I think that 2013 will be a big season for the game and it is time to have some ambition in terms of marketing the sport properly :

- SBW and Folau have returned in Australia - how much is SBW in a New Zealand shirt worth in RLWC ticket sales - just down to his sheer X Factor - 40,000 at Elland Road for the Bulldogs v Rhinos WCC etc

- the NRL cleans up in Australia - its main sponsor, Telstra being the equivalent of BT - watch an NRL game and all the sponsors are A list as RL is the Premier League equivalent in Australia. Even the balls are sponsored by Powerade.

- BBC Sport are in Salford - a natural win in terms of raising the profile

- even in the UK, there are lots of Northern headquartered substantial concerns - Peel Holdings, Leeds Building Society, Skipton Building Society, Tetleys, Yorkshire Bank - who should share the values of the game

- the RL demographic appeals to Irn Bru (Barrs), Gillette - there must be other mainstream banks (HSBC, Lloyds) whose customer base is predominantly a RL audience - middle income families with savings/deposit accounts

- the World Cup is a huge opportunity on the back of the Olympics - provided it is a big event based on the 2008 template in Australia

Time to bang the drum and market the Sinfields, Halls, Tomkins and Watkins as ambassadors for the game and role models - to which sponsors can be aligned

Spot on. He won't get the same level of time and space he enjoyed in Union.....he will be targetted by many opponents, his injury record in League isn't that good and he is 100% motivated by what's best for him. I hope the Kiwis don't pick him unless he proves most of us wrong and does well for the roosters.....and I also reckon he'll be playing Union in France by the time RLWC13 comes around.

I agree in principle, but are there really 160k who attend games, this including the juniors and lower grades?

If you ignore the sometimes outlandish claims of 4,500 travelling away fans, then I reckon there's between 140,000-160,000 ATTENDING fans in the UK.

Rounds 6 and 7 last year saw 133,000 in attendance....8 and 9 nearer 144,000.....add to this the Championships, amateur games, student/age groups etc and I reckon I'm not that far wrong.......there will be a few Thousand fans based in the London area that only attend 1 game a year...when their hometown play the Broncos as well as 'a few more that are fairweather fans, who only attend marquee games....

Surely that’s a fairly low estimate. I think there will be a hell of a lot more who attend a game in any one season.
If you take Leeds for example, averaging around 14/15k, but will get up to 18/19k for some games but about 11k season ticket holders, plus there will be some churn of those over the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was closer to 250/300k different fans will attend at least one game in a season.