What are IMG's strategy for RL in Wales?

[The Daddy]

I noted in IMG's proposals that London and France were targeted as strategic areas of development. 

Was Wales mentioned in the proposals? I don't remember seeing it. Wales has huge potential still, they just need one backer similar to a Derek Beaumont to drive the sport forward there. 

In the small amount of time the Crusaders were active they produced many top players Lloyd White, Ben Flower, Elliott Kear.Some of the players from Crusaders days are still active. 

In fact Wales has always produced top players with what little resources they have. This just shows that there's tons of players in Wales with SL potential.

Not to mention that Wales schools do well in the grass roots cup competitions. 

Imagine if they actually had a reliable and stable SL club? 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by The Daddy

[Damien]

I completely agree. Wales could be a huge source of players, and traditionally always has been. As you rightly say Celtic Crusaders produced a fair few in a small time with just a little funding. In terms of international opposition and building the international game, Wales, along with France, are the only nations in the northern hemisphere close to providing a sustainable, homegrown side that is not dependent on heritage players.

I doubt though that IMG or the RFL will see things the same way.

[welshmagpie]

I’m sure IMG are keeping an eye. The best move they can make is to contact Brian Juliff (Chair of WRL) to see how they can enhance and develop the excellent, existing pathway Welsh RL has

[Agbrigg]

I wonder why no matter how hard we have tried to do this, it has never worked ?

[Pie tries]

Wales is the obvious choice - our working class cousins love league and we share hatred of England RU.

Need a team in Cardiff with welsh players - plus pathways. Reasonably quickly with France We’d have decent European competition 

[gingerjon]

Just now, Agbrigg said:

I wonder why no matter how hard we have tried to do this, it has never worked ?

Because we've never remotely tried hard.

[Jughead]

The focus areas IMG stated were London, France and the Women’s game, so not much to do with Wales, barring the women’s game. The fact IMG aren’t looking at taking on more expansion clubs presently could work in favour of North and West Wales, IMG might move the focus on those we do have before looking at others. 

[Pie tries]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Because we've never remotely tried hard.

Spot on.

[Bolton Leyther]

3 hours ago, Agbrigg said:

I wonder why no matter how hard we have tried to do this, it has never worked ?

Probably because it's a better idea to focus on the grassroots element and drive investment into the formation of amateur clubs/league structures.

People interrsted in the sport promarily need somewhere to play; the professional sports club can come later.

And if and when professional sports clubs are founded, name them after places rather than areas.

[Madrileño]

3 hours ago, Pie tries said:

Wales is the obvious choice - our working class cousins love league 

They don't.

They don't watch it on TV in any great numbers, they don't buy merchandise, and they don't show up for international matches (apart from a few hundred of them).

Posting stuff like you have is misleading and clearly untrue. 

In what way do they "love league"?

[corkonian77]

3 hours ago, Madrileño said:

They don't.

They don't watch it on TV in any great numbers, they don't buy merchandise, and they don't show up for international matches (apart from a few hundred of them).

Posting stuff like you have is misleading and clearly untrue. 

In what way do they "love league"?

I am afraid some people  think that the situation  of the 1970s and 1980s still exist.

Truth be told is that Swansea  City  and Cardiff  have taken over the public imagination. Football  is Wales  club sport.

 

[Pie tries]

5 hours ago, Madrileño said:

They don't.

They don't watch it on TV in any great numbers, they don't buy merchandise, and they don't show up for international matches (apart from a few hundred of them).

Posting stuff like you have is misleading and clearly untrue. 

In what way do they "love league"?

The Welsh public love rugby - either code. the prejudice against league was never anywhere as strong as in England. I remember the thousands of Welsh fans who came up to watch the WC SF at Old Trafford - cracking game. Absolutely no problem getting junior to play league - u16s team done well over recent years. 
The Welsh public have never really had opportunity to watch a properly organised club in wales - with pathways - which should be in Cardiff where most people are.

Im part Welsh - my relatives closely followed those players who came up north. They’ve all enjoyed ‘our game’, I’ve taken (at their request) to games which they’ve hugely enjoyed.

Wales in like the north of England and with a little input could realistically gain a good foothold in the capital if the pathways are in place.
Yes would need investment- but we’ve never really tried remotely organised - anything we’ve done has been off the back of others. 

The Welsh would support a successful club in Cardiff- there is no evidence to suggest otherwise - especially if using home grown players. The prejudice against league has never been there.

Hardly contentious - maybe just my view of the world, but certainly not misleading 

[saintspete83]

This was disappointing in 2016 when Nigel Wood cut £70k of funding to the Welsh yet an inflated salary of £314k was announced for himself.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/rfl-defend-wales-funding-cut/

[eal]

How popular is Rugby League in Wales in reality? Does it get any media coverage? I wonder if many here are still thinking the glory days of Welsh rugby league are only a few years ago when in reality they were 30 years ago. I would be interested to hear from people on the ground in Wales.

Edited October 25, 2022 by eal

[welshmagpie]

6 hours ago, Madrileño said:

They don't.

They don't watch it on TV in any great numbers, they don't buy merchandise, and they don't show up for international matches (apart from a few hundred of them).

Posting stuff like you have is misleading and clearly untrue. 

In what way do they "love league"?

I’m on of that few hundred that love it. 

