The NRL revive talk of 2023 season opener in LA

[Tony Angelino]

7 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Not every Aussie goes to NRL games. There’s over 2 million Aussies living in Perth, doesn’t mean they could sell 2 million tickets.

True but this could be sold as a potential expats get together. Get the Australian embassy involved too.

Personally I think a origin game is a better/easier  sell than a regular NRL game.

[Tony Angelino]

5 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Hmm. ..they never turned up at the Stoop, though, to see the Broncos.

In 1997?

[JohnM]

Perhaps they think the US is much more capable of staging a sucessful event.

Imagine the reaction here. Theres already the Cup Final, the Grand Final and  Magic Weekemd. And now you want me to pay to go to this? 

London Broncos was heavily targeted at the expat Australian community in London.  That went well.

In the spring of 1994, just prior to the Divisional Premiership Final, it was announced that the successful Australian NRL club Brisbane Broncos was buying the London Crusaders club, which would be renamed London Broncos from the start of the forthcoming 1994–95 season. Gordon was replaced by a Brisbane coach, Gary Grienke.[4] The first home game under the new Broncos moniker was against Keighley at Hendon F.C.'s ground at Claremont Road, though most home games were still played at Barnet Copthall.

For the 1995–96 season the club found another new home base, returning to south-west London at The Stoop Memorial Ground, home of Harlequins Rugby Union Club. Despite finishing fourth in the Second Division the previous season, London Broncos were selected by the RFL to be part of the radical new Super League competition scheduled to begin in the summer of 1996, on the basis that the RFL felt it was commercially essential for the sport's national profile to have a team based in the nation's capital

Edited April 17, 2022 by JohnM

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Tony Angelino said:

There’s something like 100k aussies&kiwis living in London alone so there’s already a sizeable potential audience straight away.

This often gets spouted but it never translates into large numbers watching RL in this country. Even games like Australia v New Zealand have struggled for sales.

The vast majority of Aussies I have met in this country aren't really representative of Australians and many don't seem to even follow RL. Think RU types traveling for a year on Daddy's wallet.

[Tony Angelino]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

This often gets spouted but it never translates into large numbers watching RL in this country. Even games like Australia v New Zealand have struggled for sales.

The vast majority of Aussies I have met in this country aren't really representative of Australians and many don't seem to even follow RL. Think RU types traveling for a year on Daddy's wallet.

This again is true but I’d add did the RFL actually do any meaningful promotion amongst the aussie&kiwi expat communities?

Because of the better profile and media exposure of RU and cricket in this country touring Aussie and kiwi RU and cricket sides are better attended.

[Scubby]

20 minutes ago, Damien said:

This often gets spouted but it never translates into large numbers watching RL in this country. Even games like Australia v New Zealand have struggled for sales.

The vast majority of Aussies I have met in this country aren't really representative of Australians and many don't seem to even follow RL. Think RU types traveling for a year on Daddy's wallet.

I went to a Harlequins v Manly friendly prior to the WCC and there were 1000s of Aussie ex-pats there. As there were for the 2009 4N match at the same venue.

[The storm]

8 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Part 1 of a great tradition, talking about exposing the game to new markets.

Part 2 is, of course, not doing it.

Union continues to talk up their game in north america even though nobody watches it

[Damien]

18 minutes ago, Scubby said:

I went to a Harlequins v Manly friendly prior to the WCC and there were 1000s of Aussie ex-pats there. As there were for the 2009 4N match at the same venue.

That's the point. No one has said that none go. However they certainly dont go in large numbers and you are proving that.

When matches at small venues don't even sell out, as the match you cite at the Stoop didn't and the previous Australia v New Zealand match at Loftus Road didn't, then that shows that ex pats don't follow RL in large numbers. 

[Tony Angelino]

2 minutes ago, The storm said:

Union continues to talk up their game in north america even though nobody watches it

At least they back it up with long-term development.

We’d kill to have an equivalent to MLR. Just wait until they start taping into the huge college football talent.

[Futtocks]

10 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

At least they back it up with long-term development.

We’d kill to have an equivalent to MLR. Just wait until they start taping into the huge college football talent.

I admire their long-term commitment. But they've been making a deliberate effort to tap into all that college talent since the mid-Seventies (if not earlier), and remarkably little has come of it.

[Tony Angelino]

13 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

I admire their long-term commitment. But they've been making a deliberate effort to tap into all that college talent since the mid-Seventies (if not earlier), and remarkably little has come of it.

