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16 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

Once again agree with essentially everything , but as a counter Parky , maybe it is easier to ' expand ' RL overseas than in an already disinterested areas within the UK ?

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say , you are correct , the population of UK is aware of RL , but they just aren't interested , maybe we have more chance with those who aren't ?

You sir have an open mind.........I dealt with this issue of "new areas" over two years ago and pointed out that there is massive interest in Rugby in North America. Problem is all unsuitable facts are filtered out of people’s minds and the same mind numbing mantra continues that RL is somehow taking off there. Rugby in North America involves 3,000 clubs and   200,000 players, only problem is, it’s all Rugby Union.

And there you have it that Rugby certainly did “expand” in North America very successfully, so successfully in Canada it killed Rugby League there. All there is now is that clown Perez continuing to promise us the earth on the back of what SL bosses have pointed out as Aussie Argyle’s trick of “expanding” RL there by dressing up relegated English teams in North American jerseys.

Union across the world know full well that it’s in competition with league despite Argyle denying this by pretending he’s great mates with the CRU and it doesn’t matter if he put’s “rugby balls in kids hands” even though they then play union with them. Union’s policy around the globe is to muscle out any League wherever it starts to grow, Lebanon being a great example, which you should note. 

But ultimately “disinterest” in RL comes about because people who have a penchant for playing and supporting team sports already have alternative interests to follow including “overseas, that they know and love whether that is grid iron, soccer or rugby union. These sports have swallowed up the interest in people investing in, watching and playing these types of games which leaves the cupboard bare for Rugby league whether it’s in Liverpool (on topic), Sheffield, Ottawa or Beirut. 

13 hours ago, Angelic Cynic said:

Parky,  My point was followers of clubs are not restricted by a city/small town/village boundary.

In some sports,where a club becomes a 'brand' - or has success - a tragedy and worldwide publicity - the 'support' comes from a much larger area. Not all the Liverpool and Tottenham followers,in Madrid,last week,were from Liverpool,and an area of north London. I don't think all the St Helens followers and Leeds Rhinos followers are restricted to those areas. 

All credit to you for engaging in debate which this site is set up for and not for snide personal remarks because some posters don't like their dreams being questioned.. 

I entirely agree with you that there are no boundaries keeping RL fans from outside a city coming in and as I say thousands of North Welsh fans descend on Liverpool fortnightly to follow Everton. But the point you make, you make only one way. If there are Rugby league fans in Liverpool it is entirely likely they will already be going to St. Helens for their RL fix and may have been going there for decades.

The idea that Liverpool is currently not served by a pro-RL club is preposterous when it's only 10 miles from Liverpool centre to St.Helens centre. You make the case for there being no potential fanbase for a Liverpool club in that RL fans in Liverpool can get to St. Helens very easily enough and probably already do.

The man behind the Liverpool RLFC idea Kooks took over a club in Salford and thought if he called it Manchester then People from Manchester would follow it. He didn't realise that Manchester people already DID follow it without needing it to be called Manchester, he further didn't realise that Salford people resented the  Salford name being removed. 

It's a very very naive proposal that somehow the people of Liverpool are crying out for an RL club in any great number enough for it to be even financially viable............But Naivety is a word that goes hand in hand with expansion on here....

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I won’t answer someone who insults a man who put a great deal of money in RL, whether one agrees with what he thought and did or not. One poster is constantly complaining of snide personal remarks but does just that as he addresses all those who disagree with him. He may not always attach his unsavoury comments to one person but anyone who had the temerity to disagree knows the insults are directed their way. Double standards if ever I saw them. 

As to any expansion, a proposal is put forward for a new club being formed. It is investigated and a decision is made. The proposals will be investigated to a level that we cannot do. So one would expect this process gives them more information than we have access to.

 While we have opinions as to the validity of an expansion proposal, we don’t investigate and we don’t decide. So while it’s interesting to discuss it, the emphatic, long winded and ridiculing posts of one individual are completely over the top IMO. 

If the powers that be allow an expansion team, it will succeed or fail. None of us can say with certainty what will be the outcome. However, the fact that people want to invest large sums in RL expansion is great. We should all want them to succeed. I would hope all followers of the game would feel that way.

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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7 hours ago, RayCee said:

I won’t answer someone who insults a man who put a great deal of money in RL, whether one agrees with what he thought and did or not. One poster is constantly complaining of snide personal remarks but does just that as he addresses all those who disagree with him. He may not always attach his unsavoury comments to one person but anyone who had the temerity to disagree knows the insults are directed their way. Double standards if ever I saw them. 

