England v Tonga series

[Barley Mow]

2 hours ago, Chrispmartha said:

Why’s there no seating plan/map for the Headingley game 

 

2 hours ago, DoubleD said:

I wondered that, it's the only ground which doesn't have it............yet does for Rhinos games. Very odd and irritating

They did have it until about a week and a half ago - I used it when I booked my tickets - then it just disappeared and hasn't been reinstated.

Before it went, Headingley looked to be the best selling of the three. I hope the lack of ground plan (ability to select specific seats) hasn't put too many people off buying.

[Chrispmartha]

43 minutes ago, Barley Mow said:

 

They did have it until about a week and a half ago - I used it when I booked my tickets - then it just disappeared and hasn't been reinstated.

Before it went, Headingley looked to be the best selling of the three. I hope the lack of ground plan (ability to select specific seats) hasn't put too many people off buying.

If the series is one all after the Hudds game I think the Headingley game will be close to a sell out

[Just Browny]

Tonga players visit school.

 

 

[RP London]

1 hour ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I went electronic and have had them emailed now 

Worth ringing up 

I am sure once you land at ground they will sort of you don't have....think I had to lick mine up from office once 

I'd get their early though 

Christ I hope you used a good antiseptic mouthwash afterwards!

[JohnM]

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Its Leeds Beckett now, which you can't spell without Btec and Ket??

Private joke twix me and crashmon.

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

 

 

[crashmon]

3 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Private joke twix me and crashmon.

 

SO for context it was in 1989 when I was looking at which Uni I wanted to go to.  I ended up at Nottingham Trent Uni (assuming its still called that), but I also looked at Uni of Central Lancs, as well as Leeds Met (it was Leeds Met in 1989)...

Ofc I was living at Bolton still back then, when the UniBol was not a Uni but was Boltion Institute of Higher Education

[Northern Eel]

Finally managed to engage myself in sorting my tickets out. The 3-match deal is banked.

£200 for 2 adults and 2 kids to watch every game in a 3-match test series in Cat 2 areas of the grounds is terrific value for money IMO.

If you're as yet undecided, get yourself on the ticket site, save the tooth sucking and bag yourself a seat for what I think will be a good series.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Northern Eel

[Josef K]

7 hours ago, wilsontown said:

According to the e-mail I got, "If you have not received your tickets within seven days of the event, or within 48 hours of booking during the week of the event, please contact RFL Ticketing". I'd drop them a line.

 

7 hours ago, Bedfordshire Bronco said:

I went electronic and have had them emailed now 

Worth ringing up 

I am sure once you land at ground they will sort of you don't have....think I had to lick mine up from office once 

I'd get their early though 

I got in from work and the tickets arrived which is good news. 

[M j M]

9 hours ago, crashmon said:

but I also looked at Uni of Central Lancs, as well as Leeds Met (it was Leeds Met in 1989)...

We're miles off topic but...  I've no affiliation with it at all other than having been to its student union a few times a couple of decades ago but I'm pretty sure it was still Leeds Polytechnic in 1989...

[StandOffHalf]

14 hours ago, Just Browny said:

Tonga players visit school.

 

 

Will PENISNI?

Either a joke or the RFL twitter poster had something else on his mind when he saw that name...

[Abicus]

Is there an anticipated crowd?

Looking at the seats available; it looks absolutely dire. Maybe a few thounand?

[Yakstorm]

The more concerning thing about Ronseal is that they only announced at the start of the year they were extending their sponsorship with the RFL and now all mention of them is gone on all the RL sites.

This isn't the first time this has happened, with Hummel, Duracell, Valvoline, Cadbury & Nestlé all coming to mind as companies who were committed to the national side over the years suddenly vanishing before their contracts were meant to have finished. 

[philipw]

3 hours ago, Yakstorm said:

The more concerning thing about Ronseal is that they only announced at the start of the year they were extending their sponsorship with the RFL and now all mention of them is gone on all the RL sites.

This isn't the first time this has happened, with Hummel, Duracell, Valvoline, Cadbury & Nestlé all coming to mind as companies who were committed to the national side over the years suddenly vanishing before their contracts were meant to have finished. 

I generally try to be quite positive, but it says a lot that I genuinely dont even remember those four being involved at any point. 

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Yakstorm said:

The more concerning thing about Ronseal is that they only announced at the start of the year they were extending their sponsorship with the RFL and now all mention of them is gone on all the RL sites.

This isn't the first time this has happened, with Hummel, Duracell, Valvoline, Cadbury & Nestlé all coming to mind as companies who were committed to the national side over the years suddenly vanishing before their contracts were meant to have finished. 

To be fair, I think that's slightly wrong (although the overarching point about not retaining sponsors is a problem). 

The England sponsorship was extended for 12m in 2021 and looks like that covered up to the end of the World Cup. They no longer appear as an England sponsor. 

In Feb 2023 they announced an extension to sponsoring the refs, and they have appeared there all year, including last week's Grand Final. 

We have no idea whether they have ended this partnership yet. 

[Just Browny]

3 hours ago, Yakstorm said:

The more concerning thing about Ronseal is that they only announced at the start of the year they were extending their sponsorship with the RFL and now all mention of them is gone on all the RL sites.

