Re: This is how we should market RL : Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:32 pm  

TheWarringtonWolve69 wrote:

https://www.leedsrhinosfoundation.org/boys-high-school-rugby-league-flourishing-in-leeds/

21 High schools in Leeds took part.

So can someone name the "many" high schools that only play Union?

Maybe more relevant to the 'College Football' discussion, is whether thousands of locals went along to support the future of the game at said event ?

Or how many RL match attending supporters are generated by 21 x 17 = 357 school children playing RL ?

Re: This is how we should market RL : Wed Sep 22, 2021 7:01 pm  

Pumpetypump wrote:

I don't know what sort of proof you are looking for but I can give you a direct example of this happening. When we moved to Leeds I went to a large comprehensive in East Leeds, with solidly working class children. Everyone who liked Rugby was a league fan but the deputy head was involved in Roundhegians RUFC and insisted that the school only play Union, both in games lessons and against other schools. I directly asked him why in a school of Rugby League fans we weren't allowed to play League and he said "because Rugby League doesn't teach children the right skills". It still sounds a big unhinged to me after all these years, but he clearly had strong ideological objections to Rugby League and managed to use his position to stop it being played. It happens.

I'm not calling you or anyone else a liar, but it is more often than not that such claims are anecdotal.

Re: This is how we should market RL : Wed Sep 22, 2021 7:12 pm  

shinymcshine wrote:

Maybe more relevant to the 'College Football' discussion, is whether thousands of locals went along to support the future of the game at said event ?

Or how many RL match attending supporters are generated by 21 x 17 = 357 school children playing RL ?

The issue is how many rugby league fans are prepared to support (as in attend) lower level and schools RL.
Most RL fans are fans of their club....so the kids above will play the game and probably support one of the local west Yorkshire sides. Whether the fans of those west Yorkshire sides or even the parents of the kids went to watch them is a direct responsibility of the schools, RFL and clubs.....sticking posts in the ground and expecting folk to rock up isn't a strategy that works.

Re: This is how we should market RL : Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:11 pm  

shinymcshine wrote:

Maybe more relevant to the 'College Football' discussion, is whether thousands of locals went along to support the future of the game at said event ?

Or how many RL match attending supporters are generated by 21 x 17 = 357 school children playing RL ?

Lol what? Some troll claimed that schools in the north play union with no proof to back it up as normal. I proved him wrong. For the 100th time

Re: This is how we should market RL : Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:16 pm  

Over 40,000 pupils across the country participated in Rugby League in schools during our last full competition year, an increase of almost 30% from 2 years previously. From here. https://www.yourschoolgames.com/taking-part/our-sports/rugby-league/ These 40,000 kids who in some way have been in contact with and played a form of rugby league are the target audience. At London we'd bemoan the fact that the Kids who would play the mins tournaments before KO at the stoop would invariably bugger off before the main game, either dragging or being dragged away by their parents......but the issue was ours. We had been delivered 100 + kids + Parents etc and we did absolutely nothing to encourage them to stay. If the kids were playing a minis tournament, I'd have fed them as the main match was kicking off and had prize presentations (with a prize for very team) at half time, on the pitch. We had small gates but still, 4,000 people applauding you on a pitch in a stadium is a pretty big thing for a kid....but nope, we let them slope off When the NZ warriors play a game down here in the Capital, they are out at local clubs for the days before hand and visiting schools.....I know that when they played wests here a few years back every school they visited got 100 tickets to the game.....Vodafone were handing out flags and scarfs and every seat had a vodafone folding cushion/beer holder thing.......22,500 rocked up and the boost to the game down here was great. In the following weeks, the head of Wellington RFL ran RL courses at 25 Primary schools across the region....volunteers managed hundreds of kids and we havd loads of warriors freebies for them to take home.....it's not easy, it's not cheap, but with a lot of hard work it can be done. Instead, your average RL marketing department will stick posts in the ground, announce it's a "wear white day" to their existing fans and wonder why they still only get their normal gate figures. Any new fan they do attract receives no follow up and are expected to have fallen in love with the game immediately....it's insanity. The game isn't flush with cash, but it has a core of supporters who would gladly volunteer for their clubs.....and some do. I still chuckle when i remember the switchboard messages at Saints recorded by Johnny Vegas........and it's not all bad marketing....The Tomkins one with wigins was a fantastic advert, but more often than not, RL is not very good at promoting itself......it reall does need someone from outside the game