That was way before union going professional and the MLR. 
 

Rugby Union plays the long game which is starting to yield results in countries like Argentina and Japan etc. won’t be long before the USA starts to see improvements alongside the likes of Uruguay and Brazil.

[Futtocks]

23 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

That was way before union going professional and the MLR. 
 

Rugby Union plays the long game which is starting to yield results in countries like Argentina and Japan etc. won’t be long before the USA starts to see improvements alongside the likes of Uruguay and Brazil.

I'm aware of what they are trying to do, and also their previous attempt at a semi-pro league in the USA.

[Tony Angelino]

6 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

I'm aware of what they are trying to do, and also their previous attempt at a semi-pro league in the USA.

“Trying” being the operative word. In where they fail they go away and learn their lesson from past mistakes before coming back stronger.

[Futtocks]

31 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

“Trying” being the operative word. In where they fail they go away and learn their lesson from past mistakes before coming back stronger.

Well, they come back, at least, which is to their credit.

[Tony Angelino]

5 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Well, they come back, at least, which is to their credit.

Indeed. Those that try and try again have a greater chance of succeeding than those that don’t try at all.

[JohnM]

I think the NRL stands a better chance in the US that the RFL would.  I think the Crocodile Dundee image plays better there than the Coronation St. one.

[JohnM]

5 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

Indeed. Those that try and try again have a greater chance of succeeding than those that don’t try at all.

 The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Einstein never said that. And neither did Benny Franklin. Salon has a good round-up of people using this quote in various political contexts, because politicians really love this quote. The Ultimate Quotable Einstein traces the quote to Rita Mae Brown's 1983 book Sudden Death, but it's almost certainly older than that.

[Tony Angelino]

Talking about US/North American RL what’s the latest with the proposed professional league that was cancelled last year due to covid. 
 

Is it still going ahead or was it all what many of us feared at the time just bullsh#t?

 

[Eddie]

11 hours ago, Tony Angelino said:

That was way before union going professional and the MLR. 
 

Rugby Union plays the long game which is starting to yield results in countries like Argentina and Japan etc. won’t be long before the USA starts to see improvements alongside the likes of Uruguay and Brazil.

Yes remind me, how is Japanese and Argentinian involvement in the ‘Super’ club competition going? 

[frank]

The Aussies are full of talk. No chance of this game taking place. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

15 hours ago, Tony Angelino said:

There’s something like 100k aussies&kiwis living in London alone so there’s already a sizeable potential audience straight away.

I would say there are probably a lot more than that.....it has very little effect on the existing RL in London in terms on attendances.....I've met maybe only a handful of Aussies at Broncos games over the years

[JohnM]

Have look at what the NFL is doing bring games to London.  As I understand it, these games are always sold out. And the impact on UK development of that sport?

Yet https://www.nationalworld.com/sport/other-sport/nfl-london-games-2022-three-teams-confirmed-and-how-to-register-interest-in-tickets-3542684

Today's NRL game twixt Eels and Tigers had a crowd of over 28k plus whatever TV audience.

What's the betting that todays Wigan V Wakefield game doesn't quite match that crowd, that quality, that intensity, that excitement etc?

Let the NRL get on with it in the US. Theyre now better than us at that sort of thing. The heady days of Hull V Wigan in 1985 and of Wigan, Widnes, Saints etc and Lindsay grabbing all the sporting headlines in the late 1980s early 1990s are long long gone.

 

[Tony Angelino]

2 hours ago, frank said:

The Aussies are full of talk. No chance of this game taking place. 

If somebody stumps up some serious $$$ then maybe. If not it’s not happening.

 

[Tony Angelino]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

Yes remind me, how is Japanese and Argentinian involvement in the ‘Super’ club competition going? 

Both teams were cut but I was specifically talking about the National sides of both Argentina and Japan who are in the case of Argentina a genuine tier 1 nation and Japan a team that has beaten tier 1 nations like South Africa, Ireland and wales in recent years.

[Tony Angelino]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I would say there are probably a lot more than that.....it has very little effect on the existing RL in London in terms on attendances.....I've met maybe only a handful of Aussies at Broncos games over the years

Maybe these expats aren’t interested in watching substandard rugby league?

A regular NRL season match or even origin series game would be a whole different ball game.

imo Im sure if marketed and promoted right by the NRL you could get a crowd in the low 20k to attend along with southern based RL fans and curious newbie sporting fans.