Stuart Pearce banging the drum for us again...

[Old Frightful]

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/stuart-pearce-says-rugby-league-will-begin-to-grow-if-people-actually-took-the-time-to-come-to-games-69406/

[Damien]

A nice read and it's great that Pearce is such a huge fan of the sport. For me though it's incredibly simplistic to think that people just need to go to a game live or watch it on TV to be hooked. Plenty of people have seen the sport through both of these and aren't hooked.

Pearce also inadvertently summed up one of the issues for me. Many people simply won't travel 3 hours just to watch the game. For people to become hooked RL must exist in their local area and often it just doesn't. This means that too many simply drift away from the game or it is just something that is nice to watch if they stumble across it on TV.

We need more people playing the sport in schools and more local clubs for people to continue playing the sport once introduced or returning home after University. These clubs also need to be playing in proper regional competitions with viable fixture lists to keep people enthused. Finally we'd have a lot more clubs dotted around like the London Skolars and Coventrys of this world as a regional club for local talent to aim for. Ideally you'd have a SL club at the top of the tree. We seemed to be making great strides on all of this in the Richard Lewis but all of that progress was just lost.

[dealwithit]

33 minutes ago, Damien said:

A nice read and it's great that Pearce is such a huge fan of the sport. For me though it's incredibly simplistic to think that people just need to go to a game live or watch it on TV to be hooked. Plenty of people have seen the sport through both of these and aren't hooked.

Pearce also inadvertently summed up one of the issues for me. Many people simply won't travel 3 hours just to watch the game. For people to become hooked RL must exist in their local area and often it just doesn't. This means that too many simply drift away from the game or it is just something that is nice to watch if they stumble across it on TV.

We need more people playing the sport in schools and more local clubs for people to continue playing the sport once introduced or returning home after University. These clubs also need to be playing in proper regional competitions with viable fixture lists to keep people enthused. Finally we'd have a lot more clubs dotted around like the London Skolars and Coventrys of this world as a regional club for local talent to aim for. Ideally you'd have a SL club at the top of the tree. We seemed to be making great strides on all of this in the Richard Lewis but all of that progress was just lost.

I agree with you for increasing participation numbers, but for casual fans the sport needs to be accessible. Channel 4 is great for exactly that, and the BBC covering CC and internationals. 
The digital assets need sorting out asap, and I understand that’s one of IMG’s strengths. 

[Damien]

39 minutes ago, dealwithit said:

I agree with you for increasing participation numbers, but for casual fans the sport needs to be accessible. Channel 4 is great for exactly that, and the BBC covering CC and internationals. 
The digital assets need sorting out asap, and I understand that’s one of IMG’s strengths. 

It is accessible on TV and has been throughout my lifetime. In my opinion it is not a reason why the sport hasn't grown.

[RigbyLuger]

They're a bit late on this. He spoke on talkSport two weeks ago!

Edited March 2, 2023 by RigbyLuger

[fighting irish]

He's got the bug hasn't he? 

He sounds like me. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Stuart Pearce always comes across to me as a straight forward and down to earth bloke.

For football fans of a certain vintage he’s one of the last of the hard men and an icon.

I think his enthusiasm for rugby league  is refreshing and it’s interesting that a sharing coaching best practice scenario is what piqued his interest.

I studied for a degree and a post grad in the 90s and like many others would talk up rugby league when discussing sport with people from different areas and social backgrounds.

What struck me was despite it being a high watermark for the London Broncos, the team that most Londoners would want to talk to me most about was Wigan and would say they had allegiance to them

Due to Wigan’s success in the televised Challenge Cup finals they recognised the players and wanted to be associated with the success of that club.

Obviously there was less live TV sport in everybody’s formative years in the 80’s/early 90’s, so Wigan broke through more than say Saints will now in the public imagination as viewing options are totally different now compared to then.

 

 

[Spidey]

He’s been doing this for a while now. What impact has he had?

[gingerjon]

11 minutes ago, Spidey said:

He’s been doing this for a while now. What impact has he had?

He's utterly failed to bring in a French TV deal which, as I understand it, is the only metric that really counts.

[Just Browny]

40 minutes ago, Spidey said:

He’s been doing this for a while now. What impact has he had?

This feels like a severe escalation of the comments people have made on Facebook groups at various times about George Riley on 5Live Breakfast, Adam Hills on the Last Leg and every RFL President we have had.

[RigbyLuger]

26 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

This feels like a severe escalation of the comments people have made on Facebook groups at various times about George Riley on 5Live Breakfast, Adam Hills on the Last Leg and every RFL President we have had.

The less said about Nicky Campbell's old sparring partner the better, especially after defending the Richard Bacon cup draw debacle.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

5 hours ago, Damien said:

A nice read and it's great that Pearce is such a huge fan of the sport. For me though it's incredibly simplistic to think that people just need to go to a game live or watch it on TV to be hooked. Plenty of people have seen the sport through both of these and aren't hooked.

 

Children are the future they say.....no less so than in sport 

As well as all the usual stuff like mascots and bouncy castles at games I think something that latches kids can be the merch.....jerseys, kit bags, training tops etc 

Kids particularly like to associate with a team and having the branding in something they wear is key 

I'm a big believer in giving stuff like that away to kids or making it really cheap....I'm talking kids home shirt for £10 territory.....my kids are always asked about their RL stuff.....plenty of their friends have at least the knowledge that Broncos and RL exists as a result of them wearing gear 

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

He's utterly failed to bring in a French TV deal which, as I understand it, is the only metric that really counts.

And there are still loads of empty seats in view of the camera at Huddersfield