As to any expansion, a proposal is put forward for a new club being formed. It is investigated and a decision is made. The proposals will be investigated to a level that we cannot do. So one would expect this process gives them more information than we have access to.

 While we have opinions as to the validity of an expansion proposal, we don’t investigate and we don’t decide. So while it’s interesting to discuss it, the emphatic, long winded and ridiculing posts of one individual are completely over the top IMO. 

If the powers that be allow an expansion team, it will succeed or fail. None of us can say with certainty what will be the outcome. However, the fact that people want to invest large sums in RL expansion is great. We should all want them to succeed. I would hope all followers of the game would feel that way.

Well said. I just find it bizarre that some followers of the game actively want clubs and expansion to fail and the game not to grow. Even worse some revel and take great delight in it.

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On 03/06/2019 at 07:22, GUBRATS said:

Once again agree with essentially everything , but as a counter Parky , maybe it is easier to ' expand ' RL overseas than in an already disinterested areas within the UK ?

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say , you are correct , the population of UK is aware of RL , but they just aren't interested , maybe we have more chance with those who aren't ?

I'm not sure I agree with this GUBRATS.

Whilst there may be a basic level of awareness (and even then I don't think there is for large parts of the population), I don't think we have done anything to even start to make most of these want to be interested.

The sport just isn't relevant to most people -  living up here in Edinburgh, I know people who didn't know there was such a thing as RL - they thought Rugby was Rugby (and some of these go to Murrayfield regularly), I know people who are aware of it and have some basic knowledge of it - but they have little emotional attachment to Warrington versus Hull KR.

We have seen in places like Newcastle that with a decent approach, investment and patience, interest can be cultivated.

Whilst there are local quirks, I don't think there is anything that is fundamentally different between the people of Warrington and Northampton that makes one town follow RL passionately and one follow RU passionately. 

I'd rather we focus our attention on a few key areas.

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On 02/06/2019 at 23:10, The Parksider said:

........Pulling you and the other 19 dreamers on here for constant predictions that all you have to do is mention a big city (coz Big Pictures garbage is based on big cities) which then becomes ripe for a successful RL clubs to be developed therein. This site has had enough dreams with Los Angeles being the latest and most laughable. What is up with you people? Why do you not get it? 

RL's opening attracted 10,000 to North wales and quite quickly 9,750 stopped going but in the dreamers heads they believe that the rejection of "the greatest game" beyond the heartlands is because someone somewhere in charge of the game just didn't do enough to "market" to that audience, and other audiences who have given RL a chance, to retain their curiousness and convert them to TGG.

The reality is Rugby league is well respected, but when you have an established soccer or Rugby Union audience in a place you want to  convert, they are as died in the wool and as intransigent as I have been when people have taken me to watch Leeds United or Leeds Carnegie RUFC...I enjoyed such experiences, but I'm RL through and through.

Please keep posting the truth of the matter and isn't it just the exact same case that when the 20 dreamers on here keep installing (in their heads) a foreign sport into places so exclusively settled and loving of their own sports, whether Soccer, Rugby Union, Grid Iron or whatever it ain't going to take root with people who are already rooted in a 100 year history and tradition of their own team games and that may well include shinty in some highland backwaters,

Forgive me but this is the ultimate stupidity of the expansionist argument whereby "If only they knew a rugby league game was taking place they would attend, get hooked, bring their mates, attendances would rise, people would start playing RL, the game would grow......"  and of course these Liverpool fans would abandon soccer (even though their club have just been crowned as European champions) to rally around Rugby league which was first introduced to Liverpool in 1905

And this is the point...Long before Liverpool and Everton became monster Soccer clubs (Everton being a massive favourite of thousands of North Wales soccer fans) Liverpool formed the first Liverpool City RLFC in 1905 who lost most of their games to the complete disinterest of the local populace and folded after one season. They were resurrected several times as Liverpool Stanley, City again, and Huyton every one a massive failure.....Yet here we go again Damian my friend - you think RL is going to take off big style if only we put the "Marketing" in?

Don't those who champion the Dave T model of marketing our game to world dominance  not get it that rival sports are also marketing their games in competition with us - only with much bigger budgets to people already hooked on their games???????

Reality post of the year.......

Felt compelled to sign up after reading this thread. I agree with pretty much everything you say here (Everton being a “monster club” aside, lol). People/areas have their sports. Liverpool is a football city that has next to no interest in rugby of either code. I visit Liverpool often (I support Liverpool FC) and there isn’t an appetite for the oval ball code. 

