Hull FC heading for membership record

[Dave T]

If only there was a recent example of a random population in a random city being turned on to Rugby League. 

The problem is that quite often to tap into new customer bases it can be very expensive and difficult, and whilst there may be unique challenges in different places, I agree with scotchy, that there are potential RL fans everywhere. 

Targeting these fans with the right skill and financial clout has been lacking. 

[Tre Cool]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Do you attend live sporting events ?

 

Er, yes. Do you hang to the right or left?

[Eddie]

17 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If only there was a recent example of a random population in a random city being turned on to Rugby League. 

The problem is that quite often to tap into new customer bases it can be very expensive and difficult, and whilst there may be unique challenges in different places, I agree with scotchy, that there are potential RL fans everywhere. 

Targeting these fans with the right skill and financial clout has been lacking. 

Financial clout is the key, and no sports in this country other than football have a sufficient amount of it. 

[GUBRATS]

13 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

Er, yes. Do you hang to the right or left?

My point Tre is that there are 2 sorts of Sports fans , those that attend live and those that are armchair fans , it's finding the ' attenders ' that is the hard bit 

[GUBRATS]

25 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If only there was a recent example of a random population in a random city being turned on to Rugby League. 

The problem is that quite often to tap into new customer bases it can be very expensive and difficult, and whilst there may be unique challenges in different places, I agree with scotchy, that there are potential RL fans everywhere. 

Targeting these fans with the right skill and financial clout has been lacking. 

But that was a random population that probably didn't even know that the sport existed , seriously how many people in Liverpool are completely unaware of RL and of Saints club ? 

Another famous saying , " familiarity breeds contempt " , RL is a ' woolly ' sport , in Liverpool you are either red or blue 

[Eddie]

30 minutes ago, Dave T said:

If only there was a recent example of a random population in a random city being turned on to Rugby League. 

The problem is that quite often to tap into new customer bases it can be very expensive and difficult, and whilst there may be unique challenges in different places, I agree with scotchy, that there are potential RL fans everywhere. 

Targeting these fans with the right skill and financial clout has been lacking. 

It’s been tried in loads of big cities - Sheffield, London, Nottingham, Coventry. Personally I’d have thought smaller towns without football league teams would be a better bet, though obviously you’d need a lot of money to get professional teams going there too. 

[Dave T]

11 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

But that was a random population that probably didn't even know that the sport existed , seriously how many people in Liverpool are completely unaware of RL and of Saints club ? 

Another famous saying , " familiarity breeds contempt " , RL is a ' woolly ' sport , in Liverpool you are either red or blue 

That's fair, and I don't agree that St Helens serves Liverpool, but it is a relatively small number of people who actually attend the football. Loads of people have 3 hours free 14 or 15 times a year. That is all you are targeting really. 

An awful lot of sports fans I know have more than one loyalty/commitment. 

[Dave T]

10 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It’s been tried in loads of big cities - Sheffield, London, Nottingham, Coventry. Personally I’d have thought smaller towns without football league teams would be a better bet, though obviously you’d need a lot of money to get professional teams going there too. 

'Tried' is a bit subjective. I'd argue that we have done expansion very poorly and on the cheap. And we get the results that brings. 

In a believer in playing the numbers game and targeting population centres - allowing you to hit more schools, businesses, customers etc in a smaller geographical area. 

[GUBRATS]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

That's fair, and I don't agree that St Helens serves Liverpool, but it is a relatively small number of people who actually attend the football. Loads of people have 3 hours free 14 or 15 times a year. That is all you are targeting really. 

An awful lot of sports fans I know have more than one loyalty/commitment. 

I'm not saying they only have one , yes a relatively small number do attend , lots of others don't really want to attend , but they like to ' belong ' , my brother in law , you can get tickets to Man City quite easily , a couple of weeks back a mate of his offered him a ticket for the match at Newcastle and offered him a lift to the game for a couple of beers , he hasn't seen Man City play for 15 years 

Armchair fan only 

[Eddie]

8 minutes ago, Dave T said:

'Tried' is a bit subjective. I'd argue that we have done expansion very poorly and on the cheap. And we get the results that brings. 

In a believer in playing the numbers game and targeting population centres - allowing you to hit more schools, businesses, customers etc in a smaller geographical area. 

Agreed, bottom up like Newcastle are doing. However that all takes money too, and people willing to spend it. 
 

I wouldn’t say London has been done on the cheap btw. 

[GUBRATS]

2 minutes ago, scotchy1 said:

Attendees arent the only way to monetise fans. 

In football the people who attend are the minority, both in volume and financial contribution

True , but again not really what we are discussing , and using football in comparison to anything rarely proves a point 

Anyway if you wish to spend all night trying to twist the course of the discussion to ' win ' , feel free 

I'm out 

[GUBRATS]

6 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Agreed, bottom up like Newcastle are doing. However that all takes money too, and people willing to spend it. 
 

I wouldn’t say London has been done on the cheap btw. 

