Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:48 pm  

I just watched the highlights. As RU games go, it wasn't bad. England's wingers both looked sharp and scored three good tries. Sam did OK, but must learn that unlike in league, union refs dish out yellow cards at the drop of a hat.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Aug 16, 2015 5:15 pm  

galliant wrote:

That could apply to the 3 posts preceding it. RWC 2015 is estimated by Bloomberg to make World Rugby/IRB £150,000,000

The Union World Cup is going to generate £150m. As against £8bn for the Olympics and £4.8bn for the FIFA World Cup?

I thought it was supposed to be watched 4 billion people worldwide? Seems someone at the IRB must be doing a terrible job of selling it if it only generates such a pitiful sum.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:07 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

The Union World Cup is going to generate £150m. As against £8bn for the Olympics and £4.8bn for the FIFA World Cup?

I thought it was supposed to be watched 4 billion people worldwide? Seems someone at the IRB must be doing a terrible job of selling it if it only generates such a pitiful sum.

RU World Cup is still small potatoes compared with a host of other huge multinational events including
FIFA World Cup
UEFA European Cup
Olympic Games
Winter Olympics
Commonwealth Games
Gay Games
Firemans Games

and quite a lot of Continent based multi national events like The Africa's Cup etc

Don't get fooled by the hype machine employed by the IRB!

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 10:09 am  

Gay Games
Firemans Games

and quite a lot of Continent based multi national events like The Africa's Cup etc

Don't get fooled by the hype machine employed by the IRB!

Give up for Christ sake.

RU WC is a huge event. Maybe not FIFA world cup soccer but many many times bigger than anything RL could ever dream of.

They wont have games at Workington, Gloucester, Rochdale...... with commentators slavering at the mouth because 8k have turned up.

This will be a massive event, with massive crowds and massive viewing figures. The volunteers out number some of the crowds the RL WC got!

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:18 am  

Exiled down south wrote:

Give up for Christ sake.

RU WC is a huge event. Maybe not FIFA world cup soccer but many many times bigger than anything RL could ever dream of.

They wont have games at Workington, Gloucester, Rochdale...... with commentators slavering at the mouth because 8k have turned up.

This will be a massive event, with massive crowds and massive viewing figures. The volunteers out number some of the crowds the RL WC got!

Ha Ha,
Go do your research fella or don't, it bothers me not either way!

Ignorance is bliss!

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:20 am  

I watched it for a short while; when they spent 5 minutes waxing lyrical because Sam Burgess tackled someone, complete with multiple replays, I switched it off.

There is no denying the popularity, excellent marketing and buckets of cash that slosh around RU, but it's a shockingly poor spectacle for the most part; rather than feel bitter about RU, I feel disappointed in RL - with the right people in charge, RL could be making significant headway into grabbing some of that attention.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:33 am  

RU isn't more popular and richer because it objectively has a better product; it clearly hasn't. 'The right people in charge' would help a little, but the reasons for league's weaknesses vis-a-vis union are well-rehearsed here, and they are largely geographical, social, and, yes, if you will, political.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:37 am  

Andy Gilder wrote:

The Union World Cup is going to generate £150m. As against £8bn for the Olympics and £4.8bn for the FIFA World Cup?

I thought it was supposed to be watched 4 billion people worldwide? Seems someone at the IRB must be doing a terrible job of selling it if it only generates such a pitiful sum.

Is that the same IRB/World Rugby whose 7s competition (which is at next years Olympics ironically) was blatantly copied by RL in its 9s format? World Rugby must be doing a good job if RL needs to nick its ideas eh? And you think £150m is 'pitiful'? What does that make the RLWC profit of £2m look like? And that was considered a success on here

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:42 am  

Comparing Rugby League to Union is a futile exercise. We've been our own sport for 120 years, it's time to stop bitterly looking over at RU and instead looking at what they and other sports do well, and learning/taking things from that & figuring out what's holding our sport back. This chip of the shoulder attitude elements of our sport has towards Union is embarrassing.

Re: Sam Burgess Union debut : Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:58 am  

RL has never really known how to promote or market the game. Brilliant product though.
RU has always known how to promote and market the game. Poor product though.
Soccer really doesn't have to promote its game because it is so simple yet people try to explain it's complicated when it isn't.
The real question is why isn't an excellent product so well known and despite efforts so far, it isn't?
There are obvious answers, but I would suggest that by looking at everything from different angles, coming up with a viable proposition and working with it, it could be done. It will cost, no doubt, but then the clubs would rather throw money away on 2nd rate players etc rather than take an income cut and combine to get a good marketing & development plan going.
However, if people are happy with the current situation then so be it. The games position is locked and progress, if any, will be at a pace to suit. Just watch others leave RL behind.