Andrew Abdo on the NRL’s relationship with SL

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

I looked at Rams-Packers 'live' on BBC Sport yesterday evening - 382 views. Anything that is 'listen only' gets tiny figures.

The cricket is currently at 30,138

[Archie Gordon]

10 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

The cricket is currently at 30,138

But that isn't listen only. It has live text. That gets 100k+ for football.

[crashmon]

To those banging the SOO bandwagon, it depends on what the goal would be in for the NRL playing this in London.

One of the big problems with RL in the south, is that it happens so rarely.   Like I had folks interested after the WC semi in wanting to see more England games, but ofc now they are lost for good owing to the UK RL deciding that they want to be Roses RL and not UK RL.

You only have 3 SOO games a year.  Then its over for 12 months?  Its a poor mans international (for those who are not die in the wool Aussie RL fans from those 2 states).  People here would see it like an England probables vs England Possibles. 

You would need to have more states, and more than 3 games a year if you wanted this to be getting UK people watching the NRL.

I could be wrong, I'm not an Aussie so I could be missing the point here.

[Magic XIII]

The irony isn't lost on me that UK based rugby league fans would be happy for a NRL club give up home advantage for a bona fide competition points and come play in UK 1000s of miles away to entertain them; most of these same fans would be apoplectic if that was suggested of their own club or dare I say travel as far as London or Perpignan or Toulouse.

[Click]

1 minute ago, Magic XIII said:

The irony isn't lost on me that UK based rugby league fans would be happy for a NRL club give up home advantage for a bona fide competition points and come play in UK 1000s of miles away to entertain them; most of these same fans would be apoplectic if that was suggested of their own club or dare I say travel as far as London or Perpignan or Toulouse.

SL has had numerous on the road games over the years. 

Where was the outrage when Hull and Wigan played a game in Australia?

[Copa]

10 minutes ago, Magic XIII said:

The irony isn't lost on me that UK based rugby league fans would be happy for a NRL club give up home advantage for a bona fide competition points and come play in UK 1000s of miles away to entertain them; most of these same fans would be apoplectic if that was suggested of their own club or dare I say travel as far as London or Perpignan or Toulouse.

I went to a SL game in Wollongong a few years ago. There were thousands of English fans in the stadium.

[crashmon]

9 minutes ago, Click said:

SL has had numerous on the road games over the years. 

Where was the outrage when Hull and Wigan played a game in Australia?

Now having a few SL games on the Road in London I actually think would be a good idea.  Lots of northerners who have moved down saarth like me over the years would probably go if it was costed correctly seeing we don't get any form of RL down here any more, other than at the community level.

Of course this being outside of the M62 means the Superleague would never agree to it.  But again if you did this correct and marketed corrrectly there is no reason it would not be a success.

But this thread is about the NRL playing games in the UK, not the superM62league playing games outside the M62

[Click]

1 hour ago, crashmon said:

Now having a few SL games on the Road in London I actually think would be a good idea.  Lots of northerners who have moved down saarth like me over the years would probably go if it was costed correctly seeing we don't get any form of RL down here any more, other than at the community level.

Of course this being outside of the M62 means the Superleague would never agree to it.  But again if you did this correct and marketed corrrectly there is no reason it would not be a success.

But this thread is about the NRL playing games in the UK, not the superM62league playing games outside the M62

Wigan literally played Catalans a few years ago at Millwall, I recall it as I was there.

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, Click said:

SL has had numerous on the road games over the years. 

Where was the outrage when Hull and Wigan played a game in Australia?

Indeed. It's nonsense to continue the attacks against Northern RL fans.

SL has admitted teams into the league from Paris, Gateshead, London, Toronto, Perpignan, Bridgend - it has staged games in Cardiff, Swansea, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Leicester, Wollongong, is going to Vegas and so on. When has Leicester Tigers ever brought a game to Wigan?

[Wellsy4HullFC]

2 hours ago, crashmon said:

Now having a few SL games on the Road in London I actually think would be a good idea.  Lots of northerners who have moved down saarth like me over the years would probably go if it was costed correctly seeing we don't get any form of RL down here any more, other than at the community level.

I'm surprised we've never explored doing Magic Weekend in London. I think it's a perfect fit in terms of getting locals who are only interested in a big event at the same time as travelling northerners. Especially now there's no Broncos in SL.

[Archie Gordon]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Indeed. It's nonsense to continue the attacks against Northern RL fans.

SL has admitted teams into the league from Paris, Gateshead, London, Toronto, Perpignan, Bridgend - it has staged games in Cardiff, Swansea, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Leicester, Wollongong, is going to Vegas and so on. When has Leicester Tigers ever brought a game to Wigan?

