What do SL execs think about Catalan making OT

[whatmichaelsays]

21 hours ago, binosh said:

The English clubs don’t need to, they were part of the group that negotiated with Sky Sports in 1996, Catalans were invited to participate in SL in 2006 with the plan of attracting a French broadcaster to pay for the rights (amongst other things)this has never materialised.

The "English clubs" don't negotiate TV deals. The RFL / SLE (of which, Catalans is a full member) negotiate media and commercial deals and that responsibility includes doing that overseas. 

The Catalans are just a club, trying to be a successful club in their own right. They're not, and never were intended to be, a branch office of SLE. 

[binosh]

2 hours ago, whatmichaelsays said:

The "English clubs" don't negotiate TV deals. The RFL / SLE (of which, Catalans is a full member) negotiate media and commercial deals and that responsibility includes doing that overseas. 

The Catalans are just a club, trying to be a successful club in their own right. They're not, and never were intended to be, a branch office of SLE. 

They did in 1996 10 years before the Catalans invite.

[Phil W]

On 07/10/2023 at 07:52, Harry Stottle said:

Honest question Phil, who's Sam Fender?

And there is a reason I ask that, my club has had rave reviews this season from the scribes and pundits in the media and on TV for the pre-game and halftime entertainment they have provided, do you think that has increased the attendance? 

I honestly do not see much attention being paid to the 'acts' that are performing and when the teams come out to warm up about 20/25 mins before kick off all the attention and conversation is about them, "who's in, who's out, he played well/ had a stinker last game" etc. etc.

Granted I am an old fart and this music 'for the hard of thinking' does not do much for me, but my observations tell me it doesn't improve the attendances much if at all, to me that is soley down to the teams performance on the pitch which entices and keeps fans returning, thoughts please.

The acid test will be if the team is not performing well, but I prefare that we don't go down that path.

Guessing you're a Leigh fan as to be fair you can't fault what Leigh have done this season.

In terms of Sam Fender he's a big name Geordie singer. That's kind of my point if we take games to London, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool or wherever it's not a rugby league audience we're trying to appeal to it's locals.

Rugby league fans will turn up to watch their teams we know that and fair play to them. But locals in London and Newcastle especially aren't going to turn up just because Leeds are playing Wigan, it means nothing to them. But if it's a big event with a big act and we as a sport can serve up a good day that's how you go from 40,000 on a Magic Saturday to towards 50,000. 

I used to have a season ticket at Gloucester in rugby union and completely get your hardcore fans are turning up for the rugby, used to have to turn up over an hour before kick off to get a good spot in The Shed. I'd watch the teams warm up, discuss exactly as you say. But sport across the board is changing apart from Premier League football. There has to be more to a Super League, Championship, League One, International or Challenge Cup game than just the rugby, it has to be an event especially outside of the heartlands.

[EggFace]

If NRL,AFL, GAA can sell out finals then we should to able to and use do.

The CC and SL GF should be season end celebration for all fans of the code.

[The Future is League]

On 07/10/2023 at 18:33, Bradman Better said:

I think that a Catalans vs Wigan GF will excite lots of neutral fans -- especially many from the bigger clubs like St Helens, Warrington, Leeds and Hull FC -- and many of such "neutrals" will go to the game and cheer for Catalans.

I would hope so

 

[The Future is League]

On 07/10/2023 at 16:27, M j M said:

What do the clubs do to promote these big events to their fans?

Very little unless there is money in it for them.

Most clubs don't see the picture when it comes to the game

[17 stone giant]

Although I wanted the final to be Catalans v Hull KR, I would assume Catalans v Wigan is more likely to be assured of being a competitive match.

There would maybe have been the danger that Hull KR could get blown away by Catalans, like they did against Wigan.

Obviously nothing is ever guaranteed, but hopefully the final we now have will go right to the wire.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, 17 stone giant said:

Although I wanted the final to be Catalans v Hull KR, I would assume Catalans v Wigan is more likely to be assured of being a competitive match.

