Quote: EHW "given that there is no team for anyone in the North East to go and support what would be the point? Would there be sufficient numbers of people in the North East who would be willing to travel long distances on a regular basis to justify the expense of advertising in that region. You would basically be entering a new market with a product that is not easily accessible - supported by 1 TV advert alone.
If the advertisement costs £thousands to broadcast in the North East, you would need a lot of people (thousands) to take up a new found interest in RL purely based on the advert alone - which isn't going to happen.
Even the best advert in the world isn't going to achieve that level of success.'"
Completely agree.
A previous poster used Harrogate as an example. This is a town with no RL presence and is (or should) be right in the battleground for the likes of Leeds, Bradford and York.
Thousands of people commute from Harrogate to Leeds every day. Most of those will have, at some point, been exposed to the Leeds Rhinos brand - be it a billboard in the rail station, a match report in the YEP or Metro, commentary on Radio Leeds or ad on Radio Aire. These people may have never been anywhere near Headingley (other than their train passing under the Western Terrace), but they will probably recognise the name 'Ryan Hall' or 'Kevin Sinfield' when they see it. These are the people who are there to be won - they have heard of the sport, they'll recognise some of the names and they're within easy reach of an SL stadium. You can't say the same of someone watching an FA Cup match in a pub in Portsmouth.