IMG have issued the latest step in their attempt to ‘re-imagine’ the sport of rugby league, giving all 36 professional clubs their provisional grades.
The five main categories included finance, performance, fandom, stadium and catchment with a weighting given to each group.
One of the ideas which has been broached in recent months is the rebrand of Super League to match the new direction with a potential new name being touted – though not for the 2024 season. But, which three potential names could IMG and the RFL come up with further down the line?
Rugby Football League (RFL)
Simply, the Rugby Football League. Almost all big sporting brands have three-letter names that they go by: NRL, NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and so on. Calling our sport simply the RFL would bring it into line with other major sporting organisations whilst keeping the essence of ‘Rugby League’ in the title. Of course, the current governing body is named the Rugby Football League so there would have to be some tinkering with that, but it wouldn’t be something that would cause too many problems. RFL also sounds a lot snappier than Super League.
European Rugby League (ERL)
Again, like RFL, the European Rugby League (ERL) would bring along another abbreviated example that could join the plethora of such organisations around the world. It would also say what is on the tin – it is European Rugby League with the inclusion of Catalans Dragons in the top flight. To include the word ‘Super’ with ‘European’ would be ridiculous considering the prevalence of football’s European Super League in the public eye at present and would ensure that rugby league would take an even further backwards step against the UK’s most popular sport. European Rugby League has no frills but may be exactly what the sport needs.
Ultimate Rugby League (URL)
Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont came up with the idea of ‘Ultimate Rugby’ on social media, but that could soon be confused with rugby union, so why not Ultimate Rugby League? The game needs a snappy new headline and something that doesn’t get involved with other sports. Type in ‘Super League’ in Google and, at times, netball and football’s European Super League idea arrive first instead of rugby league’s Super League. The only trouble with Ultimate Rugby League is, its abbreviated form would be URL which could potentially hamper Google traffic.
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