Stealth Comic wrote:
You've kind of hit on where in my opinion Rugby League is so badly marketed.
There's all this rubbish spouted about it being a family sport but exactly how many of these kids who came with their families as kids come to games when they are adolescent or young adults?
I'm a child of Cougarmania, now 6 weeks shy of my 31st birthday. How many fans do I see who are my age and the answer is not many.
What's being done to retain fans as opposed to getting new ones? Bouncy Castles and Face Painters are fine for 6 year olds but what about when they're 13, 14, 15 years old? They're much more discerning, and are more likely to follow the latest trends.
The fact is Rugby League is not a family game, it's a game for everyone, and difficult as it sounds the matchday experience as you put it should be designed to be inclusive of everyone. The key to the club's, indeed the entire sport's, survival is how successful it is at converting the child fans in to adult ones who'll be fans for life and eventually bring their children along.
Most people around the age you mention are now irritating glory hunters.
They walk around in a new B***ford or Leeds shirt bought from JJB Sports every season and then watch the games on Sky Sports. This is the sort of fan who has been created by Sky's heavy involvement in the game.
I had the urge to vomit when I was on my way home on a train last season and it was full of people in Leeds and B***ford shirts on the way back from that game, most of whom got off the train at Keighley.
Rugby league is different to football in the fact that most large towns have their own team. To follow the likes of Leeds or B***ford would be to follow someone else's team in my opinion. I struggle to understand it.
666 wrote:
As far as 'Cougarillo' goes then it makes me cringe!
Roll-on Mike but it would appear that your comments will always fall on deaf ears!
By the way, for a supporter for over 50 years, who actually owns the Club at present? It would be nice to know!
I don't mind paying my money but, unlike the BSE sufferers from down the road, if I inject any of my 'hard-earned' then I would want a voice (which means that I would like to be a shareholder) instead of throwing my money into the abyss!
All of them recorded songs are an embarrassment.
End of.