There would maybe have been the danger that Hull KR could get blown away by Catalans, like they did against Wigan.

Obviously nothing is ever guaranteed, but hopefully the final we now have will go right to the wire.

Unlikely , Warrington aren't in it

[Gomersall]

20 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

Unlikely , Warrington aren't in it

Eat you heart out Basil Brush.

[The Future is League]

There is some serious problems with marketing our game in this country as a whole.

There is a NFL game taking place at the spurs football this afternoon which will probably be a sell out of 62,000 people, and the 2 teams taking part are from the USA and the NFL is alian sport as far as this country is concerned yet unlike us they can more or less sell out events, while Rugby League a British sport can't sell out big events in this country, and last week they had 80,000 at Wembley for a game, a crowd which could only get by offering cheap tickets and just for the record the cheapest ticket price i can see for todays game is £96

https://www.viagogo.co.uk/Sports-Tickets/Other-Sports/American-Football/NFL/Buffalo-Bills-Tickets/E-151777128

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, The Future is League said:

There is some serious problems with marketing our game in this country as a whole.

There is a NFL game taking place at the spurs football this afternoon which will probably be a sell out of 62,000 people, and the 2 teams taking part are from the USA and the NFL is alian sport as far as this country is concerned yet unlike us they can more or less sell out events, while Rugby League a British sport can't sell out big events in this country, and last week they had 80,000 at Wembley for a game, a crowd which could only get by offering cheap tickets and just for the record the cheapest ticket price i can see for todays game is £96

https://www.viagogo.co.uk/Sports-Tickets/Other-Sports/American-Football/NFL/Buffalo-Bills-Tickets/E-151777128

That has zero relevance to RL's marketing skills. 

[Leyther_Matt]

1 hour ago, The Future is League said:

There is some serious problems with marketing our game in this country as a whole.

There is a NFL game taking place at the spurs football this afternoon which will probably be a sell out of 62,000 people, and the 2 teams taking part are from the USA and the NFL is alian sport as far as this country is concerned yet unlike us they can more or less sell out events, while Rugby League a British sport can't sell out big events in this country, and last week they had 80,000 at Wembley for a game, a crowd which could only get by offering cheap tickets and just for the record the cheapest ticket price i can see for todays game is £96

https://www.viagogo.co.uk/Sports-Tickets/Other-Sports/American-Football/NFL/Buffalo-Bills-Tickets/E-151777128

If there were only a handful of rugby league games played in the UK each year then I reckon we’d give it a fair shift at selling out, too. 

[The Future is League]

Just now, Dave T said:

That has zero relevance to RL's marketing skills. 

Why?

Doesn't RL have any then?

I was making a valid point point which seems to have gone over your head

[The Future is League]

3 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

If there were only a handful of rugby league games played in the UK each year then I reckon we’d give it a fair shift at selling out, too. 

The question remains why can't we sell out the challenge cup final and the Grand Final

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

Why?

Doesn't RL have any then?

I was making a valid point point which seems to have gone over your head

It's an extremely basic point that has little logic. It completely ignores the sizes of NFL and SL and seems to be based on no more than NFL being a US comp and SL being a UK sport. 

It ignores every other variable. Not least money. 

[The Future is League]

7 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It's an extremely basic point that has little logic. It completely ignores the sizes of NFL and SL and seems to be based on no more than NFL being a US comp and SL being a UK sport. 

It ignores every other variable. Not least money. 

We are talking about an imported sport against a British sport and the imported sport is winning by a country mile

[Odsal Outlaw]

9 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The question remains why can't we sell out the challenge cup final and the Grand Final

Because we don’t create events. We simply put a game on (or sometimes 2 or 3 games) and expect people to turn up.

[The Future is League]

Just now, Odsal Outlaw said:

Because we don’t create events. We simply put a game on (or sometimes 2 or 3 games) and expect people to turn up.

In one, and without proper marketing.

