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The NRL revive talk of 2023 season opener in LA


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40 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

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.

And the follow up would be?????.....I thought so.   There is a market for RL in NA but there needs to be a plan...a well thought out plan with ...commitment.

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47 minutes ago, Tony Angelino said:

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.

Only 55 posts to go. 

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9 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

And the follow up would be?????.....I thought so.   There is a market for RL in NA but there needs to be a plan...a well thought out plan with ...commitment.

I was replying to a post about Aussie&kiwi expats in and around London but as for a NRL follow up plan or any plans for that matter in North America then forget about it.

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1 hour ago, Tony Angelino said:

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.

Even better. Make attendance compulsory as part of the visa our antipodean cousins must get to enter the UK. There you go, no marketing needed.

Alternatively, ban private schools in the UK. Then union would wither and die for lack of England players who would otherwise be without qualification so jobless.

In any case, why should the aim be to establish a league in the US?  Big games is what it's all about in the US. NFL club events far exceed the crowds of honking hooray henries and their range rovers (bought on the drip) in the HQ car park for "internationals"

 

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On 17/04/2022 at 09:30, Omott91 said:

As long as the plan is to also grow the game in North America. Assist the NARL for example.

It will be all about promoting the NRL brand. They wouldn’t give monkeys about doing anything to assist North American Rugby League.

I doubt that will happen though. Adelaide is too far flung for the NRL to seemingly bother with, never mind the USA.

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14 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

It will be all about promoting the NRL brand. They wouldn’t give monkeys about doing anything to assist North American Rugby League.

I doubt that will happen though. Adelaide is too far flung for the NRL to seemingly bother with, never mind the USA.

Unfortunately expansion in the NRL these days is taking origin to Perth or regular NRL games to Darwin, cairns and Christchurch etc.

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Firstly, there's next to no chance that this game gets off the ground. It'd be a very expensive exercise with little hope of a return for the investment, and the broadcasters will be dead against it.

Secondly, people keep saying there needs to be a 'plan' or a 'follow up', but having a serious crack at the US/NA market would cost hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars just to build a significant niche audience. The NRL simply doesn't have the resources to attempt such a venture, especially when things are as bad as they are back home.

Finally, any talk of the NRL supporting the NARL, USARL, etc in any substantial way is just fantasyland nonsense. It's not within the NRL's preview, they'd get nothing tangible in return for their investment, and the last thing RL needs is another nation that is totally reliant on the NRL subsidising their existence.

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5 minutes ago, The Great Dane said:

Firstly, there's next to no chance that this game gets off the ground. It'd be a very expensive exercise with little hope of a return for the investment, and the broadcasters will be dead against it.

Secondly, people keep saying there needs to be a 'plan' or a 'follow up', but having a serious crack at the US/NA market would cost hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars just to build a significant niche audience. The NRL simply doesn't have the resources to attempt such a venture, especially when things are as bad as they are back home.

Finally, any talk of the NRL supporting the NARL, USARL, etc in any substantial way is just fantasyland nonsense. It's not within the NRL's preview, they'd get nothing tangible in return for their investment, and the last thing RL needs is another nation that is totally reliant on the NRL subsidising their existence.

Is the NRL even shown in the US?

The NRL should concentrate on shoring up the pacific nations and increasing their profile and footprint in New Zealand.

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1 minute ago, Tony Angelino said:

Is the NRL even shown in the US?

Yes it is shown in the US.

1 minute ago, Tony Angelino said:

The NRL should concentrate on shoring up the pacific nations and increasing their profile and footprint in New Zealand.

The NRL should leave the PI's and NZ to themselves and worry about it's own backyard.

For all intents and purposes RL basically doesn't exist outside of NSW, Qld, and the ACT in Australia (i.e. half the country), and because of mismanagement and neglect it's badly struggling within the ACT, large parts of NSW (particularly south of Sydney) and some parts of Qld.

In other words RL isn't in great shape in Australia and the NRL's focus should be on changing that less they watch the goose that lays the golden eggs slowly be stolen by the AFL and other competitors.

Frankly the club's willingness to source talent cheaply by poaching it from NZ rugby and the PI's instead of developing it themselves in Australia is a contributing factor to those struggles, but that is a whole other discussion.

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53 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

It will be all about promoting the NRL brand. They wouldn’t give monkeys about doing anything to assist North American Rugby League.

I doubt that will happen though. Adelaide is too far flung for the NRL to seemingly bother with, never mind the USA.

Even if it comes off, they're living in fantasy land if they think a match between two Sydney suburban teams has a proverbial snowball's chance of impressing anyone in a part of the world where there's no such thing as suburban teams in any level of pro sport let alone major league sport.  It likely would get no notice at all.

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1 minute ago, Big Picture said:

Even if it comes off, they're living in fantasy land if they think a match between two Sydney suburban teams has a proverbial snowball's chance of impressing anyone in a part of the world where there's no such thing as suburban teams in any level of pro sport let alone major league sport.  It likely would get no notice at all.

