Macclesfield Town FC-Could we see the same happen in RL to some of our clubs?

[gingerjon]

Potential for a lot more Macclesfields

 

[tim2]

16 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Potential for a lot more Macclesfields

 

Chairman of Dover Athletic saying as much on TV - they can't survive with no matchday income. No TV money, sponsors will drop away, they are dead.

My club is at that level. 150 years of history could disappear next week just as they seem to have turned some kind of survival corner. And all for no real justifiable reason.

 

 

[gingerjon]

40 minutes ago, tim2 said:

Chairman of Dover Athletic saying as much on TV - they can't survive with no matchday income. No TV money, sponsors will drop away, they are dead.

My club is at that level. 150 years of history could disappear next week just as they seem to have turned some kind of survival corner. And all for no real justifiable reason.

 

 

As far as I can see, if you're grassroots by definition (so Isthmian/NPL/Southern and under) then you stand a chance. Over that but below the Premier League then it's going to be carnage.

[The Rocket]

18 hours ago, TIWIT said:

I have always heard it said that in the future the most popular sports worldwide will be the 'shorts sports' - soccer, rugby, basketball - that allow for some physical contact, which by-and-large rules out others like field hockey and track and field.

Shorts sports also tend to be the easiest to play, needing the least specialized equipment, and thus cheaper, which broadens their appeal and ensures a steady influx of kids, the lifeblood of any sport.

Basketball doesn`t take up a lot of room and soccer, well you play anywhere with a couple of garbage bins to make goal posts, and with neither, the surface as long as not too rough it doesn`t matter how hard it is. And you are never really get hurt in those games.

And that is what bothers me about League and NFL, over the next 50 years as the traditional areas contract where will that `lifeblood` come from. Over here in OZ now, in Queensland up to 7y.o. it`s compulsory to play non-tackle so as not to frighten the parents (and kids) off. I think it`s a great idea. Some people are arguing that at that point there should be two legitimate codes through the rest of the age groups. Tackle and non-tackle right through to Opens.

As long as kids are kept engaged some will come over to the tackle version, at least they are much more likely to than if they left the game altogether at a young age.

 

[The Rocket]

16 hours ago, emesssea said:

As an American that doesn't bother me for the main fact that I don't care for our football code. I agree that the NFL isn't a serious competitor to rugby league and vice versa, nor do they need to be. It seems that a fair amount of NRL/Super League fans also have their NFL team, and if rugby league was more accessible in the US, I'd imagine NFL fans would have their favorite league team.

I'm going to have to disagree with your last point. Every country has had well over a 100 years to form their sporting culture and almost all of them have chosen soccer as their preferred football code. If England with its 50 million citizens can have three professional football codes surely Germany and its 80 million citizens could have a second code, but Germany, with the second highest attedance in any football code, has no desire for any other code. I believe France's Top14 is the richest Union competition (and maybe richer than the NRL?) while Ligue 1 is miles behind the other soccer leagues and before PSG's money came along all the elite french players played abroad, and yet soccer is well ahead of rugby in terms of popularity. 

Never say never, but any other football code to knock off soccer in any of these countries its going to take a major shift that happens over several generations, and I don't see that happening in anyone's lifetime who is currently alive.

Yes ,there are contradictions galore. In Australia, kids and adults soccer participation leaves League participation rates in the dust. Can`t speak for your part of the world but could be similar, hear a lot about `soccer moms`. Even as a voting block in elections.

Yet it`s ratings on TV are abysmal, they haven`t even got a TV deal next year and Fox has told them their not interested.

But it comes down to the fact people want the camaraderie of team sport and League is too tough to play. There used to be a joke here when I was a kid,  boys play soccer until they are 14 then they give up and follow Rugby League.

Germany, Italy(for all intents and purposes), Spain, Russia mono code. Odd.

I was never suggesting that a full contact sport would knock soccer off its perch any where where it is established and people have rusted on Club and national loyalties. But my suggestion was given the natural human instinct for violence and that contact codes provide that in a controlled manner, that one day there may become a duopoly of sports, with the full-contact version  having the lesser presence. That is, if they can keep people playing it, not just wanting to watch it.

 

 

 

[emesssea]

40 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

 

I was never suggesting that a full contact sport would knock soccer off its perch any where where it is established and people have rusted on Club and national loyalties. But my suggestion was given the natural human instinct for violence and that contact codes provide that in a controlled manner, that one day there may become a duopoly of sports, with the full-contact version  having the lesser presence. That is, if they can keep people playing it, not just wanting to watch it.

 

 

 

I certainly agree with you that by nature we gravitate towards violence, and I've always found it strange that all these countries never embraced a more full contact alternative to soccer, but for whatever reason that's how it happened.

I can't remember if it was a podcast or article that I saw recently, but it mentioned how in Germany they really don't have a desire for any full contact sport. 

Pure speculation on my part, but looking at the countries that did embrace the more violent codes as their preferred football, they're all newer countries. Wonder if since they were still coming of age, usually by violent and harder means, when organized sports were being developed if that translated into their desire for those codes, where as more established and 'civilized' Europe embraced the 'grace' of soccer.

[gazza77]

On 20/09/2020 at 14:36, Robthegasman said:

That is what worries me.

Are any of the clubs financially viable without input from directors?

Possibly so. Probably not without any customers as well however. 

[gazza77]

On 21/09/2020 at 08:11, Rupert Prince said:

This is a good point.  What we need is poor owners.

In fact I suggest destitute owners.

If they think "investing" in any RL club is a good financial plan, that's what we'll end up with. 

[The Rocket]

19 hours ago, emesssea said:

I certainly agree with you that by nature we gravitate towards violence, and I've always found it strange that all these countries never embraced a more full contact alternative to soccer, but for whatever reason that's how it happened.

I can't remember if it was a podcast or article that I saw recently, but it mentioned how in Germany they really don't have a desire for any full contact sport. 

Pure speculation on my part, but looking at the countries that did embrace the more violent codes as their preferred football, they're all newer countries. Wonder if since they were still coming of age, usually by violent and harder means, when organized sports were being developed if that translated into their desire for those codes, where as more established and 'civilized' Europe embraced the 'grace' of soccer.

Your last paragraph makes an interesting point. It almost suggests an evolution in the type of sport played by an Nation as it matures.

Something that maybe indirectly related. I remember reading somewhere once that rates of murder and violent crime have been trending down in most western nations for a long time. Which shows a decrease in the propensity to inflict violence, I wonder whether this is reflected in a decrease in the desire to watch violence.

Certainly when you look at the decline in the mass appeal of a sport like boxing, which while still huge, is probably a shadow of its former self in the West, suggests that public tastes have moved away from the sight of two people punching each other in the head repeatedly. Whereas as a small boy boy I can remember crowding into the local hardware store one Saturday(1974) with my father and 20 or 30 other local men watching Ali vs. Frazier. Enthralled might I add. But you wouldn`t see that anymore.

What all this means for contact sports, well I would say in the long run it doesn`t look good.

Better enjoy it while we can.