Over 40,000 pupils across the country participated in Rugby League in schools during our last full competition year, an increase of almost 30% from 2 years previously. From here. https://www.yourschoolgames.com/taking-part/our-sports/rugby-league/ These 40,000 kids who in some way have been in contact with and played a form of rugby league are the target audience. At London we'd bemoan the fact that the Kids who would play the mins tournaments before KO at the stoop would invariably bugger off before the main game, either dragging or being dragged away by their parents......but the issue was ours. We had been delivered 100 + kids + Parents etc and we did absolutely nothing to encourage them to stay. If the kids were playing a minis tournament, I'd have fed them as the main match was kicking off and had prize presentations (with a prize for very team) at half time, on the pitch. We had small gates but still, 4,000 people applauding you on a pitch in a stadium is a pretty big thing for a kid....but nope, we let them slope off When the NZ warriors play a game down here in the Capital, they are out at local clubs for the days before hand and visiting schools.....I know that when they played wests here a few years back every school they visited got 100 tickets to the game.....Vodafone were handing out flags and scarfs and every seat had a vodafone folding cushion/beer holder thing.......22,500 rocked up and the boost to the game down here was great. In the following weeks, the head of Wellington RFL ran RL courses at 25 Primary schools across the region....volunteers managed hundreds of kids and we havd loads of warriors freebies for them to take home.....it's not easy, it's not cheap, but with a lot of hard work it can be done. Instead, your average RL marketing department will stick posts in the ground, announce it's a "wear white day" to their existing fans and wonder why they still only get their normal gate figures. Any new fan they do attract receives no follow up and are expected to have fallen in love with the game immediately....it's insanity. The game isn't flush with cash, but it has a core of supporters who would gladly volunteer for their clubs.....and some do. I still chuckle when i remember the switchboard messages at Saints recorded by Johnny Vegas........and it's not all bad marketing....The Tomkins one with wigins was a fantastic advert, but more often than not, RL is not very good at promoting itself......it reall does need someone from outside the game

Re: This is how we should market RL : Thu Sep 23, 2021 7:05 am  

Pumpetypump wrote:

I don't know what sort of proof you are looking for but I can give you a direct example of this happening. When we moved to Leeds I went to a large comprehensive in East Leeds, with solidly working class children. Everyone who liked Rugby was a league fan but the deputy head was involved in Roundhegians RUFC and insisted that the school only play Union, both in games lessons and against other schools. I directly asked him why in a school of Rugby League fans we weren't allowed to play League and he said "because Rugby League doesn't teach children the right skills". It still sounds a big unhinged to me after all these years, but he clearly had strong ideological objections to Rugby League and managed to use his position to stop it being played. It happens.

Your being deliberately "wound up" here to put it mildly

Across North Leeds schools played Union and fed into local RU clubs like Roundhay, Roundhegians, Yarnbury, Moortown, Old leodiensians, Old Modernians to name a good number. They all still exist

It was and it remains quite a situation where a big Rugby League giant like Leeds draws most of it's fanbase from an area that hardly played and largely still don't play any Rugby League in the schools, or amateur. Some of these schools were working class ones as well.

It's the same today, many schools across North Leeds still play union, players feed into the RU clubs because there are the facilities of clubhouses and quality pitches. Rugby League only really gets going in the centre of Leeds like East Leeds and Milford, and the south - Hunslet Warriors and Hunslet Parkside.

