Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "Nice to see some ambition and confidence in the game from RFL. Of course, we have within RL legions of naysayers, knockers and prophets of doom, and we have plenty of enemies and agents provocateurs too to rubbish and deride the game, though we generally do a good enough job of that ourselves. But you can't have it both ways; you can't whinge and whine at how parochial and narrow the game and its fan base is, yet whinge and moan when some effort is made to expand this. Although as this thread amply demonstrates, that is exactly the standard knee jerk of yer average flatcapper.
Look,if the RFL has such an ambition, then I say good luck to them, and they should get every support. It is their problem to find a way to do it and make it succeed, but they have shown it can be done, with events like the roving Magic weekends, a moveable GF, the astonishing crowds all over the place during the World Cup so don't carp and moan "it can't be done" - get behind the vision and hopefully be a part of its success.
This is completely different from the fact that until now, London has been in SL. They had plenty of RL and SL backing for many years but those running the club couldn't find a way to get people interested. That was their failure. they had support but the RFL couldn't do it for them. I can't believe the whinge that we "can't sell out Wembley" when in fact we regularly get crowds of 70,000 or 80,000 to see a RL game in London ie the CC Final, this should be a source of pride, not moronic knee jerk criticism. Compare with the 40,000 that paid to see the England national football team against Norway, just for instance. Or even 82000 for a World Cup qualifier against Slovenia last month. Only 4% more than were attracted to travel 200 miles for a local derby Leeds v Cas!
I despair of RL fans sometimes. The idea is a challenge, but a good one, and should be applauded and supported.'"
if only we were setting ourselves a big challenge. If only we were going about getting an SL game selling out the Emirates or Wembley, but we are going to go with Loftus Road or Craven Cottage, Apparently its a big deal and two years of planning to get 18k to go watch Wigan v Saints or Leeds v Hull.
There is also the obvious question is why now? after years of seeing RL in London struggle and doing nothing about it, why are now talking about trying to make a splash.
I would love to see an RFL trying to make a splash, I would love to see an RFL full of ambition actively trying to grow the game. Im just not sure a wigan saints derby in front of 18k does so.