This isn't the first time this has happened, with Hummel, Duracell, Valvoline, Cadbury & Nestlé all coming to mind as companies who were committed to the national side over the years suddenly vanishing before their contracts were meant to have finished. 

I understand why sponsors might not come on board with RL, and I understand why sponsors might come on board and find it wasn't that good and pack in. But why would they agree to extend and then disappear? Seems odd to me.

[Guest]

Hopefully all games being televised for SL and a regular international calendar will slowly help sponsorship. 

[Archie Gordon]

11 minutes ago, Leonard said:

... a regular international calendar will slowly help sponsorship. 

As a potential sponsor for 2024, please could you provide me with your fixture list?

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

Just bought my 9 tickets for the Huddersfield game (can't make it tomorrow)... they're only selling alternate rows (and not selling any tickets at the top of stands at all), and suffice to say hardly any of the alternate rows have sold either. It looks like an absolute sales car crash.

If only somebody had said that holding two Tests in West Yorkshire 18 miles away from each other, just one week apart, one of which in a town where a club struggles to get more than 6,000 fans, wasn't the best of ideas? Oh wait, we did. 

"Product, Price, Place, Promotion". Those are the Sales & marketing basics. The RFL only ever delivers against the first two P's, and the excellence of the 1st one isn't even down to them anyway. How many times does this have to happen?

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

As a potential sponsor for 2024, please could you provide me with your fixture list?

The back of the shirt sponsor is already taken. 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

Just bought my 9 tickets for the Huddersfield game (can't make it tomorrow)... they're only selling alternate rows (and not selling any tickets at the top of stands at all), and suffice to say hardly any of the alternate rows have sold either. It looks like an absolute sales car crash.

If only somebody had said that holding two Tests in West Yorkshire 18 miles away from each other, just one week apart, one of which in a town where a club struggles to get more than 6,000 fans, wasn't the best of ideas? Oh wait, we did. 

"Product, Price, Place, Promotion". Those are the Sales & marketing basics. The RFL only ever delivers against the first two P's, and the excellence of the 1st one isn't even down to them anyway. How many times does this have to happen?

More worrying is Sunday. In a catchment area  that really should sell 15k with no advertising at all. 

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Leonard said:

More worrying is Sunday. In a catchment area  that really should sell 15k with no advertising at all. 

I do remain hopeful(ish). We got 10k for Tonga v PNG last year at the same ground, surely even with it not being a WC and terrible effort from the RFL we should excede that by a decent amount? 

 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

1 minute ago, Leonard said:

More worrying is Sunday. In a catchment area  that really should sell 15k with no advertising at all. 

I think the mistakes for this weekend's game are still RFL ones too, and the damage self-inflicted:

1. Should be a 2-week gap from the GF in order to build awareness and momentum

2. You shouldn't rely on latent demand to sell tickets, and should market the sh*t out of it so it sells out early and people are frustrated they missed out. Obviously the RFL thought "there's enough fans locally, they'll come anyway"

Classic combination of lack of strategic thought, with complacent laziness. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I do remain hopeful(ish). We got 10k for Tonga v PNG last year at the same ground, surely even with it not being a WC and terrible effort from the RFL we should excede that by a decent amount? 

 

Yes hopeful of that.

My thoughts were along the lines of the GF getting 60k with reasonably St Helens, Warrington, Leigh etc support added to that (plus those further afar) gives you a good body of RL fans with a quality test series to sell at reasonable prices with plenty of lead in.

We can talk about promotion - but the ground is small enough as it is to not need a lot - imho.

Anything under 15k (in reality I think a near sell out) would be very disappointing.

I think Leeds will be fine - and Huddersfield was always the iffy one, but will benefit from a cracking opening test hopefully.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

I think the mistakes for this weekend's game are still RFL ones too, and the damage self-inflicted:

1. Should be a 2-week gap from the GF in order to build awareness and momentum

2. You shouldn't rely on latent demand to sell tickets, and should market the sh*t out of it so it sells out early and people are frustrated they missed out. Obviously the RFL thought "there's enough fans locally, they'll come anyway"

Classic combination of lack of strategic thought, with complacent laziness. 

But equally, if that fanbase is only interested enough to sell, say, 12k - that says as much about the fanbase as the RFL imho.

I always forget about VAT too - so even an 18k sell out at £25 a head is really - £375,000 of cleared funds ([18k x £25] /1.2), accepting there is possibly other ancillary income as well like sponsorship, TV etc..  

So ratchet down sales and take into account fixed costs and there really is not much there for marketing, or at least marketing with a ROI.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Leonard

[Dave T]

20 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Yes hopeful of that.

My thoughts were along the lines of the GF getting 60k with reasonably St Helens, Warrington, Leigh etc support added to that (plus those further afar) gives you a good body of RL fans with a quality test series to sell at reasonable prices with plenty of lead in.

We can talk about promotion - but the ground is small enough as it is to not need a lot - imho.

Anything under 15k (in reality I think a near sell out) would be very disappointing.

I think Leeds will be fine - and Huddersfield was always the iffy one, but will benefit from a cracking opening test hopefully.

10k will be poor, 15k solid, 18k a success imo

Hudds as a standalone is probably fine - it has done well as a venue for England and GB, I'd choose it over Headingly tbh. 

But I wouldn't choose both. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Dave T