[Leyther_Matt]

16 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The question remains why can't we sell out the challenge cup final and the Grand Final

Because we’re expecting the same people to fork out hundreds of pounds to attend games as neutrals as we’re also expecting to pay for season tickets, go to Magic Weekend, go to Catalans, go to the England games etc

[The Future is League]

8 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Because we’re expecting the same people to fork out hundreds of pounds to attend games as neutrals as we’re also expecting to pay for season tickets, go to Magic Weekend, go to Catalans, go to the England games etc

Well broaden the appeal of the game is the answer then. Not easy, but it can be done

[crashmon]

I posted this on another thread...

Folks in London will attend well marketed games regardless of the sport.  The MLB games in summer pretty much also sell out, and the cheapest tickets are £100 for those.

You would have got 50K for the England game vs Tonga, IF you had tickets on sale for it the week after the SF game vs Samoa.

NFL games are advertised years in advanced, you might not know which teams are attending, but it really does not matter people go for the spectacle.of it.

Get a fixed date for England in London for the next 5 years, advertise it well in advance, and you might get some traction.  Start in a stadium between 30k and 40K size for 5 years on a set date, as long as its England vs somebody, then after the 5 years if its a sell out look to move it to somewhere larger.

[Toby Chopra]

1 hour ago, The Future is League said:

There is some serious problems with marketing our game in this country as a whole.

There is a NFL game taking place at the spurs football this afternoon which will probably be a sell out of 62,000 people, and the 2 teams taking part are from the USA and the NFL is alian sport as far as this country is concerned yet unlike us they can more or less sell out events, while Rugby League a British sport can't sell out big events in this country, and last week they had 80,000 at Wembley for a game, a crowd which could only get by offering cheap tickets and just for the record the cheapest ticket price i can see for todays game is £96

https://www.viagogo.co.uk/Sports-Tickets/Other-Sports/American-Football/NFL/Buffalo-Bills-Tickets/E-151777128

 

25 minutes ago, Odsal Outlaw said:

Because we don’t create events. We simply put a game on (or sometimes 2 or 3 games) and expect people to turn up.

I think that's a big part of it.

If you compare the Jags games at Wembley with the Challenge Cup Final, it's not even close. The former you know you're at something big, the latter we're still doing the same old stuff we did decades ago, it feels and is dated. And this means you don't even attract neutral rugby league fans, let alone "sports fans".

In fact I think the "sports fans" or "event crowd" is overstated. It's very rare for people to attend a major sporting event without some sort of previous engagement with the sport. I can vouch that almost everyone that goes to a London NFL game already has some sort of engagement with American football, and this is their one chance to see it in the flesh.

If you live in the north, it's easy to see a rugby league game, so there's less need to trek to Wembley or wherever to see a big final. If you live elsewhere, the few RL opportunities you get offered just don't compare with what else is on offer in terms of committing the the time, effort and expense of going, best to just watch on TV.

To an extent there's a chicken-and-egg situation there, because as the CCF or even GF don't scream "must see" games, then there's less demand or buzz to attend, reinforcing the feeling.              

[crashmon]

TBH If you had Wigan vs Leeds at say Millwall (marketed by the RFL), and the week after Penrith vs Paramatta at the same venue (Marketed by the NRL)....  I honstly think you would get more for the NRL game than for the SL game

[Toby Chopra]

39 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

We are talking about an imported sport against a British sport and the imported sport is winning by a country mile

Although I agree to an extent that our inability to create must-see events is part of the problem, for vast swathes of the country RL feels as much a a foreign sport as NFL does. For many demographics these days, where sport or culture comes from is irrelevant, some people are much more internationalised in their outlooks. It's like asking why anyone in Britain would listen to Elvis, Michael Jackson or the Foo Fighters.       

[Toby Chopra]

2 minutes ago, crashmon said:

TBH If you had Wigan vs Leeds at say Millwall (marketed by the RFL), and the week after Penrith vs Paramatta at the same venue (Marketed by the NRL)....  I honstly think you would get more for the NRL game than for the SL game

I genuinely don't know whether you're right, but I'd love to see that experiment!