Quote: Barnacle Bill "Is it though? RL is a small-time, regional game lacking any national resonance whatsoever and isn't covered by the national media or shown on conventional broadcast TV. RL is all those things and a small presence in London does not transform RL into some kind of nation spanning colossus.
Is the presence in London vital to the Sky contract, does anyone really know or are you just presenting theories? As far as Quins are concerned I think they should be given as much help as they need to becomes sustainable, along with other clubs but I'm not convinved that they are as important as some here make out, other than they are members of the RL family and we want everyone in that family to prosper.
Curling gets a fair amount of national tv coverage and that is very much a regional sport. Ski Sunday gets aired nationwide and that does not even cover a regional sport in the UK it's all foreign, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.'"
I never suggested that a small presence in London transformed RL into some kind of nation spanning colossus. What I did say was, "With only 3 of 14 SL clubs outside the north, the game still has some way to go to deserve the spotlight most of us want it to have." In short the game needs
more expansion, not less. It's entirely conceivable that 3 out of 14 won't be enough to stop the Challenge Cup de-listing going ahead. 1 or 0 out of 12 would be a no-brainer.
The presence in London was a condition of the first SL contract with Sky, in a real sense they were the first franchised club. Some believe that requirement's been dropped, but it's hard to imagine that Sky would pay as much for the rights as now without it.
It's interesting you mentioned curling and skiing getting more coverage. They might be small in the UK but they're both bigger internationally than than RL: neither one relies on tiny island nations with heritage players to make their international competitions look better. They're both in the Olympics too.
