer club tenants.

The main thing is that an of the pitch is instantly recognisable as an RL pitch. (cf soccer)

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Wholly Trinity said:

The main thing is that an of the pitch is instantly recognisable as an RL pitch.

And a Uniform/kit design that is not generic rugby.

Your field markings in yellow and red are a good idea, though it was dropped I can't remember one attempt to say why.

What d'ya reckon ... will all the excitement about this all boil down to a new logo the naysayers will reject out of hand and the those excited by new things will just end up disappointed?

Then again at least he's doing something and it looks like it will be a professionally brought about so that'll be a new experience for us.

[bar red]

For me the number 13 has to be prominent, it distinguishes us from any other sport.

[Oxford]

21 minutes ago, bar red said:

For me the number 13 has to be prominent, it distinguishes us from any sport.

Good Point but SL has never used this significantly I believe.

[HarrogateKnights]

59 minutes ago, bar red said:

For me the number 13 has to be prominent, it distinguishes us from any sport.

Good idea for me England RL use 13 on their badge as V111 the old England RL badge used to have 1895 alot of unofficial RL merchandise/vintage kits have 13 somewhere

[gingerjon]

9 hours ago, Man of Kent said:

Used to be the Premiership...

 

It's always been the FA Premier League - that's the name of the group that runs it. Sometimes, though not now, sponsorship terms have led to the name being changed, such as when it was the Barclaycard Premiership.

[Yakstorm]

Hopefully the rebrand will extend to also include the Broadcasting look and feel, Ground signage, etc.

Super League has had so many 'design' tweaks over the past few years, yet they've all been adhoc and have not been reflected in all areas of the game which has created this mish-mash 'brand'.

As for Uniform / Kit supplier, Adidas subsidiary - Reebok, is not a bad one for the game to target.  After Adidas took all of Reebok's top properties, the brand has re-emerged targeting niche sports (well niche at the time) like crossfit, etc.   Puma is of course another one, and one who has had involved in British Rugby League before.

[Mattrhino]

9 hours ago, Chrispmartha said:

There’s no way we would get Nike or Addidas to sign up for up for anything.

Kappa, Puma, Umbro, Asics, Under Armour, maybe?

Why would we use non rugby brands? That wouldn't be interested anyway.

 

 

[Mattrhino]

If you want pub soccer team templetes then go with Nike or Adidas etc..

If you want bespoke RL kits who pay for the privilage then use ISC etc..

Many smaller soccer clubs who play in Nike or Adidas actually have to pay for the kits.

[Newguy]

I hope they go with Super Dooper league.

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, Mattrhino said:

If you want pub soccer team templetes then go with Nike or Adidas etc..

If you want bespoke RL kits who pay for the privilage then use ISC etc..

Many smaller soccer clubs who play in Nike or Adidas actually have to pay for the kits.

That's not what people are advocating though. No one is saying pay Nike or Adidas to have a kit like a pub team does.

In any rebrand and repositioning of the game it's only right that the sport aims as high as possible. Just thinking inside the box and acting like pesky Northerners who should be happy and grateful for their lot is half the problem.

[Cheshire Setter]

3 hours ago, Wholly Trinity said:

That means instantly distinguishable from other sports (especially RU).

I used to feel (strongly) this way, but since we’ve dwindled away as a sport in the public eye over the last twenty years for whatever reasons, I think we should actually focus on the singular RUGBY term as a way to generate interest.

My preference would be Super Rugby League or something along those lines with the branding emphasis on Super and Rugby suggesting that this is rugby, but is a superior spectacle to watch on TV.   I’ll bet there’ll be plenty of kids outside the heartlands who’ll have the RUWC rammed down their throats 24/7 on tv this year.   It would be great if they could hear about a super version of the sport that they could actually understand and enjoy more.

Marketing ourselves as a totally different new sport isn’t going to do much more than 15 minutes of fame I fear.

[Dave T]

12 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

2 other big sports use Premier League/ Premiership (football and union). ‘Small’ sports (netball and Women’s football) use Super League so I think we’re better off with SL imo

Yes, RU Premiership and RL Premiership is quite simply a daft idea.

[EastLondonMike]

46 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I don't think that Elstone is talking about an aggregate kit supply deal, Im not even sure that would be possible, Leeds deal with ISC runs until 2028.