Union dominance is not confined to Leeds. Bradford Bulls are on the south side of Bradford, and you can find Rugby League at schools and amateur clubs there like Wibsey which has a great set up, Go north and we are back to Rugby League having very little presence as you travel up towards places like Baildon and Shipley..

Attempts to rectify this have largely failed across the north of Leeds and Bradford and this is the fragility of the game. If our top RL clubs cannot expand in their own back yards, and can't convert schools to League by going in there with top players carrying armfuls of trophies, then what chance do the likes of Coventry RLFC have where Wasps and Coventry RUFC rule the roost. This is why Coventry will be easily dropped by the clubs when they go to 2x10........

This is why when overenthusiastic and unrealistic fans talk "expansion" it's worth looking at where RL was strong at the point of breakaway, and look where it is strong now, and it ain't in London, Coventry, Wales or even Newcastle......Nor could they make it work in Gloucester or Oxford......Nor does it work in London either where ££Millioins has had to be pumped in to simply survive at the lowest level.

Re: This is how we should market RL : Thu Sep 23, 2021 9:03 am  

Donnyman wrote:

Your being deliberately "wound up" here to put it mildly

Across North Leeds schools played Union and fed into local RU clubs like Roundhay, Roundhegians, Yarnbury, Moortown, Old leodiensians, Old Modernians to name a good number. They all still exist

It was and it remains quite a situation where a big Rugby League giant like Leeds draws most of it's fanbase from an area that hardly played and largely still don't play any Rugby League in the schools, or amateur. Some of these schools were working class ones as well.

It's the same today, many schools across North Leeds still play union, players feed into the RU clubs because there are the facilities of clubhouses and quality pitches. Rugby League only really gets going in the centre of Leeds like East Leeds and Milford, and the south - Hunslet Warriors and Hunslet Parkside.

Union dominance is not confined to Leeds. Bradford Bulls are on the south side of Bradford, and you can find Rugby League at schools and amateur clubs there like Wibsey which has a great set up, Go north and we are back to Rugby League having very little presence as you travel up towards places like Baildon and Shipley..

Attempts to rectify this have largely failed across the north of Leeds and Bradford and this is the fragility of the game. If our top RL clubs cannot expand in their own back yards, and can't convert schools to League by going in there with top players carrying armfuls of trophies, then what chance do the likes of Coventry RLFC have where Wasps and Coventry RUFC rule the roost. This is why Coventry will be easily dropped by the clubs when they go to 2x10........

This is why when overenthusiastic and unrealistic fans talk "expansion" it's worth looking at where RL was strong at the point of breakaway, and look where it is strong now, and it ain't in London, Coventry, Wales or even Newcastle......Nor could they make it work in Gloucester or Oxford......Nor does it work in London either where ££Millioins has had to be pumped in to simply survive at the lowest level.

Parky.....you norvun monkey......we've missed you.

Re: This is how we should market RL : Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:36 am  

Ste100Centurions wrote:

Some of us *myself included* have posted this kind of "College Football" stuff on the Leigh fans pages on FB recently. Clubs need to engage with fans & ask & listen to what we like.

Ask if there is a popular song to enter to like "Jump Around" & "Enter Sandman" used by College grid iron teams. Ask what the club can do for kids & adults alike to get us in early & spending money.

Do we want a 9's Comp ?

The big difference here is that College Football is attracting 40,000 + fans & R.L 3k - 10k !!! Easier to create a scene like that with a rammed full stadium every week.

The 9s competition, maybe as a season opener sounds like something we must be developing.

Re: This is how we should market RL : Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:01 pm  

The match day experience needs to improve at a lot of grounds, at Hull we have a new set of draconian rules where you can only bring in sealed water now. And the budget for any pre match entertainment went years ago. So you trudge in with only the pre match warmup to watch and have to pay inflated prices for food and drink.

Of course not every club is on our situation with a football club running the ground. As much as it pains me to say it Rovers are onto a good idea with their Craven Streat, makes the game a proper afternoon or evening out.