IMG looking to ditch Super League branding

[The Masked Poster]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It's all subjective and opinion based. 

The experts think Super League has had its time in RL. 

Experts? 

IMG may know about marketing but I bet they haven't actually been following RL since 1996 and how the SL tag developed. I suspect they are basing it on a rather lacklustre later few years and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

We have of course has Super Rugby League or Rugby Super League but it was dropped for some reason

 

To be honest, that logo was just changed at random, I think was half-heartedly done on the back of people being upset that the sport was being referred to as Super League rather than Rugby League. The comp never actually changed name or anything, literally the only change was this logo tweak. 

The comp has always just been called <Sponsor name> Super League. Its never been Rugby Super League, or Super League Europe or anything like that. 

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Experts? 

IMG may know about marketing but I bet they haven't actually been following RL since 1996 and how the SL tag developed. I suspect they are basing it on a rather lacklustre later few years and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

Do you think being involved in RL since 1996 makes people an expert? 

[Dave T]

11 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

To be fair i think Martyn has clarified that they haven’t actually said that, they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t explore the whole brand.

That's fair, and I think their original presentation only talked about branding, so it could end up a design piece rather than name change. 

I'll be surprised if they keep it, but I dont feel strongly about it. 

[Chrispmartha]

9 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Experts? 

IMG may know about marketing but I bet they haven't actually been following RL since 1996 and how the SL tag developed. I suspect they are basing it on a rather lacklustre later few years and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

IMG are one of the biggest sports marketing companies in the world, yes they are experts.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Do you think being involved in RL since 1996 makes people an expert? 

An argument could be made that people too invested are the worse judges

[haskey]

I notice that IMG are pushing for a super dooper SL club at London. Methinks that is completely pie in the sky. Just because 20000 plus watched the recent international involving England does not mean that thousands on Londoners are going to flock and watch the Broncos. even if they become competitive.

This is a northern sport and , to me,  always will be. 

The Toronto experience was a disaster and Ottawa never took off.  We will never rival RU or football , so just IMG look at what we have in the north and increase sponsorship and revenue with our well established and some old and revered clubs.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

IMG are one of the biggest sports marketing companies in the world, yes they are experts.

They have also been involved in RL for years. 

And tbh, anything they don't know about how the SL brand came about can be learnt in 5 minutes. 

I genuinely think either option is fine. I think its tired, but it could be freshened up without a name change, so comfortable either way. But Super League has been extremely controversial within RL since its inception, I don't think we should romanticise it. 

[StandOffHalf]

Northern League might be an option.

[Chrispmartha]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

They have also been involved in RL for years. 

And tbh, anything they don't know about how the SL brand came about can be learnt in 5 minutes. 

I genuinely think either option is fine. I think its tired, but it could be freshened up without a name change, so comfortable either way. But Super League has been extremely controversial within RL since its inception, I don't think we should romanticise it. 

I don’t think it matters what IMG do theres a certain section of RL fans who will just think it’s pointless/rubbish any way.

I don’t think its essential to change the name but can totally see why they would do it

[Chrispmartha]

8 minutes ago, haskey said:

I notice that IMG are pushing for a super dooper SL club at London. Methinks that is completely pie in the sky. Just because 20000 plus watched the recent international involving England does not mean that thousands on Londoners are going to flock and watch the Broncos. even if they become competitive.

This is a northern sport and , to me,  always will be. 

The Toronto experience was a disaster and Ottawa never took off.  We will never rival RU or football , so just IMG look at what we have in the north and increase sponsorship and revenue with our well established and some old and revered clubs.

London and Toronto are not comparable 

[Gav Wilson]

RFL Premiership

RFL Championship

RFL League 1

For mine Clive. If the European game courted significant investment from the NRL, then I could get on board with NRL Europe for the elite league, with RFL C & RFL L1 below. 

[jamescolin]

Lets call it TRL. That is Total Rugby League. Then we can have TRL1, TRL2. etc for divisions. The marketing and identification would then be easier at not confusion. Or  RLT.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

RFL Premiership

RFL Championship

RFL League 1

For mine Clive. If the European game courted significant investment from the NRL, then I could get on board with NRL Europe for the elite league, with RFL C & RFL L1 below. 

The main issue for me is that it would probably get known as <sponsor name> Premiership, which is exactly the same as the top English RU comp, which is widely known as <sponsor name> Premiership. 

[JonM]

23 minutes ago, haskey said:

I notice that IMG are pushing for a super dooper SL club at London.

That's not exactly what they said.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/15/london-img-transform-rugby-league

[JohnM]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

No, I have a young family and was at matches the weekend before and the weekend after, both involving trips of 4+ hours in the car each way. What relevance does me being there or not have though? 

The relevance is this. You had to be there to experience it. My wife and I went, together with an Arsenal supporting mate from London.  I can assure you that the attendance was neither disappointing nor disappointed.  The atmosphere was great, especially towards the exciting end of the game. Yes, England came second out of two but certainly, sitting where we were, close to the pitch and close to the corner flag, the sheer intensity of the game was palpable.

Sure, it would have been better if the game had sold out, with tickets being sold at a premium on ticketing site, but to be honest, I'm sick and fed up of certain fans criticising and carping all the time on virtually every topic on this forum.

Again, yes, things could always be better in the WC, RFL, SL etc etc, just as in our own lives. However, I set out to enjoy all the things that are good about our sport, the games and the WC and I will never ever take that backward step from positivity to negativity (which is why as I'm in self isolation from the politics sub-forum). There's enough people around who do that  anyway.