TBF, nobody noticing would have nothing to do the with the suburban clubs, most Seppos wouldn't even understand that the clubs are suburban clubs. It'd be because nobody in the US knows that RL exists, and the NRL doesn't have the means to put it under their eyes.

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23 minutes ago, The Great Dane said:

Yes it is shown in the US.

The NRL should leave the PI's and NZ to themselves and worry about it's own backyard.

For all intents and purposes RL basically doesn't exist outside of NSW, Qld, and the ACT in Australia (i.e. half the country), and because of mismanagement and neglect it's badly struggling within the ACT, large parts of NSW (particularly south of Sydney) and some parts of Qld.

In other words RL isn't in great shape in Australia and the NRL's focus should be on changing that less they watch the goose that lays the golden eggs slowly be stolen by the AFL and other competitors.

Frankly the club's willingness to source talent cheaply by poaching it from NZ rugby and the PI's instead of developing it themselves in Australia is a contributing factor to those struggles, but that is a whole other discussion.

That’s a very bleak picture you paint mate.

Are you a Aussie?

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If the NRL was serious about trying something in the US (and I'm not saying that they are or should be), then their best bet would to try and conquer Hawaii first because of it's close connection to Pacific region culturally, it's proximity to Australia compared to the rest of the US, it's total lack of representation in the major leagues in the US, and the slight disconnect it has from the mainstream American culture.

If the NRL was serious, and willing to put the time and resources in, then getting a team up and running in Hawaii and building a culture of RL around it would be an achievable goal. Very high risk, time consuming, very expensive, and difficult, but achievable.

Any other talk about the US is daydreaming for the time being.

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4 minutes ago, The Great Dane said:

TBF, nobody noticing would have nothing to do the with the suburban clubs, most Seppos wouldn't even understand that the clubs are suburban clubs. It'd be because nobody in the US knows that RL exists, and the NRL doesn't have the means to put it under their eyes.

Seppos???

I think it would be pretty obvious to anyone that South Sydney is a suburb of Sydney, and anyone googling Manly would soon find out that it is too.  I agree that the NRL doesn't have the means, they likely have something modest like the 1987 SOO match in Long Beach in mind which I'm pretty sure didn't even make anyone other than expats take any notice.

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Just now, Big Picture said:

Seppos???

It's short for septic tank.

It's Australian rhyming slang. You should be able to figure it out if you think about it, if you haven't already figured it out.

Just now, Big Picture said:

I think it would be pretty obvious to anyone that South Sydney is a suburb of Sydney, and anyone googling Manly would soon find out that it is too.

Most people in America won't be bother to google it anymore than most people in Australia are bothered to google Wigan or St. Helens...

Not having a go, just being honest.

5 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

I agree that the NRL doesn't have the means, they likely have something modest like the 1987 SOO match in Long Beach in mind which I'm pretty sure didn't even make anyone other than expats take any notice.

I doubt the NRL even have that in mind.

The Penn's have been pushing this on and off for years and it's never been more than talk in the media on a slow news day.

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1 minute ago, Tony Angelino said:

AFL are investing heavily at grassroots in Queensland. Right?

soccer and basketball are growing threat to grassroots RL also?

AFL invests heavily in the grassroots everywhere with the exception of places it thinks it has totally tied up and has a low return in pro-talent, i.e. Tasmania and some very small regional parts of SA, WA, and the NT. In the ACT and parts of NSW, and Qld they are seriously to trying to grow into they easily outspend the NRL in the grassroots, they're bringing guns to a knife fight in that regard.

Basketball is growing exponentially in the urban centres of Australia, and unlike in the 90s it isn't a fad pushed by Michael Jordan's cult of personality. The NBL is competently run and basketball is eating up market share as a result, but to be honest it's probably effecting cricket more than the football codes currently.

Soccer is a toothless tiger in Australia, always has been and probably always will be.

Soccer has had the highest participation rates of any of the football codes for as long as the data has been collected, however it's utterly failed to convert that success in the grassroots into support for the local professional competition. Their professional tier is a shambles as well, and it's unlikely that will ever change. It's probably the only code that has historically been run worse than RL.

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1 hour ago, The Great Dane said:

Yes it is shown in the US.

The NRL should leave the PI's and NZ to themselves and worry about it's own backyard.

For all intents and purposes RL basically doesn't exist outside of NSW, Qld, and the ACT in Australia (i.e. half the country), and because of mismanagement and neglect it's badly struggling within the ACT, large parts of NSW (particularly south of Sydney) and some parts of Qld.

In other words RL isn't in great shape in Australia and the NRL's focus should be on changing that less they watch the goose that lays the golden eggs slowly be stolen by the AFL and other competitors.

Frankly the club's willingness to source talent cheaply by poaching it from NZ rugby and the PI's instead of developing it themselves in Australia is a contributing factor to those struggles, but that is a whole other discussion.

Rugby League is a national sport in PNG and has had big growth in Tonga and Fiji. They obviously have a different view considering that they convinced the Aus gov to spend millions on rugby league programmes in the Pacific. Giving up on NZ? Good thing you are not in charge of the NRL.

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