I think its a great idea to take it somewhere else, i don't even care where, i'm bored with it, its stupid, i just want to get xmas over & done with so we can start looking forward to next years competition, oh yeah, & the cricket, i'm looking forward to the cricket

Whats this "Oker" thing? it sounds Dutch

I can only go from my own experience, but Tonga played Italy in Halifax in the 2013 World Cup. The game was a sell-out, with 10,266 in attendance. Fax struggled to reach 2,000 for their games that season. My perception was that the majority of the crowd were local people (not many would travel far to watch Tonga vs Italy) that had never been to a game of rugby league before (and probably haven't since either). The game was marketed locally quite strongly (posters and in the local rag) and wouldn't have been such a success otherwise. Some would have been erstwhile rugby supporters who still follow the game but don't regularly attend matches, but a lot would have just turned up through curiosity.

Sadly, none of them seemed to enjoy the experience enough to turn up to watch Fax in 2014.

The good thing is that the world cup gets better every time now.
The next world cup will be better than this one, and this one is better than the last one, and the last one was better than the one before.
The one after next is a bit of a risk, but 8 years from now we should be able to put on a good show in North America.

It's been touched upon by Matt Gillett in the Aussie media, so I thought i'd mention it here. He said that he wants equal pay per game across all nations at the World Cup. Currently, the Aus players get $20,000 per game, Tongans get $500, whilst some of the Irish players are getting $0.

I'd hope that'd be brought in for the next set of internationals, it can help to keep the incentive there for those that represent lesser nations if they're picking up more money than they have during the WC.

I was told in my marketing degree, that effective marketing is making people who don't want something, want it. Effective marketing isn't just creating a presence and hoping people find it, it is about holding their hand and taking them to it

How quaint.

As we'll all see on Black Friday next week, effective marketing is now about creating a presence, leading people in handcuffs to it, then battering them in the face repeatedly with it.

in oz or uk?

In Australia

Proctor and Gamble used to say that a consumer was a consumer until they purchased your product for the 7th time...thereafter they were a customer and you'd spend more keeping them than you did getting them in the first place.
It is something we did here with the local Netball franchise a few years back who were struggling to get 1,000 to games.....we gave schools etc a cut of the gate for tickets they sold and then when we started filling the 4k capacity we reduced the share the schools got but delivered sponsored equipment instead.....it really is something that Rugby League Clubs could do better. I let my Warriors membership slide this year as my son is getting to the age where he needs to be ferried to multiple activities over the weekends and the NZ Warriors made no attempt to get me back (maybe they know me too well

)
This World Cup isn't "bad" per say, but the venue choices and then no effort to fill them in Australia is disappointing at best.....especially in Townsville and Canberra who obviously bid for games but didn't seem to leverage their local NRL sides.

Australians just haven't bought into the WC as an event in the same way the WC in England became. By comparison 77 k turned up at short notice to watch the Socceroos qualify for the World Cup last night in Sydney. The kangaroos in the WC final would struggle to get half that.

Basically the NRL by its inactivity has helped perpetuate the idea that international RL is a second tier sport, at best a pale version of NRL. You can't even argue its about how much better Australia are than anyone else given that the last time the WC was played here the Kiwis won it. Its a crying shame more people haven't seen games like NZ vs Tonga. That was a superb advert for the code, full stop.

Shocking decision to put the PNG game on at 5am Sunday. No one other than RL fans will know it's been played