Heartland expansion v non heartland expansion

[Cumbrian Mackem]

Not picking on Salford and I’m just using them as an example of how and why they(Salford) a “traditional” club of 100+ years from the “heartlands” can’t replicate what a relatively new club like the Newcastle thunder from outside the “heartland” are doing at the grassroots level by introducing RL to new audiences and potentially 100’s if not 1000’s of kids all throughout the north east.

Why can’t/won’t Salford target areas like Stockport, Tameside, Manchester and Trafford etc?

maybe Salford do indeed target these areas and if so I apologize but the main premise of my argument still stands for other clubs like St. Helens, Warrington and wigan etc.

[Hela Wigmen]

7 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

 

maybe Salford do indeed target these areas and if so I apologize but the main premise of my argument still stands for other clubs like St. Helens, Warrington and wigan etc.

Saints do community work in Liverpool, Warrington in Cheshire and I’m sure Wigan go up towards Bolton and have had a link in the past with Blackburn Rovers, so presumably the towns around there. 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

2 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Saints do community work in Liverpool, Warrington in Cheshire and I’m sure Wigan go up towards Bolton and have had a link in the past with Blackburn Rovers, so presumably the towns around there. 

Fantastic. Do any new grassroots clubs emerge from this community work in places like Liverpool, Blackburn and Cheshire?

[Rupert Prince]

4 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Saints do community work in Liverpool, Warrington in Cheshire and I’m sure Wigan go up towards Bolton and have had a link in the past with Blackburn Rovers, so presumably the towns around there. 

Yes.  And Wigan look to Cumbria as well.

[The Daddy]

7 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Fantastic. Do any new grassroots clubs emerge from this community work in places like Liverpool, Blackburn and Cheshire?

Not that I know of. 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

17 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Yes.  And Wigan look to Cumbria as well.

Look at already established amateur clubs like Kells, hensingham, wath brow etc?

[Cumbrian Mackem]

8 minutes ago, The Daddy said:

Not that I know of. 

That’s what I thought too. I’m all for a RL clinic in a school in Blackburn but then what?

Whats the next stage? How do you keep those kids interested and crucially playing? Tell them to continue playing with junior clubs in the wigan area?

[Rupert Prince]

32 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Look at already established amateur clubs like Kells, hensingham, wath brow etc?

Yes I know.  But Wigan are bringing schoolboys from Cumbria to Wigan.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

59 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Not picking on Salford and I’m just using them as an example of how and why they(Salford) a “traditional” club of 100+ years from the “heartlands” can’t replicate what a relatively new club like the Newcastle thunder from outside the “heartland” are doing at the grassroots level by introducing RL to new audiences and potentially 100’s if not 1000’s of kids all throughout the north east.

Why can’t/won’t Salford target areas like Stockport, Tameside, Manchester and Trafford etc?

maybe Salford do indeed target these areas and if so I apologize but the main premise of my argument still stands for other clubs like St. Helens, Warrington and wigan etc.

They can, there’s no reason Salford or any other Super League club can’t attract new fans and players to the game. I’d say it’s because they’ve been poorly run for a long time, happy to take the Sky tv money (which is mainly generated by Leeds, Wigan and Saints) and use it to fund their first team ignoring everything below that.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

2 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Yes I know.  But Wigan are bringing schoolboys from Cumbria to Wigan.

Good, all clubs should be looking at both the North West, the North East and everywhere else for players.  There are plenty of potential Super League players out there, we are far too reliant as a game on player from Leeds, Wigan and St Helens.

[Cumbrian Mackem]

5 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Yes I know.  But Wigan are bringing schoolboys from Cumbria to Wigan.

Who already play the game presumably for established amateur clubs like kells, wath brow, seaton and walney central etc.

Im talking about kids from non-traditional RL playing areas and creating new clubs for them.

[GUBRATS]

24 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Who already play the game presumably for established amateur clubs like kells, wath brow, seaton and walney central etc.

Im talking about kids from non-traditional RL playing areas and creating new clubs for them.

In a word no , heartland clubs do not set up new community clubs anywhere

Setting up those clubs to a level that would start to produce youngsters of the required quality would take 20 years , so no they don't 

 

 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

In a word no , heartland clubs do not set up new community clubs anywhere

Setting up those clubs to a level that would start to produce youngsters if the required quality would take 20 years , so no they don't 

 

 

That’s too bad and explains why the game is going backwards at an alarming rate in the “heartlands.”

[JM2010]

3 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

In a word no , heartland clubs do not set up new community clubs anywhere

Setting up those clubs to a level that would start to produce youngsters of the required quality would take 20 years , so no they don't 

 

 

But it could create instant fans, sponsors and awareness of their club's brand

[GUBRATS]

Just now, Cumbrian Mackem said:

That’s too bad and explains why the game is going backwards at an alarming rate in the “heartlands.”