For ten years my next door neighbour ( moved 3 weeks ago ) , a Geordie ex deputy head has on occasion been watching Leigh , Magic , Catalans , I do believe the North East is a potential area of growth for RL , just the way they are ' wired ' IMO

[Tre Cool]

4 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

For ten years my next door neighbour ( moved 3 weeks ago ) , a Geordie ex deputy head has on occasion been watching Leigh , Magic , Catalans , I do believe the North East is a potential area of growth for RL , just the way they are ' wired ' IMO

I see, so all people in the North East are "wired" to attend RL matches but Liverpudlians are wired to not.  Thanks for clarifying.  Fascinating scientific study you've presented there.

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

I see, so all people in the North East are "wired" to attend RL matches but Liverpudlians are wired to not.  Thanks for clarifying.  Fascinating scientific study you've presented there.

I don’t think he said all Geordies.

However believe me Tre, RL will never take off in Liverpool, I don’t know why anyone thinks it will, it’s been tried and failed and hardly anyone there gives a toss about anything except Liverpool and Everton. There’s no cricket or rugby union of any significance in the area either, or even any other lower league football clubs of a standard that you might expect in a big football obsessed city. 

[GUBRATS]

4 minutes ago, Tre Cool said:

I see, so all people in the North East are "wired" to attend RL matches but Liverpudlians are wired to not.  Thanks for clarifying.  Fascinating scientific study you've presented there.

Despite being Newcastle mad , I believe they are more open to other sports , just an opinion , whereas I do believe those from Liverpool aren't 

Feel free to discuss it with Scotchy further if you wish 

[Tre Cool]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I don’t think he said all Geordies.

However believe me Tre, RL will never take off in Liverpool, I don’t know why anyone thinks it will, it’s been tried and failed and hardly anyone there gives a toss about anything except Liverpool and Everton. There’s no cricket or rugby union of any significance in the area either, or even any other lower league football clubs of a standard that you might expect in a big football obsessed city. 

It doesn't need to "take off" for Saints (or Widnes) to tap into the market and gain commercial benefit.

[GUBRATS]

Just now, Tre Cool said:

It doesn't need to "take off" for Saints (or Widnes) to tap into the market and gain commercial benefit.

Last one 

Do you know they haven't ?

[Eddie]

1 minute ago, Tre Cool said:

It doesn't need to "take off" for Saints (or Widnes) to tap into the market and gain commercial benefit.

As I said to Scotchy earlier (though he has a job so can’t do it), why don’t you pass your ideas onto Saints and Widnes then, or even offer to carry them out on their behalf as you seem to know how to do it. I’m certain they’d be eternally grateful if you could show them how to expand their support into Liverpool. 

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Despite being Newcastle mad , I believe they are more open to other sports , just an opinion , whereas I do believe those from Liverpool aren't 

Feel free to discuss it with Scotchy further if you wish 

Yes they are, Newcastle Falcons and Newcastle Thunder have shown that. There is also (I think) a professional basketball team there. 

[Tre Cool]

18 minutes ago, Eddie said:

As I said to Scotchy earlier (though he has a job so can’t do it), why don’t you pass your ideas onto Saints and Widnes then, or even offer to carry them out on their behalf as you seem to know how to do it. I’m certain they’d be eternally grateful if you could show them how to expand their support into Liverpool. 

It's an RL forum.  Don't be weird.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

I don’t think he said all Geordies.

However believe me Tre, RL will never take off in Liverpool, I don’t know why anyone thinks it will, it’s been tried and failed and hardly anyone there gives a toss about anything except Liverpool and Everton. There’s no cricket or rugby union of any significance in the area either, or even any other lower league football clubs of a standard that you might expect in a big football obsessed city. 

How have we tried in Liverpool? 

[aj1908]

6 hours ago, Dave T said:

If only there was a recent example of a random population in a random city being turned on to Rugby League. 

The problem is that quite often to tap into new customer bases it can be very expensive and difficult, and whilst there may be unique challenges in different places, I agree with scotchy, that there are potential RL fans everywhere. 

Targeting these fans with the right skill and financial clout has been lacking. 

Toronto 

[Lowdesert]

13 hours ago, Konkrete said:

It’s free. Stop being silly. 

If you can’t see the leader from that your more one eyed than I thought.

Most clubs are offering memberships and why not?  They get ready cash and can budget, the fan gets a better deal.  Nothing to do with voting rights at all.

[Eddie]

8 hours ago, Dave T said:

How have we tried in Liverpool? 

There have been various attempts at establishing RL in Liverpool. 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

On 31/12/2019 at 14:54, Eddie said:

I’ve only ever been to Hull to watch Norwich away so have no idea, but in the city which is the bigger sport - RL or football?

Aside from the data earlier, showing League with combined 18,500 being greater than footballs', also worth noting that proportionally more of Hull City's fans seem to hail from the wider East Riding county versus FC and KR being more from the city itself.  

Good work from FC, with Rovers being likewise ahead of 2019 on membership sales at the same stage could be a decent front-office season in Hull eh. Certainly Rovers' marketing has stepped up several notches in last couple of years