One thing that hasn’t really been touched upon is why would a sport not take a hold in a place (bar that area already having a sport). What attracts rugby fans to rugby (the collisions, the hits, being described as a “mix of artistic and the primitive”) wouldn’t necessarily attract non rugby fans to it. Each sport has its own distinguishing characteristic that is to the taste of its followers. So, if you like a certain characteristic you may not like another. Marketing is often brought up, but you can market rugby as much as you want but people who don’t like the collisions (or “primitiveness”) won’t watch it. Liverpool being a football city the people are used to the more artistic side of sport, with very little of the collisions/hits/primitiveness. If you grew up in Wigan it would be the opposite where the lack of primitive play in football isn’t your cup of tea. You need the more macho, physical, brutal play.

 

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On 03/06/2019 at 07:22, GUBRATS said:

Once again agree with essentially everything , but as a counter Parky , maybe it is easier to ' expand ' RL overseas than in an already disinterested areas within the UK ?

Familiarity breeds contempt as they say , you are correct , the population of UK is aware of RL , but they just aren't interested , maybe we have more chance with those who aren't ?

It’s not easy to grow a sport anywhere, but it is much easier if you try to grow it in a place where the characteristics of the sport are to the liking of the people. So Canada for example, they like ice hockey which often involves collisions and scraps (fights in between play), so a sport like rugby having some similar characteristics would be to their taste. Aussies stereotypically love a good scrap so it’s really not hard to see why Aussie rules and rugby are so popular there.

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4 hours ago, DC77 said:

Felt compelled to sign up after reading this thread. I agree with pretty much everything you say here (Everton being a “monster club” aside, lol). People/areas have their sports. Liverpool is a football city that has next to no interest in rugby of either code. I visit Liverpool often (I support Liverpool FC) and there isn’t an appetite for the oval ball code. 

One thing that hasn’t really been touched upon is why would a sport not take a hold in a place (bar that area already having a sport). What attracts rugby fans to rugby (the collisions, the hits, being described as a “mix of artistic and the primitive”) wouldn’t necessarily attract non rugby fans to it. Each sport has its own distinguishing characteristic that is to the taste of its followers. So, if you like a certain characteristic you may not like another. Marketing is often brought up, but you can market rugby as much as you want but people who don’t like the collisions (or “primitiveness”) won’t watch it. Liverpool being a football city the people are used to the more artistic side of sport, with very little of the collisions/hits/primitiveness. If you grew up in Wigan it would be the opposite where the lack of primitive play in football isn’t your cup of tea. You need the more macho, physical, brutal play.

 

So if Rugby players fall to the floor in an artistic manner at the slightest touch, much like Kenny Dalglish in his penalty claiming pomp,  that should help sell the game.

- Adepto Successu Per Tributum Fuga -

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25 minutes ago, Manx RL said:

So if Rugby players fall to the floor in an artistic manner at the slightest touch, much like Kenny Dalglish in his penalty claiming pomp,  that should help sell the game.

Have you seen a Super League game recently? There’s more diving for penalties than any football match i’ve ever watched.

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Living here , after the events of last weekend I think there is less chance of launching a RL club in Liverpool than ever

People here will be singing Allez Allez Allez for years and not at Catalans or Toulouse

I also strongly believe that any scouser with a bit of interest is more likely to go and watch Saints or Wire at SL level than a new club playing in front of a few hundred at the bottom of the pile

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11 hours ago, DC77 said:

Felt compelled to sign up after reading this thread. I agree with pretty much everything you say here (Everton being a “monster club” aside, lol). People/areas have their sports. Liverpool is a football city that has next to no interest in rugby of either code. I visit Liverpool often (I support Liverpool FC) and there isn’t an appetite for the oval ball code. 

One thing that hasn’t really been touched upon is why would a sport not take a hold in a place (bar that area already having a sport). What attracts rugby fans to rugby (the collisions, the hits, being described as a “mix of artistic and the primitive”) wouldn’t necessarily attract non rugby fans to it. Each sport has its own distinguishing characteristic that is to the taste of its followers. So, if you like a certain characteristic you may not like another. Marketing is often brought up, but you can market rugby as much as you want but people who don’t like the collisions (or “primitiveness”) won’t watch it. Liverpool being a football city the people are used to the more artistic side of sport, with very little of the collisions/hits/primitiveness. If you grew up in Wigan it would be the opposite where the lack of primitive play in football isn’t your cup of tea. You need the more macho, physical, brutal play.

 

Yeesh what a load of codswallop. 

People in Liverpool gravitate to football cos they are brought up on it and spend their youth playing it. It’s spread from one generation to the next en masse.

The same is true for RL in Wigan.

Nowt to do with artistry or machismo or any other gobbledygook.

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1 hour ago, Mr Wind Up said:

People in Liverpool gravitate to football cos they are brought up on it and spend their youth playing it. It’s spread from one generation to the next en masse.

