"On the Road" games coming back?

[N2022]

3 hours ago, iffleyox said:

I'm not totally sure that was the issue being highlighted in the case of Huddersfield/Sheffield.... 

What's the story there then? Genuinely never heard of this?

[OriginalMrC]

9 hours ago, The Future is League said:

Were they a success before or did they lose money?

Attendances weren't great. 4000-5000 for most games. With marketing could easily do better than that 

[OriginalMrC]

1 hour ago, N2022 said:

What's the story there then? Genuinely never heard of this?

Sheffield were forced to merge with Huddersfield in 1999. Sheffield effectively sacrificed to save Huddersfield. Same with Gateshead and Hull FC 

[RP London]

13 hours ago, N2022 said:

What's the story there then? Genuinely never heard of this?

As pointed out, Sheffield merging with Huddersfield to form the Huddersfield/sheffield Giants but with little to no interest in keeping the Sheffield bit going.. when trying to reform the eagles it was painful to be allowed the opportunity to do so, even to get the challenge cup history back (I believe) was a battle!

[Tommygilf]

I think the options have to be carefully selected and may be the case that not all teams have a "home" on the road game.

I'd prefer to see this as clubs having a "big game" rather than just on the road for the sake of it.

[sentoffagain2]

        London should play all their games on the road.They would probably get much bigger attendances.Think they will win 3  League games this season .Any more than that they will have done well.

[Padge]

Here's an idea, lets try filling the stadia we have.

 

[gingerjon]

They didn't work last time and I've not seen anything to suggest they'll work this time.

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

They didn't work last time and I've not seen anything to suggest they'll work this time.

I genuinely like on the road game because I enjoy going to different places and watching RL, but we do need to be careful with this, otherwise we just end up watching Warrington v Castleford in Cardiff in front of 4,400 fans, many from the North of England. That was the least memorable 2hrs of a brilliant weekend away.

That same season I also went to Anfield to watch us play Saints with 10k rattling around. 

Neither of those 'events' were good for the sport.

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

I think the options have to be carefully selected and may be the case that not all teams have a "home" on the road game.

I'd prefer to see this as clubs having a "big game" rather than just on the road for the sake of it.

I tend to agree. There is no one-sized approach here, but I do like the idea of pushing more regular games to be events - and that could mean moving grounds, or just doing something different. For Catalans that may be taking a game to Barcelona, for other clubs it may mean something different.

[gingerjon]

10 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I genuinely like on the road game because I enjoy going to different places and watching RL, but we do need to be careful with this, otherwise we just end up watching Warrington v Castleford in Cardiff in front of 4,400 fans, many from the North of England. That was the least memorable 2hrs of a brilliant weekend away.

That same season I also went to Anfield to watch us play Saints with 10k rattling around. 

Neither of those 'events' were good for the sport.

Indeed. My personal memory of seeing London take games on the road was that it was great fun. But that was mainly because it was always a road trip with mates. In terms of either being good for the game or good for the club ... well, the answer is a definite no.

[Dave T]

Just now, gingerjon said:

Indeed. My personal memory of seeing London take games on the road was that it was great fun. But that was mainly because it was always a road trip with mates. In terms of either being good for the game or good for the club ... well, the answer is a definite no.

I'm ok with tactical events, and it may work in certain cases, but sending Salford and Huddersfield to play in Nottingham aint a good idea.

When this comes up I do often think about what the demand would be in Warrington if Gloucester and Exeter rolled into town. And the answer is probably that there would be mor demand than the other way as Union is generally bigger in our towns than the other way round.

[RP London]

44 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I'm ok with tactical events, and it may work in certain cases, but sending Salford and Huddersfield to play in Nottingham aint a good idea.

When this comes up I do often think about what the demand would be in Warrington if Gloucester and Exeter rolled into town. And the answer is probably that there would be mor demand than the other way as Union is generally bigger in our towns than the other way round.

 

47 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Indeed. My personal memory of seeing London take games on the road was that it was great fun. But that was mainly because it was always a road trip with mates. In terms of either being good for the game or good for the club ... well, the answer is a definite no.

agree with both of these but I think the one thing we never do is tie things together.. in isolation very little will work but if we start to tie things up then it just might. the NFL saw an opportunity to try something in London, it worked they expanded it to more games (rather than a 1 off) and then onwards and outwards.. but within that is a lot of other work with the NFL London academy etc.. 

I think after 2013 if we had taken games on the road to Coventry/Bristol (or wherever the data shows the interest was coming from for the matches) we may have seen nice inroads into the areas as they built off the back of the world cup, as it was we let it just fritter away. If Newcastle are to permanently lose magic then perhaps there is an argument for a couple of games up there during the season. 

Build for years in one place, a few matches through the season in one place all with tie ins to the the junior games.. work around a larger plan/strategy. 

As one off games played just became the main pitch isn't available so we will take whatever stadium we can get to etc thats never going to work. 

[Route66]

I love the idea in principle but doubt very much that there is the people within the game to make a success of it. Maybe someone needs to contact the Arsenal ladies marketing team and see how they have gradually built up their emirate’s crowd to 60000 where their core regular support (ground size restricted) is around 5,000. Know your audience and price accordingly but maybe start the challenge cup final

[Wigan Riversider]

On 21/02/2024 at 12:05, Futtocks said:

I think some were successful*, but achieved nothing beyond the event itself, as there was often no grassroots RL in the vicinity of the OTR game. Things have changed a bit on that front.

*Wigan v St Helens in Swansea drew a decent crowd, for instance.