Combined Kit deals is something that the RFL have been keen on for a while, so i think it's highly likely SL will look at something similar if possible. The big thing is the length of existing contracts clubs have with suppliers. Leeds are probably the exception, but i'd imagine most clubs have deals for no longer than 2-3 years.

There are ways around such long length contracts, if theres willing from all involved. If all SL clubs agreed to such a combined kit deal, any clubs with existing contracts would simply fulfil those obligations and switch at the end of the contract. Something legal would have to be written into SL participation that states any team gaining promotion/being added to SL would have to adopt the kit supplier as their own.

All depends on who the supplier would be, but i really like the idea of combined kit deals.

[Damien]

29 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Yes, RU Premiership and RL Premiership is quite simply a daft idea.

It certainly is and rightly or wrongly with the media coverage given, never mind bias, there will only be one winner if we are talking about brand awareness.

[Rupert Prince]

31 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I would have no problem with a single kit supplier, or more centralised sponsorship. But I think there is a big issue not only around existing contracts but differing values. Leeds sell a hell of a lot more merchandise than Salford. Are we going to find a supplier willing to pay enough of a premium so that we don't simply see money moving from the big clubs to the smaller ones? That pie needs to grow an awful lot for the average to be close to the biggest are getting now which is what we would need to see get the bigger clubs to agree to it. That's in both sponsorship and kit deals. 

As I say, im not against a central deal, I think it would create some great opportunities for us in terms of creating that 'look' of what a Super League game looks like. The kit is a massive part of that. But also in terms of sponsorship. Look at the ISC/Marvel deal. If we had a centralised deal we could have some links in with Sky to help promote their stuff in exchange for money and promotion. As an example you could have had the Easter Round as the Game of Thrones round with special kits, Sky having its booths and Iron Throne and actors etc at games, they pump us up to advertise themselves. 

But financially and practically sorting that out would be tough. 

What is this, "Games of Thrones" of which you speak?

[Rupert Prince]

8 hours ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

Ok, it needs to be three letters, all big leagues have a TLA!! How about:

RSL - rugby super league

NSL - national super league

RPL - rugby premier league 

SRL - super rugby league 

I think it needs rugby in the title - quite like RSL - also starts to reclaim the word rugby again!! 

Total Rugby (ahem...) League!  TRL.

But I have previously given my clear answer for our name... League Rules Football. LRF.  It also neatly reverses the initials RL.

[Copa]

Show some chutzpah and milk soccer’s hard work by using Rugby Premier League.

Whatever they use it MUST have “rugby” in the title. The sport’s name should really be in the title.

[EastLondonMike]

39 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

I would have no problem with a single kit supplier, or more centralised sponsorship. But I think there is a big issue not only around existing contracts but differing values. Leeds sell a hell of a lot more merchandise than Salford. Are we going to find a supplier willing to pay enough of a premium so that we don't simply see money moving from the big clubs to the smaller ones? That pie needs to grow an awful lot for the average to be close to the biggest are getting now which is what we would need to see get the bigger clubs to agree to it. That's in both sponsorship and kit deals. 

I think essentially any deal would revolve around a price to which all clubs pay for their kit/teamwear/replica etc. Clubs such as Leeds, Wigan, Catalan would probably purchase more than the likes of Salford, so any deal would have to be cost effective for the smaller clubs, which would be tough as many do currently partner with the much more smaller outfits, which you'd assume is down to price.

Any supplier would have to feel confident that they could sell enough kit/teamwear/replica product to the clubs to cover costs and make a bit of a profit (this alone won't be enough for some of the bigger brands). Currently clubs are our only real source of retail, so no real scope for any brand to sell outside those channels. 

A sport brand might however look to sell to some of the high street sportswear chains such as JD, Footasylum etc IF the game had a genuine strategy around growth that the brand could confidently get behind and help achieve. And if any deal was a pretty long one. 10 years for example (Puma have just signed a 10 year deal with Man City, a sign of commitment from both towards a common goal).

Certain clubs would initially only benefit from the above ie the bigger more successful clubs, but thats life i think. The best teams will always prosper the most.
It's a BIG ask for SL. But happy SL are thinking along these lines.