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Column: Five games on one night? Super League’s stupid scheduling


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I’m not really interested in arguing about which game Sky Sports should be broadcasting on Friday night. Wigan and St Helens are outraged their game isn’t been shown on TV. I can also relate to Sky’s thinking that Leeds and Hull Kingston Rovers is a more attractive proposition for a neutral audience. For what it’s worth, a sample of 1,345…

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Total Rugby League
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I don't like having games on Thursday nights, and I don't like non-TV games on Fridays. I think there have been a lot more Saturday games this year and I think that is a welcome development.

This Sunday sees the Wimbledon Men's Final, the Cricket World Cup Final (involving England) and the British Grand Prix. All on terrestrial TV I think. Any RL games trying to compete with that will get butchered, whether we like it or not.

I can confirm 30+ less sales for Scotland vs Italy at Workington, after this afternoons test purchase for the Tonga match, £7.50 is extremely reasonable, however a £2.50 'delivery' fee for a walk in purchase is beyond taking the mickey, good luck with that, it's cheaper on the telly.

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 I think its worse with the OurLeague Screening which shows Championship games at 3pm on a Sunday. Why not have Clubs play 2 hours earlier (Like BSB did before turning into Sky), Saturday or on delay? I think more people would watch it. It seems stupid that the RFL screen games when most fans are at a game and the potential of a bigger audience is wasted.

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Should be one game Thurs and one game Fri rest on the weekend. 

 

But on the other hand some clubs feel that a Fri night game is much more lucrative especially my club Leeds who I'm lucky to see 2/3 home games on a weekend. I'm always a bit baffled because everytime we have a weekend game it's such a fantastic family atmosphere I'd love to see more. 

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1 hour ago, Mattrhino said:

Should be one game Thurs and one game Fri rest on the weekend. 

But on the other hand some clubs feel that a Fri night game is much more lucrative especially my club Leeds who I'm lucky to see 2/3 home games on a weekend. I'm always a bit baffled because everytime we have a weekend game it's such a fantastic family atmosphere I'd love to see more. 

For clubs who are able to attract a fair bit on the commercial / hospitality side of things, Friday night earns far more than a Sunday afternoon and more than makes up for any difference in attendance. Although often you'll see Friday nights being better attended than Sunday too.

I'm still not a fan of Thursday matches but if we had a game on TV Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings (5 or 6pm on Sat/Sun) that would be a fair bit of coverage. Even if the other two fixtures wanted to play Friday as well it wouldn't be too big an impact.

For the next TV deal I'd even break one of those into a separate package with the aim of getting one game a week on terrestrial. That's probably another topic for another day though.

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On 12/07/2019 at 11:38, Total Rugby League said:

I’m not really interested in arguing about which game Sky Sports should be broadcasting on Friday night. Wigan and St Helens are outraged their game isn’t been shown on TV. I can also relate to Sky’s thinking that Leeds and Hull Kingston Rovers is a more attractive proposition for a neutral audience. For what it’s worth, a sample of 1,345…

View the full article

Isn’t been shown?

?

- Adepto Successu Per Tributum Fuga -

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With the exception of this Sunday - and the sport had months if not years of knowing about the Wimbledon Final and the Cricket WC Final so I applaud the good sense shown by clubs - I agree with the article.

If we are to continue with the next SKY deal and they demand a Thursday and Friday night game with Catalan’s on alternate weeks then I would suggest:

Thursday night - to boost attendances and help with shorter travelling distances the games to involve teams from their own side of the Pennines interspersed with odd game from London if they are still in SL.

Friday night - the ‘Blockbuster’ game of the week.

Saturday - ‘RL goes International’ with games on alternate weeks at Catalans as currently (and Toronto and Toulouse if they reach SL).  A great outcome on some weekends would be 2 of these games shown consecutively if all 3 are in SL.

Sunday - all other SL games.  

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