England v Fiji moved to Salford

[Griff]

11 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Trudging along for decade after decade with consistently some of the lowest attendances in the entire football league, they must have ideas above their station. 

The game's in a parlous state in South East Lancashire.  It's not so long since Oldham, Swinton and Rochdale were, if not regularly in Division One, yo-yo teams.  Now, they're all in Division One which is really Division Three, all hanging on by a thread.

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

The whole point of having it at Rochdale was the large Fijian community in Rochdale

There was a crowd of 8,872 at the 2013 World Cup for Fiji vs Ireland. I assume there were very few Irish people there...

Playing England at Rochdale would have quite likely been a sellout. I don't know how many of those Rochdale Fijians will travel to Salford? 

Not as many as would have gone in Rochdale, I guess

The football club have thrown away signficant income and goodwill with this

To be fair it’s 16 miles drive between the two grounds, if the Fijians in Rochdale want to go they won’t be put off by that short trip. Is that Fijian community in the town big then? 

[Griff]

11 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

There was a crowd of 8,872 at the 2013 World Cup for Fiji vs Ireland. I assume there were very few Irish people there...

Mrs Griff was.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Griff

[Dave T]

I could be wrong, but I dont think there will have been huge numbers of Fijiians at Rochdale in the last WC, more it gave it an interesting angle and selling point, allowing the Rochdale people to have it as a hook. 

[Eddie]

17 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I could be wrong, but I dont think there will have been huge numbers of Fijiians at Rochdale in the last WC, more it gave it an interesting angle and selling point, allowing the Rochdale people to have it as a hook. 

Would be interesting to know how many people of Fijian origin there are in Rochdale. Obviously not all of them would want to go and watch Fiji play RL either. 

[The storm]

Hornets used to have a share of that ground and were part owners

As per usual bit part business men sold it for a quick fix

It is essential that rugby league clubs own their own grounds to allow a variety of revenue streams  

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, The storm said:

Hornets used to have a share of that ground and were part owners

As per usual bit part business men sold it for a quick fix

It is essential that rugby league clubs own their own grounds to allow a variety of revenue streams  

Have you got more detail on this please, did they buy a share of Spotland when they sold The Athletic Grounds? 

[paulwalker71]

50 minutes ago, Eddie said:

To be fair it’s 16 miles drive between the two grounds, if the Fijians in Rochdale want to go they won’t be put off by that short trip. Is that Fijian community in the town big then? 

I've no idea Eddie, but I watched that game in 2013 on TV and it looked like Fijians and/or Fijian descendents made up the vast majority of the crowd.

[paulwalker71]

28 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Would be interesting to know how many people of Fijian origin there are in Rochdale. Obviously not all of them would want to go and watch Fiji play RL either. 

My impression back in 2013 is that it was a cultural thing - almost everyone with any connection to Fiji made a beeline for the game. They were singing traditional songs and hymns and making a real noise.

I doubt most of them knew much about Rugby League -  but that wasn't the point.

[clogdance]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Would be interesting to know how many people of Fijian origin there are in Rochdale. Obviously not all of them would want to go and watch Fiji play RL either. 

Rochdale FC have issued a statement on the matter and also the full details and small print of Rochdale Hornet's lease of the stadium. They have blamed Rochdale Hornets for announcing the England v Fiji game, as international fixtures are not included in their current lease.   https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2022/july/statement_27.07.22/

Edited July 27, 2022 by clogdance

[Pie tries]

3 hours ago, Derwent said:

Yes they did but it wasn’t to protect the club it was collateral against a loan. When the club defaulted on the loan the shares in the SMC became the property of the RFL. They then sold them to the football club to recoup their losses on the loan. At least that’s how I remember it.

Unbelievably short sighted…

[Pie tries]

15 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

But then they allowed it to get that far and put out no statement. Wasn´t covered under the current lease feels like they wanted to bleed more money out of a big event. Another example of how a small 3 k ground for Dale and a host of our smaller clubs would be infinitely better than prisoners of a sh*t football team. 

Rochdale lose out on an international so the club that gets less than 3000 average can feel good. Probably joining Oldham in non league soon. Any money we get in the future has got to go to helping these former strongholds get out of these prisons. 

Yep. Imagine if we’d kept all the sky money and just distributed the interest…

[Griff]

1 hour ago, paulwalker71 said:

I've no idea Eddie, but I watched that game in 2013 on TV and it looked like Fijians and/or Fijian descendents made up the vast majority of the crowd.

There were a fair few sat near us.  I can't speak for the rest of the ground as we weren't allowed to move about very freely.

Also, it was siling down.

[Cw25]

Rochdale AFC are being ###### to the Rugby league club. They are getting talked about for a change I suppose, Not as though anyone will talk about what they achieve on the pitch is it ?. Destined for non league football. Karma for taking the p out of Bury !.

[Harry Stottle]

7 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Well it's a better ground than Rochdale and there should be more in for this than the 4,000 that attended the Italy warm up before the 2013 World Cup. Hopefully the beeb will stick it on iplayer or something as well. 

You reckon it would make for good TV, if at least 26 player's are running on and off the field being used by both teams to try out combinations and give the guy's from different teams a run out, that's if it is being used a pre cup warm up, I wouldn't be interested in that  BUT if it is a named 17 man squad by both teams and played in the spirit it should be I will be in the queue to get a ticket.

Does anybody know the format it will ve played under.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Harry Stottle

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Any news on ticketing arrangements both for those originally going to Rochdalewho may have booked already,  and those who may go to Salford ?

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Rochdale has the biggest population of Fijians outside London.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

17 minutes ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Any news on ticketing arrangements both for those originally going to Rochdalewho may have booked already,  and those who may go to Salford ?

https://rugby-league.com/article/60593/england-rl-launches-world-cup-kit-and-confirms-mens-pre-tournament-fixture-against-fiji

It explains it all in the article. It gives a link to the ticketing site and says at the bottom that if you've already got tickets for Rochdale then you have to email Rochdale Hornets to get the ticket transferred to Salford and gives the email address. 

[idrewthehaggis]

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

To be fair it’s 16 miles drive between the two grounds, if the Fijians in Rochdale want to go they won’t be put off by that short trip. Is that Fijian community in the town big then? 

It is 16,000 km between Fiji and Rochdale. 

It is 26 km between Rochdale and the AJ Bell stade.

You'd think wouldn't yer. 

 

[Eddie]

20 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Rochdale has the biggest population of Fijians outside London.

That may be, but are there 50 of them, or 50,000? 

[RigbyLuger]

So why didn't this come up when the fixture was first announced?

[LittleboroRoughyed]

Having read both articles & some of the recent disputes between the 2 clubs is it coincidental that these have arisen since Hornets new owners took over?

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

15 minutes ago, LittleboroRoughyed said:

Having read both articles & some of the recent disputes between the 2 clubs is it coincidental that these have arisen since Hornets new owners took over?

 

I’d say the real problems started when the football club’s new board took over.

[gingerjon]

12 hours ago, Eddie said:

That may be, but are there 50 of them, or 50,000? 

Much nearer the first figure. Like,  when looked into, roughly that figure.

Also, the football club may be being proper c-words, but if a lease says you can only hold your own games and not host on behalf of a third party then you sort that out before saying you're going to have this great international fixture.

That's the sort of detail that the RFL and RLWC organisers really should be aware of.

[Nate90]

The It's a massive shame that Rochdale FC are no longer allowing the Hornets to host the England vs Fiji warm up game that was due take place at Spotland

 

I was looking forward to attending the event in Rochdale. The novelty factor won't be there in Salford .

Edited July 28, 2022 by Nate90