France 'Provincial' League Proposed for 2022

[stevevalerugby]

On 29/05/2020 at 18:38, ojx said:

Obviously not ideally, but there was no other real other option.  They couldn't keep going with 10 small clubs in dilapidated grounds. 

All that happened is you cut off a huge number of people wanting to watch top class rugby especially in the Cardiff And Newport regions.  People north of Taffs Well will not travel to watch a team called Cardiff blues because of the Cardiff connection and the same with Newport Gwent Dragons nobody north of Caerphilly will go to watch the team with Newport in the title.  You only have to look at their crowds to see it hasn’t worked.

[ojx]

2 hours ago, stevevalerugby said:

All that happened is you cut off a huge number of people wanting to watch top class rugby especially in the Cardiff And Newport regions.  People north of Taffs Well will not travel to watch a team called Cardiff blues because of the Cardiff connection and the same with Newport Gwent Dragons nobody north of Caerphilly will go to watch the team with Newport in the title.  You only have to look at their crowds to see it hasn’t worked.

Yet, they'll travel to watch Cardiff City, Newport County and Swansea City play soccer.

Anyhow, what is the alternative? Stay playing as small clubs? With the talent hopelessly dispersed, leaving the national team uncompetitive, and no hope of clubs competing in Europe. Also not offering players a top professional training setup.

Surely the crowds would slowly dwindle in that model too. I miss the good old days of the Welsh club games before professionalism, but that time has passed. There is still the Welsh Premiership at the semi-pro level.

The regions need to attract a new audience anyhow, not rely on the aging fans who loved to watch their local clubs. This is where they have failed.

Relating this back to RL, attracting a new audience is the main challenge for merging clubs or provincial teams. They can't just rely on the existing fans.