The trouble with this is that it ignores the direction of travel: that shows a near complete retreat from London hosting test matches, the end of OTR games, French clubs paying a bond to enter the CC, Catalan having travel costs imposed on them, WotR suggested as the mid-season rep game, Goole Vikings joining L1, and so on.

I'm not sure that those of us pointing this out are attacking Northern RL fans. It's more a disillusionment with the game seeming to want to exclude anyone too far away from the M62 when - as you make clear - it wasn't always this way.

[Dunbar]

5 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

I'm surprised we've never explored doing Magic Weekend in London. I think it's a perfect fit in terms of getting locals who are only interested in a big event at the same time as travelling northerners. Especially now there's no Broncos in SL.

 

We are getting a little off topic but I am interested if there is a good fit ground in London for Magic.  Certainly there are good grounds and also areas of London where you can get to plenty of great pubs / restaurants but do they overlap? I.e. Wembley is a pretty horrible area.

Is the area around Arsenal or Spurs suitable (inside, very suitable).

[Tommygilf]

13 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

We are getting a little off topic but I am interested if there is a good fit ground in London for Magic.  Certainly there are good grounds and also areas of London where you can get to plenty of great pubs / restaurants but do they overlap? I.e. Wembley is a pretty horrible area.

Is the area around Arsenal or Spurs suitable (inside, very suitable).

Wembley is much better now with the retail parks. 

Tottenham, if memory serves, is nothing special (being generous) and the Emirates is in a nice residential area with all the pubs a bit of a walk away.

In fact I'd say Wembley now is the best placed of the lot for an event like this over multiple days.

[EastLondonMike]

12 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

We are getting a little off topic but I am interested if there is a good fit ground in London for Magic.  Certainly there are good grounds and also areas of London where you can get to plenty of great pubs / restaurants but do they overlap? I.e. Wembley is a pretty horrible area.

Is the area around Arsenal or Spurs suitable (inside, very suitable).

Stratford / London stadium never gets a lot of love but location wise its perfect. Plenty of space, plenty of bars/restaurants/shopping at nearby Westfield - plus the space the Olympic park offers pre and post match. But sadly as a stadium its not at all popular. 

I think the danger with the NRL playing a game in the UK is perhaps the knock off effect of how SL is perceived post game. If the NRL come over all waving flags and glitz etc etc, getting TV coverage and increased media coverage - how does that reflect on the UK game? Quite likely that the game over here is at a considerably lower level and cannot attract the same levels of interest - which its obviously is, and doesn't - though you wouldn't want that being openly portrayed.

I can see two NRL teams playing each other over here pre-season - maybe in combination with another NRL team playing in the WCC. Maybe with shared costs a double header at a major non-heartlands stadium could be looked at. 

I think Cardiff could even be a good option in that respect. I think union fans in the UK are more likely to go and watch an NRL game than they are a SL one. And Cardiff could attract curious fans from south wales and SW England.

[Dave T]

26 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

The trouble with this is that it ignores the direction of travel: that shows a near complete retreat from London hosting test matches, the end of OTR games, French clubs paying a bond to enter the CC, Catalan having travel costs imposed on them, WotR suggested as the mid-season rep game, Goole Vikings joining L1, and so on.

I'm not sure that those of us pointing this out are attacking Northern RL fans. It's more a disillusionment with the game seeming to want to exclude anyone too far away from the M62 when - as you make clear - it wasn't always this way.

People highlighting specifics isn't what is being pulled as attacking Northerners. There are very many valid criticisms of our approach - including some of those you raise above - although I'd challenge that this is a one-sided list. 

It is perfectly reasonable to be frustrated with lack of activity in London without then taking that to the level of criticising everything that is happening in the North of England. Which is what some people are doing.

 

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

People highlighting specifics isn't what is being pulled as attacking Northerners. There are very many valid criticisms of our approach - including some of those you raise above - although I'd challenge that this is a one-sided list. 

It is perfectly reasonable to be frustrated with lack of activity in London without then taking that to the level of criticising everything that is happening in the North of England. Which is what some people are doing.

 

The criticism, completely valid now by the way so I’ll make it without referencing whippets, is that literally everything that happens in rugby league now happens in, and for the benefit of, a smallish number of people in the same communities over and over again.

[Dave T]

32 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

The criticism, completely valid now by the way so I’ll make it without referencing whippets, is that literally everything that happens in rugby league now happens in, and for the benefit of, a smallish number of people in the same communities over and over again.

