Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:37 pm  

Alicante could be good, Benidorm not far away and holds 29,500. Cracking weekend away.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:21 am  

Fishermanscap wrote:

Has it ever crossed your mind and that of a few other is that the local nature of RL is part of its appeal.

I don't think it is part of the appeal, but it's certainly its biggest drawback.

As long as we confine ourselves to some of the most economically deprived parts of the UK and Little towns that most of the country couldn't point to on a map, we have no right to complain that we have absolutely no relevance to the UK public, advertisers, sponsors or broadcasters.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:08 am  

bramleyrhino wrote:

I don't think it is part of the appeal, but it's certainly its biggest drawback.

As long as we confine ourselves to some of the most economically deprived parts of the UK and Little towns that most of the country couldn't point to on a map, we have no right to complain that we have absolutely no relevance to the UK public, advertisers, sponsors or broadcasters.

So, those wishing to "promote" the sport, dismantle the game in the UK and "export" it to N. America.

I'm not sure that the breakaway in 1895 would have taken place if they had been told of "the masterplan".
I do agree however, that the roots of RL in the UK are both it's strength and weakness.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:43 am  

wrencat1873 wrote:

So, those wishing to "promote" the sport, dismantle the game in the UK and "export" it to N. America.

I'm not sure that the breakaway in 1895 would have taken place if they had been told of "the masterplan".
I do agree however, that the roots of RL in the UK are both it's strength and weakness.

The breakaway in 1895 was about creating something that people would want to pay to see, in order to be able to pay the talent fairly for their time.

The times may have changed, but the goal is the same. I think those in 1895 would look at the sport today, with falling crowds and stagnating player salaries, and seriously think about changing things.

We've been over this before. Expansion is not the end-goal here, its merely a mechanism to improve this sport and make it more relevant in the 21st century. If the heartland clubs could do that, expansion isn't on the table.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 2:21 pm  

Being a non-worldwide barely thought of sports doesn’t hold back Gaelic football or hurling.

They’re never seen trying to “expand” their games, trying to find an international audience. Coming over to Manchester or Newcastle for a Magic Weekend to stir up interest in Great Britain for Irish sports that absolutely nobody would care about.

They concentrate on their bread and butter and develop the teams they’ve got.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 2:52 pm  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Being a non-worldwide barely thought of sports doesn’t hold back Gaelic football or hurling.

They’re never seen trying to “expand” their games, trying to find an international audience. Coming over to Manchester or Newcastle for a Magic Weekend to stir up interest in Great Britain for Irish sports that absolutely nobody would care about.

They concentrate on their bread and butter and develop the teams they’ve got.

I don’t know about hurling but Gaelic football certainly made “expansion” type moves and attempted to change its nature with exhibition games in other countries and tie-ups with both Irish Rugby Union and Aussie Rules. And also include overseas clubs/counties in their leagues/comps.

As Bramleyrhino says, if the heartland clubs were working then expansion wouldn’t even be mentioned. They’re not, and haven’t run themselves properly in the last 30 years. And that is not the fault of any attempts at expansion. The RFL haven’t given extra funding to any expansion club, unlike in the NRL where they backed the Melbourne expansion club and it massively improved the competition.

I’m a lifelong RL fan. I don’t enjoy RL because it’s played in small northern towns. I enjoy RL because of the nature of the sport, it’s honesty, it’s toughness and violence shown on the pitch combined with its values and lack of violence off the pitch.
If RL could be a league of:
Leeds
Hull
Newcastle
Manchester
Birmingham
Leicester
Coventry
Liverpool
Plus a few London clubs

It wouldn’t make the sport worse because they’re not local.

In RL I think we have a touch of the Phoenix Nights about us. Trying hard but ultimately in the wrong direction for an outdated view of what people want now.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 6:51 pm  

In answer to the poster - " him " with the sentiment of your wishes on your posting, I am sure wigan, saints, warrington, huddersfield will be in total agreement with you ! How silly, there is no culture of RL in the named areas you pointed out, what a success storey of events that would be ?

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 7:02 pm  

Psychedelic Casual wrote:

Being a non-worldwide barely thought of sports doesn’t hold back Gaelic football or hurling.

They’re never seen trying to “expand” their games, trying to find an international audience. Coming over to Manchester or Newcastle for a Magic Weekend to stir up interest in Great Britain for Irish sports that absolutely nobody would care about.

They concentrate on their bread and butter and develop the teams they’ve got.

This.

We are 100 years too late to expand, in that 100 rugby union did everything to stop us and football has grown exponentially.

We’d be aswell strengthening our heartlands and that’s it. Go insular.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:18 pm  

TrinTrin wrote:

In answer to the poster - " him " with the sentiment of your wishes on your posting, I am sure wigan, saints, warrington, huddersfield will be in total agreement with you ! How silly, there is no culture of RL in the named areas you pointed out, what a success storey of events that would be ?

Re-read the post. I wasn’t suggesting those cities as a league for the future.
It was to point out that if RL had historically been made up of teams from those places it wouldn’t have made RL worse. Which was the suggestion inferred earlier by saying people enjoy the “local” aspect of RL.
It doesn’t make any difference to me, nor I suspect the majority of RL fans.

I’m a Leeds fan. We’ve had strong rivalries over the years, yes some because of the locality but that was only really in the past ie v Hunslet. The recent rivalries have been between ourselves and another team challenging us. Earlier it was Leeds v Bradford, that gave way to Leeds v Saints, then Leeds v Wigan (soon to be Leeds v London the way we’re going!). But none of those rivalries were really to do with locality.

Re: Magic weekend abroad. : Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:45 pm  

TrinTrin wrote:

There is something more than the cost of travelling to this equation & it's being overlooked. I am not against Catalan & other overseas clubs. Catalan do not bring supporters in numbers here in UK to league matches, so revenues are well down to other SL. Clubs, this is a matter of fact. Therefore they bring little to the game in the uk.
Even when they went to Wembley the RL said they lost money massively due to Wembley not being a sell out !
When SL. Clubs went to Aus. Most Hull supporters took out loans to get there which would take years to pay off, thus they probably couldn't go again for a while !
Toronto also do not bring supporters here, so when they hit SL. Same equation. Therefore eventually when two more North American & Toulouse hit SL. Same equation's. Added to all this, where are all the p!ayers, 30 on avrg per new club, to come from ?
There is truly a lot more to be thought out yet !

A SL club will (should) turn over £4,000,000 a year, with £1,850,000 coming from SKY TV.
If the average "away attendance is 1,000 and a ticket to a game costs £20, with say another £15 spent on food/drink/shop etc. then the away Support is worth £35,000 to the home side......
....so less than 1% of the turn over and about 3% of the SKY money.
Sky get 14+ games on the cheap or even Free........so as for bringing "nothing to the game in the UK", I'd say it was your post that hasn't been thought through...