[Toby Chopra]

8 minutes ago, JonM said:

That's not exactly what they said.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/dec/15/london-img-transform-rugby-league

Indeed, I thought he was deliberately vague enough to ensure that he wasn't firmly committing to a London SL club. 

As for the rest, I don't think it's news that there is a fanbase for rugby in the south east that can be activated to tune in, or turn up, given the right attractions. We've long known that, but the game collectively hasn't really been able to lock it in long term, and the Broncos certainly haven't. 

London's blessing is also its curse. On one level, any sport can succeed there because almost any demographic you can think of is on your doorstep in good numbers. 

But the flip side is that means you've more competition than anywhere else for custom. You have to stand out, at least amongs some groups or localities. 

Maybe IMG can work some magic, but I still tend to think that the money that would need to be spent to make a sustainable SL club in London - another Melbourne if you like - could have a bigger effect elsewhere. 

[Eddie]

25 minutes ago, JohnM said:

The relevance is this. You had to be there to experience it. My wife and I went, together with an Arsenal supporting mate from London.  I can assure you that the attendance was neither disappointing nor disappointed.  The atmosphere was great, especially towards the exciting end of the game. Yes, England came second out of two but certainly, sitting where we were, close to the pitch and close to the corner flag, the sheer intensity of the game was palpable.

Sure, it would have been better if the game had sold out, with tickets being sold at a premium on ticketing site, but to be honest, I'm sick and fed up of certain fans criticising and carping all the time on virtually every topic on this forum.

Again, yes, things could always be better in the WC, RFL, SL etc etc, just as in our own lives. However, I set out to enjoy all the things that are good about our sport, the games and the WC and I will never ever take that backward step from positivity to negativity (which is why as I'm in self isolation from the politics sub-forum). There's enough people around who do that  anyway.

Fair enough I’m glad you enjoyed it, I’d love to have been there myself, but regardless of that the crowd wasn’t high - I was merely questioning the point made by someone else above that most WC tickets were sold to people in London and therefore there is potential for a SL team. 

[The Masked Poster]

59 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Do you think being involved in RL since 1996 makes people an expert? 

It makes them more aware of what it once had. 

How many times have we had 'experts' coming into RL claiming they know how to fix things? None of them ever have. 

[Eddie]

53 minutes ago, haskey said:

I notice that IMG are pushing for a super dooper SL club at London. Methinks that is completely pie in the sky. Just because 20000 plus watched the recent international involving England does not mean that thousands on Londoners are going to flock and watch the Broncos. even if they become competitive.

This is a northern sport and , to me,  always will be. 

The Toronto experience was a disaster and Ottawa never took off.  We will never rival RU or football , so just IMG look at what we have in the north and increase sponsorship and revenue with our well established and some old and revered clubs.

Toronto was a disaster because the parochial SL clubs didn’t want them in and didn’t have the balls to tell them from the off - thus wasting millions of pounds of good intentioned people’s money. Ottawa of course don’t happen because of that. 

[The Masked Poster]

59 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

IMG are one of the biggest sports marketing companies in the world, yes they are experts.

In Rugby League? A quite unique sport with unique issues and history? 

The people organising the RLWC would probably have claimed to be experts in organising a WC and possibly tried the same things they might for a Union WC or cricket. How did that pan out??

[Chrispmartha]

2 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

In Rugby League? A quite unique sport with unique issues and history? 

The people organising the RLWC would probably have claimed to be experts in organising a WC and possibly tried the same things they might for a Union WC or cricket. How did that pan out??

The WC was great, it had flaws but it wasn’t a flop. And John Dutton was an expert in RL anyway do not sure you’re making the point you think you are.

Anyway that’s irrelevant. Were IMG ‘experts’ in all the other sports they market? Sometimes it takes an outsider to spot the issues and indeed the opportunities, that’s why Agencies like IMG exist, because it works. There’s no guarantees of course but you seem to just want to plod along and keep hiring from within, the sport will not move forward by doing that.

[Eddie]

13 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

The WC was great, it had flaws but it wasn’t a flop. And John Dutton was an expert in RL anyway do not sure you’re making the point you think you are.

Anyway that’s irrelevant. Were IMG ‘experts’ in all the other sports they market? Sometimes it takes an outsider to spot the issues and indeed the opportunities, that’s why Agencies like IMG exist, because it works. There’s no guarantees of course but you seem to just want to plod along and keep hiring from within, the sport will not move forward by doing that.

Exactly, give them a chance. I assume they weren’t experts in European Basketball but from an outsiders perspective they seem to be doing ok with that. 

[binosh]

45 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Toronto was a disaster because the parochial SL clubs didn’t want them in and didn’t have the balls to tell them from the off - thus wasting millions of pounds of good intentioned people’s money. Ottawa of course don’t happen because of that. 

Toronto didn’t work because it’s a stupid idea to have a team that far away in the poorest pro sport in the country, it wouldn’t work with the richest.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, haskey said:

I notice that IMG are pushing for a super dooper SL club at London. Methinks that is completely pie in the sky. Just because 20000 plus watched the recent international involving England does not mean that thousands on Londoners are going to flock and watch the Broncos. even if they become competitive.

This is a northern sport and , to me,  always will be. 

The Toronto experience was a disaster and Ottawa never took off.  We will never rival RU or football , so just IMG look at what we have in the north and increase sponsorship and revenue with our well established and some old and revered clubs.

Have you just been dumped or mugged or something ?

I'm not against having a rant on here when angry so don't let me stop you but I'm interested what's caused it