Supporters association

[Mr Plow]

Has rl ever had one, does it still? If not could it? Should it? What weight and influence could it have? Also what do supports boards at clubs do? Could they be doing more to encourage clubs to be less selfish and make clubs make better decisions for the sport

[M j M]

Did it ever have one

One for @John DrakeI think.

But rlfans  spawned out of the RLSA at some point.

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, M j M said:

One for @John DrakeI think.

Oh, my fading memory...

Yes, indeed there once was such a thing as the Rugby League Supporters Association (RLSA for short) formed in 1990 (I think) by various folk behind a number of club RL fanzines of the time.

Mick Fielding (The Steam Pig / Bradford Northern) and Tony Collins (Flag Edge Touch / Hull KR) were the prime movers, amongst others. 

I was part of The Steam Pig editorial team, hence my involvement from the outset.

After an informal meeting of the fanzine bods in a place called Cridling Stubbs, it kicked off publicly with an ad placed in Open Rugby magazine, inviting fans to an open meeting at a pub in Leeds (Cardigan Arms, I think) before a Great Britain Test match against France (remember those?) and a small band of willing volunteers got the ball rolling properly, culminating in a full launch meeting at (where else) The George Hotel in Huddersfield (remember that?).

That meeting resulted in a committee being formed to run the thing, and a new fanzine being launched called The Greatest Game (TGG) with yours truly as its first editor (or Editorial Co-ordinator to be precise), to promote the RLSA's chosen causes, and have a bit of a giggle as well.

The RLSA put together a charter of aims, called Blueprint 2000, and then did various campaigning activities designed to achieve them. Tony Collins was an absolute whizz at writing good, professional press releases, so the RLSA punched above its weight in terms of getting publicity for things it did.

I remember we organised a wreath-laying at the old RFL HQ in Chapeltown Road as an expression of sadness that three clubs had been kicked out of the league structure (Nottingham and Runcorn were two of them, Chorley may have been the third, can't recall off the top of my head right now) which got loads of media coverage, so we urged fans to turn up to protest at Nottingham City's final game at the Harvey Hadden Stadium, and it quadrupled their regular crowd!

I 'editorially co-ordinated' TGG for 5 years and helped organise a very well attended AGM at Keighley during the height of Cougarmania.

That was the peak of my involvement. Then along came Super League, things turned a bit nasty, for various reasons I won't go into, so I jacked it in and walked away.

Others carried on with it for many more years though, until it was eventually overtaken by the rise of the internet and subsumed into RLFans. How/why that happened I don't know.

TGG ended up being the longest running RL fanzine, I believe, though I don't know when it officially ended. It used to be published 4 times a year, but the gaps between issues got longer and longer towards the end.

I've got a collection of them somewhere. I'll see if I can dig them out and put some screen grabs up on here at some point.

Here endeth the brief history of the RLSA. Apologies for any errors or omissions, others may be able to correct the record or add to it, if I've misremembered any of it.

Could it be done again? 

I think so, yes. You just need a handful of people who want to make a difference and then get on with it, don't sit on your hands waiting for someone else to take the initiative.

[The Rocket]

2 hours ago, Mr Plow said:

Could they be doing more to encourage clubs to be less selfish and make clubs make better decisions for the sport

As Wayne Bennett famously said : " If you start listening to the fans, won`t be long and you`ll find yourself sitting with them ", I tend to agree.

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

[gingerjon]

6 hours ago, The Rocket said:

As Wayne Bennett famously said : " If you start listening to the fans, won`t be long and you`ll find yourself sitting with them ", I tend to agree.

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

Right now, I think we're suffering as a game from the dangers of relying on smaller and smaller groups of people who, individually, might be okay but, as a whole, get stuck in wading through treacle and/or acting in incredibly short termist self interest.

I'm not sure fan groups are necessarily the answer - the fanzine culture of the 80s/90s doesn't really exist in the same way now - but it shouldn't be rejected out of hand.

That said, unless your opening meeting is at The Welcome in Sedlescombe Road North then I won't be there.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

6 hours ago, The Rocket said:

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

So you agree the amateurs at the RFL should be nowhere near the running of our game in this country??