Yup. You won't get much disagreement with that point. It doesn't however mean that everything that is happening in that space is bad. What is bad is the omission of good stuff in the other places. 

It's perfectly reasonable that England play internationals in Wigan and Leeds and Toulouse in 2024, what's disappointing is that don't play even more, including London.  

[crashmon]

2 hours ago, Click said:

Wigan literally played Catalans a few years ago at Millwall, I recall it as I was there.

Yes so was I. 

What was the follow up?  When will the next game be.  If I'm just going to get 1 game every 10 years,  I might as well wait for the next World cup when we might get a ENgland Semi final

[crashmon]

2 hours ago, Dave T said:

Indeed. It's nonsense to continue the attacks against Northern RL fans.

SL has admitted teams into the league from Paris, Gateshead, London, Toronto, Perpignan, Bridgend - it has staged games in Cardiff, Swansea, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Leicester, Wollongong, is going to Vegas and so on. When has Leicester Tigers ever brought a game to Wigan?

Club union is also on its ######.

Its also irrelvant.  Its a bit like the whole levelling up agenda by the buffoon.  When he told northerns that they would have parity with the South, they assumed it meant that they would get more money, more facilites etc.  What they did not realise was what he actually meant was he would lower the south to the same state as the north.

Union not taking games on the road is Union's loss. Just because Union does not do it, does not mean we should not in League either

Edited October 7 by crashmon

[crashmon]

2 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

The trouble with this is that it ignores the direction of travel: that shows a near complete retreat from London hosting test matches, the end of OTR games, French clubs paying a bond to enter the CC, Catalan having travel costs imposed on them, WotR suggested as the mid-season rep game, Goole Vikings joining L1, and so on.

I'm not sure that those of us pointing this out are attacking Northern RL fans. It's more a disillusionment with the game seeming to want to exclude anyone too far away from the M62 when - as you make clear - it wasn't always this way.

This 100% Having moved down saaarth in 2000, its astonishing to see how much UK RL has retreated to a small enclave in the M62, while in the same period the NRL in Aus has grown from strength to strength.

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

It's perfectly reasonable that England play internationals in Wigan and Leeds and Toulouse in 2024, what's disappointing is that don't play even more, including London.  

It is perfectly reasonable. We can debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) that when you only have two home internationals that you play those in the only parts of the country able to pick and choose which top level RL they want to watch. We can also debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) that you add your sole women's international to one of those games after already value tickets for the men's match have gone on sale. And, lastly, we can debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) to have an international as ineptly put together as the mid season shambles in Toulouse.

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It is perfectly reasonable. We can debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) that when you only have two home internationals that you play those in the only parts of the country able to pick and choose which top level RL they want to watch. We can also debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) that you add your sole women's international to one of those games after already value tickets for the men's match have gone on sale. And, lastly, we can debate how reasonable it is (it isn't) to have an international as ineptly put together as the mid season shambles in Toulouse.

The bigger criticism over Autumn internationals was last year for me, three tests all within 50 or 60 miles was a shambles and we got the results it deserved. 

I think most people are probably agreed that a suitable system for Autimn internationals is NE, NE and London (or as a minimum non-traditional). 

I'm not even gonna go into Womens tests or Feb pre-match entertainment.

Edited October 7 by Dave T

[Worzel]

3 hours ago, Dunbar said:

We are getting a little off topic but I am interested if there is a good fit ground in London for Magic.  Certainly there are good grounds and also areas of London where you can get to plenty of great pubs / restaurants but do they overlap? I.e. Wembley is a pretty horrible area.

Is the area around Arsenal or Spurs suitable (inside, very suitable).

I think Wembley is a very different kettle of fish now, there's loads of different restaurants and bars around it these days. In fact aside from Cardiff and Newcastle, I'd struggle to think of another large stadium with that much within 500 yards of it. 

[Liverpool Rover]

The NRL would most likely choose London as to them a game there would give it the feel of being an event more so than most other places and there are stadiums like Tottenham and the Emirates that are decently sized. Plus it is where the media and sponsors are.

The Principality Stadium could be an option but it might be too big and I doubt the NRL would consider Old Trafford or Anfield as I think they wouldn’t consider them to be safe enough.

 

[gingerjon]

34 minutes ago, Worzel said:

I think Wembley is a very different kettle of fish now, there's loads of different restaurants and bars around it these days. In fact aside from Cardiff and Newcastle, I'd struggle to think of another large stadium with that much within 500 yards of it. 

Wembley doesn't do re-entry so, for Magic, you'd be stuck with whatever is the offer in your little bit of the stadium.