[welshmagpie]

22 minutes ago, eal said:

How popular is Rugby League in Wales in reality? Does it get any media coverage? I wonder if many here are still thinking the glory days of Welsh rugby league are only a few years ago when in reality they were 30 years ago. I would be interested to hear from people on the ground in Wales.

The Welsh sports media scene is dominated by football and anything major scale in British sporting terms such as Olympics, Premier League, 6 Nations etc.

RL gets a bit here and there but it’s important to note many Welsh homes don’t access Welsh media, they turn on their TVs and open up their newspapers to hear directly from London. 

I can however say that Wales RL’s social media channels have experienced their highest ever ‘international window’ traffic, the majority of which coming from people in Wales.

The jersey is also selling very well - 350 views within the first few hours of being on sale. 

[Madrileño]

1 hour ago, eal said:

How popular is Rugby League in Wales in reality?

Not very popular at all.

Despite what Pie Tries posts about some sort of fraternity of "working class cousins"  your average Welsh person couldn't care less about Rugby League.

There is no evidence whatsoever that the current generation of young people in Wales have any serious interest in rugby league - yet Pie Tries insists that they "love it" despite having zero examples of how they show this love.  

[SydneyRoosters]

2 hours ago, Madrileño said:

Not very popular at all.

Despite what Pie Tries posts about some sort of fraternity of "working class cousins"  your average Welsh person couldn't care less about Rugby League.

There is no evidence whatsoever that the current generation of young people in Wales have any serious interest in rugby league - yet Pie Tries insists that they "love it" despite having zero examples of how they show this love.  

How would you know at all, I’m not saying your wrong but you don’t know anything about rugby league in England so I doubt you’d know anything about Wales.

[Tommygilf]

Wales is interesting from IMGs perspective. 

On the one hand it provides arguably the quickest way to get a competitive European international team closer to England's level. Arguably quicker than France.

However, it is a small country, with an existing significantly populated sporting landscape. It also isn't particularly wealthy, and in pure financial terms it doesn't have the same potential as France or London (IMGs stated targets for the mens game).

I think there is absolutely the scope for a Welsh team in Super League. I would lock one in just as I would with French and A Grade English teams. For IMG though, that would probably come at the expense of a weaker heartland club.

[Toby Chopra]

26 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Wales is interesting from IMGs perspective. 

On the one hand it provides arguably the quickest way to get a competitive European international team closer to England's level. Arguably quicker than France.

However, it is a small country, with an existing significantly populated sporting landscape. It also isn't particularly wealthy, and in pure financial terms it doesn't have the same potential as France or London (IMGs stated targets for the mens game).

I think there is absolutely the scope for a Welsh team in Super League. I would lock one in just as I would with French and A Grade English teams. For IMG though, that would probably come at the expense of a weaker heartland club.

A Welsh SL club would lose millions and go bust within 3 years, like the last one did. 

Wales can't even sustain its union franchises any more, so there's just not the financial window for a league one to come in - and it could only be in Cardiff, so that means renting an expensive ground. 

The most important thing for Wrlsh RL in my view is to support the growing valleys/Cardiff community and youth game, and create viable pathways to the northern game for the best 18 year olds. This is already happening of sorts, so we just need to build it up: more entry points and more destination points. 

[SydneyRoosters]

Wales should be IMG’s number 1 priority, It’s the easiest pathway to growth.

[gingerjon]

53 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

A Welsh SL club would lose millions and go bust within 3 years, like the last one did. 

Wales can't even sustain its union franchises any more, so there's just not the financial window for a league one to come in - and it could only be in Cardiff, so that means renting an expensive ground. 

The most important thing for Wrlsh RL in my view is to support the growing valleys/Cardiff community and youth game, and create viable pathways to the northern game for the best 18 year olds. This is already happening of sorts, so we just need to build it up: more entry points and more destination points. 

I can't remember exactly how I phrased it before but success for RL in Wales would be 2-3 sustainable professional set ups. It's never going to be - and shouldn't be approached as - an area for financial growth of the game. It could be excellent for player pathways and widening the supporter base.

Broadly, I think Wales RL are doing things the right way.

[MZH]

The Welsh RU national team still gets big support, but at club level even RU really struggles. Football is king there at club level. Even the people that don't support Cardiff or Swansea or one of the smaller Welsh clubs tend to be really invested in one of the big English clubs instead. The Welsh are very patriotic and would get behind the national team in big numbers if it was marketed well. Growing a successful club there might be more tricky.

[Midlands hobo]

21 hours ago, The Daddy said:

In fact Wales has always produced top players with what little resources they have. This just shows that there's tons of players in Wales with SL potential.

Not to mention that Wales schools do well in the grass roots cup competitions. 

Imagine if they actually had a reliable and stable SL club? 

The big problems are lack of sound academy structure. In English premiership academy (RU) players are on about 15k. I imagine the Welsh regions are similar. The schools and u16s do well but where can they go then? Up north leaving home and family or tryout for a RU region live locally and get a bit of cash. Or worse tryout for the west Wales raiders and get battered week in week out hoping to get scouted.

The question now is with RU imploding will the RL powers seize an opportunity to muscle in as the money pulls back. Worcester and Wasps are gone and looking at the press London Irish Bristol and Leicester are not exactly safe.

Are the Welsh regions financially sound or not, if not a viable pathway opens up for Wales holding onto developed players and not losing them to RU. But they still need a quality set up with regular matches at a level to test them.

[Midlands hobo]

Sorry half typed in quote half in reply... Fat fingers