[marklaspalmas]

7 hours ago, The Rocket said:

As Wayne Bennett famously said : " If you start listening to the fans, won`t be long and you`ll find yourself sitting with them ", I tend to agree.

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

Bizarre quote to try and back up your point. Bennett was referring to head coaches with his comment, not organisers and administrators sho should always be aware of public opinion.

In the UK I suspect many 'professional' administrators also did/do voluntary and unpaid work at their club on the way up. People like Wood and Rimmer etc cane through the ranks

[yipyee]

7 hours ago, The Rocket said:

As Wayne Bennett famously said : " If you start listening to the fans, won`t be long and you`ll find yourself sitting with them ", I tend to agree.

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

When the premier league clubs dropped from the new European superleague after fan protests??

The glazers meeting the fans to address their concerns

Liverpool backed down on ST hikes after fan protests

Didnt Cas sack Millward after fans decided to not go to a home game?

Barcelona and several german clubs are part fan owned?

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Yes, the third club to go out of the league were Chorley, but they were relegated to the NCL, regained senior status in 95 - 96 as Chorley Chieftains, then changed their name to Lancashire Lynx and finally turned turtle at the end of the 2000 season.

[John Drake]

12 hours ago, The Rocket said:

As Wayne Bennett famously said : " If you start listening to the fans, won`t be long and you`ll find yourself sitting with them ", I tend to agree.

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

I don't think there is anything wrong with fans wanting to make their voices heard in more ways than just chanting on the terraces at the weekend.

All the best organisations (sporting or otherwise) respect their paying customers, rather than take them for granted or treat them like dirt.

The RLSA's aims were broad based, game wide things like campaigning for improvements in ground standards, from the perspective of those who actually had to endure the open air brick wall gutters that passed for toilet facilities back in the day.

We also lobbied the Royal Mail - backing up an initiative the RFL were already engaged in - to get a set of commemorative stamps released to mark the game's centenary in 1995, and that resulted in success, so it doesn't always have to be issues at which fans are at loggerheads with the governing body, it is possible to work together to achieve mutual aims too.

I think we did some good, even if those in charge of running the game at the time probably thought 'oh, what the hell do they want now?' whenever we launched a new campaign! 

It ought to be far easier to organise some kind of fans campaigning group these days, with t'internet, mobile phones and suchlike, and much easier to get publicity too.

[DavidM]

13 hours ago, The Rocket said:

 

I always say, leave the running of the game to the professionals.

That always goes well

[The Rocket]

11 minutes ago, John Drake said:

I don't think there is anything wrong with fans wanting to make their voices heard in more ways than just chanting on the terraces at the weekend.

All the best organisations (sporting or otherwise) respect their paying customers, rather than take them for granted or treat them like dirt.

The RLSA's aims were broad based, game wide things like campaigning for improvements in ground standards, from the perspective of those who actually had to endure the open air brick wall gutters that passed for toilet facilities back in the day.

We also lobbied the Royal Mail - backing up an initiative the RFL were already engaged in - to get a set of commemorative stamps released to mark the game's centenary in 1995, and that resulted in success, so it doesn't always have to be issues at which fans are at loggerheads with the governing body, it is possible to work together to achieve mutual aims too.

I think we did some good, even if those in charge of running the game at the time probably thought 'oh, what the hell do they want now?' whenever we launched a new campaign! 

It ought to be far easier to organise some kind of fans campaigning group these days, with t'internet, mobile phones and suchlike, and much easier to get publicity too.

John I suspect my glib throw-away line has given you the perfect opportunity to extoll the virtues of listening to the customer. More than happy to oblige. The stamp thing was amazing.

I. myself have had a little experience in communicating with the games hierarchy. In 1984 I wrote a letter addressed to John Quayle then CEO of the NSWRL (pre-NRL days) suggesting an alteration to their half page weekly promotion of the weekends games  in Sydney`s largest selling tabloid The Daily Telegraph.

A week later I received a typed but hand signed thank you letter from the man himself and the invitation to contribute anytime, I never did, but I still have the letter and yes they did use my idea.

Any way mate apologies for being a bit of a smart-###### and good luck.