The same is true for RL in Wigan.

 

My mum grew up in Liverpool and her dad was a season ticket holder at Anfield. Her brother played soccer. My dad was always a Liverpool FC fan and even more so when he moves there to marry my mum. My mother had never heard of RL and my dad vaguely. Had the family stayed in the UK, guess what sport I would have played.

We moved to Auckland, a strong RL city and the nearby sports club was RL. My brother and I both started playing and to this day is our favorite sport. My brother later moved to Queensland and his sons played RL over there and are all Maroons supporters. 

The culture of the family changed from generations of soccer fans to RL fans due to location. 

My cousins in Canada follow Ice Hockey and other cousins that moved the Adelaide all follow Aussie Rules. 

My blog: https://rugbyl.blogspot.co.nz/

It takes wisdom to know when a discussion has run its course.

It takes reasonableness to end that discussion. 

 

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7 minutes ago, RayCee said:

My mum grew up in Liverpool and her dad was a season ticket holder at Anfield. Her brother played soccer. My dad was always a Liverpool FC fan and even more so when he moves there to marry my mum. My mother had never heard of RL and my dad vaguely. Had the family stayed in the UK, guess what sport I would have played.

We moved to Auckland, a strong RL city and the nearby sports club was RL. My brother and I both started playing and to this day is our favorite sport. My brother later moved to Queensland and his sons played RL over there and are all Maroons supporters. 

The culture of the family changed from generations of soccer fans to RL fans due to location. 

My cousins in Canada follow Ice Hockey and other cousins that moved the Adelaide all follow Aussie Rules. 

Right yeah, it’s all very simple. People complicate things when trying to figure out why x is more popular than y. You’re a product of your environment.

In a place like Liverpool, you’re always going to struggle being anything other than football. But that doesnt mean you cant exist and become viable. You just need to have realistic expectations of what success looks like. 

Any city that isnt a rugby league city will have the same issues. So I see no reason to write off Liverpool as being any tougher to make work than anywhere else.

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3 hours ago, Mr Wind Up said:

In a place like Liverpool, you’re always going to struggle being anything other than football. But that doesnt mean you cant exist and become viable. You just need to have realistic expectations of what success looks like. 

Any city that isnt a rugby league city will have the same issues. So I see no reason to write off Liverpool as being any tougher to make work than anywhere else.

Altough I feel that your post should have had and now this thread is closed straight after it

Everton RLFC v Liverpool RLFC would be the only I could add to make it easier to sell.

 

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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On 04/06/2019 at 10:05, Damien said:

I just find it bizarre that some followers of the game actively want clubs and expansion to fail and the game not to grow. Even worse some revel and take great delight in

And that's essentially the debate whether it's Liverpool or Blackley: do you want TGG to thrive, prosper and progress or be played on a council playing field ( assuming they'll be any of those left ) because you can walk there and it costs nothing. And all this is based on the premise  we can't do it, it's all too hard, someone got there first and people won't/don't like RL there.Such unwavering faith in our sport is already expressed in the way we're ignored in London. Finding it here in the disguise of debate is as fascinating as it is appaling.

We spend far too much time talking to and about someone who has simply given up the ghost. Mr Angry from Manchester is simply angry and is now going on ignore for mine because he's a tedious and useless as the cross code forum, a chocolate teapot and the proverbial one legged man in the contest.

 

 

2 warning points:kolobok_dirol:  Non-Political

 

 

 

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On 06/06/2019 at 00:32, Mr Wind Up said:

Yeesh what a load of codswallop. 

People in Liverpool gravitate to football cos they are brought up on it and spend their youth playing it. It’s spread from one generation to the next en masse.

The same is true for RL in Wigan.

Nowt to do with artistry or machismo or any other gobbledygook.

Sorry that’s not the entire picture. Yes what area you are brought up influences your taste, my point is once that taste is entrenched it’s nigh on impossible to shift it.

The very “primitive” characteristic that both Rugby codes are known for and promote, and the fans of Rugby codes enjoy, is the antithesis to football. The big hits, the collisions, the machismo, doesn’t exist in football. One such football team that had a primitive style was Wimbledon, the crazy gang, and they were detested for it. 

By far the most lauded people in football are the creative types. Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Cruyff etc. Those who follow football idolise them. When kids put on a pair of boots they want to emulate these type of players. Vinnie Jones, Fash the bash, precisely nobody outside the small band of fans of Wimbledon had any love for them. 

Its two very different tastes. 

Trying to sell a game that has the characteristics a group of people do not enjoy will not succeed. 