I went to the Vetch Field to that game.

There was talk of a SL club in Swansea/ Cardiff at the time? Celtic Crusaders resulted years later but collapsed financially?

[Tommygilf]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

I tend to agree. There is no one-sized approach here, but I do like the idea of pushing more regular games to be events - and that could mean moving grounds, or just doing something different. For Catalans that may be taking a game to Barcelona, for other clubs it may mean something different.

Yeah that is my view too. I know I've said it a lot on here but the third "loop game" presents an ideal opportunity for these sort of big event fixtures. I don't think it is one size fits all and the "on the road" element could actually be quite limited in terms of geographic reach. In fact, outside of the Leeds, Manchester or Liverpool, places like London and Newcastle are the only cities I think have a strong case for an "on the road" game in the UK right now.

A few examples might be Saints vs Warrington at New Everton, or Wigan vs Saints or Leeds at the Etihad, Leeds vs Cas at Elland Road. I know Wigan did take a game to Millwall recently, but that appeared to be out of necessity rather than a concerted vision and plan. Catalans at Barcelona seems to make sense too. 

Perhaps even double headers could be considered, I know Union did/does that for their Big Game at Twickenham. That could also mean that you could have a Leigh vs Salford involved in an Etihad fixture day for example.

Its got to be more than just turning up somewhere random.

[sam4731]

With the NRL taking games to Vegas, what do we think about taking a game or two a year to Toronto? We already know that there is a rugby league fan base to tap into and it could be a platform to really get the game going in North America. The Wolfpack could even play against an exhibition team as a curtain raiser.

Edited February 22 by sam4731

[EssexRL]

2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Its got to be more than just turning up somewhere random.

...that exactly.

 

[Leyther_Matt]

5 hours ago, Wigan Riversider said:

I went to the Vetch Field to that game.

There was talk of a SL club in Swansea/ Cardiff at the time? Celtic Crusaders resulted years later but collapsed financially?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Wales_RLFC_(1995)

[longboard]

On 21/02/2024 at 20:54, OriginalMrC said:

Sheffield were forced to merge with Huddersfield in 1999. Sheffield effectively sacrificed to save Huddersfield. Same with Gateshead and Hull FC 

It was more that both teams in the Hudds/Sheffield 'merger' were 'forced.'

[Leyther_Matt]

9 hours ago, longboard said:

It was more that both teams in the Hudds/Sheffield 'merger' were 'forced.'

Doubt Huddersfield needed much persuasion given it prevented them from being relegated and they got £1m in to the bargain. 

[Adelaide Tiger]

I have no doubt that the taking of games around the country is something that IMG have considered as part of increasing the visibility of the game day to new viewers.

IMHO I would identify 6 venues.  One in France/Spain for Catalans; one in the South West to have a double header involving Cornwall; plus 4 other venues across the UK that are chosen for strategic growth where there is already a RL presence albeit at an amateur level.

I would also refrain from having ‘big games’ at a venue.  We have 5 clubs in Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull and Leeds that are relatively well known so I would have them each play at the same venue every year but against different opponents.  Obviously Catalans will remain in France.

The key for me is to establish a regular fixture that those attending know will go ahead the following year.  If, for arguments sake, the initial 6 games bring in 25,000 brand new spectators - not counting those attending that are regular SL attendees - then that is 25,000 new people that can be targeted with ads, campaigns etc. from the RFL on a regular basis.  This could be a great basis from which to grow the concept.

 

 

[Tommygilf]

17 hours ago, sam4731 said:

With the NRL taking games to Vegas, what do we think about taking a game or two a year to Toronto? We already know that there is a rugby league fan base to tap into and it could be a platform to really get the game going in North America. The Wolfpack could even play against an exhibition team as a curtain raiser.

Would have been an ideal spot, how much bridges have been burned however I'm not sure.

I'd think Leeds, Saints and Catalans would be the teams most popular in Toronto.

Edited February 23 by Tommygilf

[Tommygilf]

4 minutes ago, Adelaide Tiger said:

I have no doubt that the taking of games around the country is something that IMG have considered as part of increasing the visibility of the game day to new viewers.

IMHO I would identify 6 venues.  One in France/Spain for Catalans; one in the South West to have a double header involving Cornwall; plus 4 other venues across the UK that are chosen for strategic growth where there is already a RL presence albeit at an amateur level.

I would also refrain from having ‘big games’ at a venue.  We have 5 clubs in Wigan, Saints, Warrington, Hull and Leeds that are relatively well known so I would have them each play at the same venue every year but against different opponents.  Obviously Catalans will remain in France.

The key for me is to establish a regular fixture that those attending know will go ahead the following year.  If, for arguments sake, the initial 6 games bring in 25,000 brand new spectators - not counting those attending that are regular SL attendees - then that is 25,000 new people that can be targeted with ads, campaigns etc. from the RFL on a regular basis.  This could be a great basis from which to grow the concept.

 

 

I agree with a lot of that but we have to be careful where and why.

Equally, I think there is value for any club in getting a large amount of latent support to 1 big game a year. Only 4 max can make a final each year, for the rest a big event crowd can be years away.

[gingerjon]

Play the internationals in every stadium you've just earmarked for your on-the-road double headers.

To repeat a truth we learnt the last time round, no need to learn it again: internationals, not club games, are the most efficient way to reach new fans.

For club games, the idea of The Big Match at a bigger than usual local stadium seems a smart one - and also maps onto the RU versions that seem to have worked best.