If going backwards you mean in participation numbers I'd suggest there are a lot more reasons which influence that more than a failing to create new clubs 

The general worry about injury , the emergence of computer games and indeed the social media revolution , general laziness of parents associated with the previous 2 points , the change in school teaching 

I do agree though that more should be done by all clubs , be that SL or lower tier , not necessarily outside their own areas , but within the local communities , both amatuer and school 

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

But it could create instant fans, sponsors and awareness of their club's brand

Yes it could , as a club director I suggested the first budget allocation should be the marketing one ( which would include local junior interaction and development ) before the playing budget , my fellow directors response was to suggest I was crazy 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

13 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

But it could create instant fans, sponsors and awareness of their club's brand

But this is common sense. 

[JM2010]

14 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Yes it could , as a club director I suggested the first budget allocation should be the marketing one ( which would include local junior interaction and development ) before the playing budget , my fellow directors response was to suggest I was crazy 

I think shorg term planning is what some clubs can be guilty of.

You seemed to be talking sense but not everyone can see it that way.

Football clubs go on their far Eastern tours as a marketing excercise. It's not going to develop them any players or even put more bums on seats but it spreads their brand into new and bigger markets

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

I think shorg term planning is what some clubs can be guilty of.

You seemed to be talking sense but not everyone can see it that way.

Football clubs go on their far Eastern tours as a marketing excercise. It's not going to develop them any players or even put more bums on seats but it spreads their brand into new and bigger markets

Don't even think of comparing football to RL 

Football is the one true world sport , the biggest sport in the world outstripping anything else by a massive amount 

So the reason those clubs tour the world is financial , not to get kids playing the sport , playing numbers isn't the problem for football , neither is international competition , but those are the 2 current biggest issues for RL 

[Cumbrian Mackem]

5 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Don't even think of comparing football to RL 

Football is the one true world sport , the biggest sport in the world outstripping anything else by a massive amount 

So the reason those clubs tour the world is financial , not to get kids playing the sport , playing numbers isn't the problem for football , neither is international competition , but those are the 2 current biggest issues for RL 

If only RL was in a position of only worrying about increasing its annual income to even more millions.

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

If only RL was in a position of only worrying about increasing its annual income to even more millions.

So that it could overpay foreign players topping up their pension/luxury yacht fund by millions a year ?

[Cumbrian Mackem]

26 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

So that it could overpay foreign players topping up their pension/luxury yacht fund by millions a year ?

Market forces. I’m sure English born players command just as much if not more.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

Market forces. I’m sure English born players command just as much if not more.

I was being slightly sarcastic in part referencing RLs sourcing of ' pension topping Aussies ' , whereas the PL pays for luxury yachts instead  

[The Rocket]

1 hour ago, Cumbrian Mackem said:

That’s what I thought too. I’m all for a RL clinic in a school in Blackburn but then what?

Whats the next stage? How do you keep those kids interested and crucially playing? Tell them to continue playing with junior clubs in the wigan area?

The best example that I can give you of replenishing playing stocks and fan interest is the Wests Tigers. Neither club from that joint venture had won a premiership in 36 years, in fact for Western Suburbs it had been 53 years.

 When West Tigers won the premiership in 2005 they gained a whole new legion of fans that follow them till this day. Not just old fans coming out of the woodwork but thousands of kids who idolised their local heroes. My sisters son badgered her, he was 5, until she used to have to take him to all the fan days and a lot of games. It became a real family thing for them. 

 In that year they set three home ground attendance records including 23 000 at Leichardt and 20 000+ at Campbelltown stadium. The club annual average attendance record was set in 2006, the year after their premiership, of nearly 19 000 per game.

If you want to regenerate interest in the heartlands you have to give these teams a chance of winning, and not just an isolated one off chance of making it to a GF.

 

 

[GUBRATS]

4 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

The best example that I can give you of replenishing playing stocks and fan interest is the Wests Tigers. Neither club from that joint venture had won a premiership in 36 years, in fact for Western Suburbs it had been 53 years.

 When West Tigers won the premiership in 2005 they gained a whole new legion of fans that follow them till this day. Not just old fans coming out of the woodwork but thousands of kids who idolised their local heroes. My sisters son badgered her, he was 5, until she used to have to take him to all the fan days and a lot of games. It became a real family thing for them. 

 In that year they set three home ground attendance records including 23 000 at Leichardt and 20 000+ at Campbelltown stadium. The club annual average attendance record was set in 2006, the year after their premiership, of nearly 19 000 per game.

If you want to regenerate interest in the heartlands you have to give these teams a chance of winning, and not just an isolated one off chance of making it to a GF.

 

 

Yes , how ?