A previous poster mentioned their dad changed location from a football area to a rugby one, and now they as children play rugby, That’s not shifting the taste of a location, of a group of people, that’s adapting to the new location that has its own taste: the physical Maori/Pacific Islanders, and white Aussie/Kiwi’s who are brought up on collision based games. The Aussies had a ‘bring back the biff’ campaign. They also introduced wrestling into rugby league.

Again, two very different tastes/sporting cultures.

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7 hours ago, DC77 said:

Sorry that’s not the entire picture. Yes what area you are brought up influences your taste, my point is once that taste is entrenched it’s nigh on impossible to shift it.

The very “primitive” characteristic that both Rugby codes are known for and promote, and the fans of Rugby codes enjoy, is the antithesis to football. The big hits, the collisions, the machismo, doesn’t exist in football. One such football team that had a primitive style was Wimbledon, the crazy gang, and they were detested for it. 

By far the most lauded people in football are the creative types. Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Cruyff etc. Those who follow football idolise them. When kids put on a pair of boots they want to emulate these type of players. Vinnie Jones, Fash the bash, precisely nobody outside the small band of fans of Wimbledon had any love for them. 

Its two very different tastes. 

Trying to sell a game that has the characteristics a group of people do not enjoy will not succeed. 

A previous poster mentioned their dad changed location from a football area to a rugby one, and now they as children play rugby, That’s not shifting the taste of a location, of a group of people, that’s adapting to the new location that has its own taste: the physical Maori/Pacific Islanders, and white Aussie/Kiwi’s who are brought up on collision based games. The Aussies had a ‘bring back the biff’ campaign. They also introduced wrestling into rugby league.

Again, two very different tastes/sporting cultures.

I couldn't disagree more. Thousands of people like both Rugby League and Football, myself included.  It certainly isn't for the reasons you cite.

If Vinnie Jones types are the basis of your argument then I'd say that no RL fan grows up wanting to be a Ryan Bailey or Ben Cockayne either. They grow up wanting to be the Josh Charnleys and Sam Tomkins of this world. That's the players they wish to emulate, the try scorers, the playmakers. It really isn't much different to Football.

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10 hours ago, DC77 said:

Sorry that’s not the entire picture. Yes what area you are brought up influences your taste, my point is once that taste is entrenched it’s nigh on impossible to shift it.

The very “primitive” characteristic that both Rugby codes are known for and promote, and the fans of Rugby codes enjoy, is the antithesis to football. The big hits, the collisions, the machismo, doesn’t exist in football. One such football team that had a primitive style was Wimbledon, the crazy gang, and they were detested for it. 

By far the most lauded people in football are the creative types. Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Cruyff etc. Those who follow football idolise them. When kids put on a pair of boots they want to emulate these type of players. Vinnie Jones, Fash the bash, precisely nobody outside the small band of fans of Wimbledon had any love for them. 

Its two very different tastes. 

Trying to sell a game that has the characteristics a group of people do not enjoy will not succeed. 

A previous poster mentioned their dad changed location from a football area to a rugby one, and now they as children play rugby, That’s not shifting the taste of a location, of a group of people, that’s adapting to the new location that has its own taste: the physical Maori/Pacific Islanders, and white Aussie/Kiwi’s who are brought up on collision based games. The Aussies had a ‘bring back the biff’ campaign. They also introduced wrestling into rugby league.

Again, two very different tastes/sporting cultures.

So there's only one type of football that everyone that follows football likes? And ask other types are detested? Is that really your argument?

Culture is not all-encapsulating. But everyone in an area believes and follows the same thing. There's no reason rugby league (or any sport) cannot be a niche. It takes a lot of money and marketing to get yourself out there.

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I think with sport you are brought up having one true love.

Whilst you might stray and show interest in other things this is probably on a take it or leave it basis and when push comes to shove you go back to what you and most of your mates know

As we know in Liverpool football is huge. Fans will dabble with other sports as a one off event but week on week I think most scousers would rather watch a non league football team Marine, Prescot Cables, AFC Liverpool, City of Liverpool etc than watch a new RL team establish itself in front of small crowds  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just seen a poster on a bus in liverpool that said "We play in red AND blue"! Saints,on your doorstep. It would seem at least St. Helens are trying to push the game here,maybe on the back of magic being recent in people's memories. Good luck to them for at least trying.

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Liverpool is a ridiculous concept. 

Firstly because it's 2 x suitable stadiums are way too big. 

Secondly because it's been tried and failed several times before 

Thirdly because, yes, RL fans do exist in Liverpool but they already follow Widnes or St Helens and for that reason these Clubs are likely to strongly object a membership application from Liverpool. 

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