Its a shame that you can't see Championshiop rugby on a Thursday night anymore. This, coupled with no publicity of the Summer Bash, several clubs with very few supporters (<20) adds to a below than acceptable attendance.

I am also not sure a neutral supporter with no marketing or real idea how good the Chamionship rugby is at present would want to go to Blackpool either - it's a grim place most of the time and expensive in the bits that receive visitors. It's no surprise to me that the attendance figures were low.

The point is, for any expansion to work it has to be with the current clubs and framework. Not replacing them. That is the only way for RL to become stronger.

I agree that the fact we don't put in the hard yards with regards international RL is part of the current problems. As we are seen as a small club sport, because of this. The fact that it keeps happening is terrible, where are the plans to expand after the last WC ?
Where I work more people are interested in RU simply because of the international calender they have.which in my opinion make the game easier to market and sell.
That's why we lose players to RU, because they want to become international icons, not just the money.solimonea being a casing point.

And as an answer to the point about 8/9 north American teams. If that ever comes about, you've now need to worry about them being in this league. As American networks and general insular approach would mean that they would be in an North America league. After all which do you think is more marketable to USA TV, markets. Dallas v Philadelphia or Dallas v Wigan?

RU has always been about the international scene we're never going to match that and we lose players to RU because of money the same way RU used to lose players to RL years ago

Do you have an answer to why? Barla was a beast. RU players galore in waiting. A couple posts above thinks the international scene was the cause of the demise of this sport.

What do you think?

I think that the lack of an international calender or any progression towards one is partly the problem.
The reason that RU and Cricket get more coverage is simply because of it. Most of the newspaper and radio coverage is about England, who should be playing etc. And to me that makes the whole game more marketable and easier to sell.

but I also think that the summer bash and magic weekend have had there day.with there contrived fixture lists and just being about making the RFL money.
To me it would make sense to move the Easter derbies to the Monday, and play what would have been the 2nd easter game on these weekends.

It's hardly a surprise that there's empty seats at this event.

You have clubs in the countries top tier who can't manage 5k gates for a standard home game. How can you imagine that clubs in the division below can attract a crowd?

There was bound to be a drop in crowds this year as last years event had Bradford take on HKR, so that's two well supported clubs out of the mix and an expansion club which, like all the others, generates a lot of talk but not a lot of ticket sales

I couldn't believe the amount of empty seats to be honest....not good. Time for a major rethink to get more people at the games. If Summer Bash was held in Toronto it would have had 10, 000 per day easy.
Something needs to be done to promote interest and market properly...listen to us in TWP....we know how to do it.
Change is hard though, but the future is riding on it!

Whilst Bradford v HKR last year was a draw-card, if the RFL are happy to present this event (and magic) as a "festival of Rugby" then they should put their hands in their pockets and promote it. If they just want to stick posts in the ground and pocket the ticketing revenue, then it's no surprise that 6,500 fewer tickets were sold this year over both events......As the average age of RL fans grows, the crowds will continue to shrink and it is the responsibility of the sports governors to work tirelessly to attract new fans.....3,928 fans on day 2 of the bash for 3 games is unforgivable.

I don't think that Toronto receive any central funding, which I guess would mean (all things been equal) that those 20,000 attendees (sic) wouldn't be sending any cash back to the UK? It would also mean that the 10,000 or so that did attend last weekend would be deprived of a day out (or two) supporting their team in a live game.

I just can't see how your proposal would benefit the game in the UK?

Someone with just a handful of posts shouldn't necessarily be dissed, but you come across as someone who's been here for quite a while. 'nough said.

Or put another way... JC, Sir Kevin, Lebron J and now Canoeman are all one and the same persona.

I have no idea what you are on about. It is true that TWP receive no central funding but cash is not a problem on this end and we would certainly donate all of most of the gate receipts to the clubs (with a small per centage to League 1 just to help them out; can't forget where you come from!)

Of course many fans would visit and make the trip over; trip of a lifetime...the attendance was so low this year that it would probably lead to an actual increase to be fair.

It would benefit the game may fold, especially the expansion efforts and future NA World Cup. This would allow UK fans to travel to a new place, watch their team in a unique venue, the players would love it and have a wonderful experience to look back on later in life and we would let every club leave with some cash in their pockets; lets not forget helping our League 1brothers out a bit too.