Quote: M@islebugs "Your missing the point. Rather than the geographical area, the name of the motorway, the tiny percentage of the northern populace that actually watches RL what ought to be considered is that clubs like yours present the image of a time when the north really was flat cap wearing, parochial, mining nostalgic and possibly even xenophobic. One of the reasons we've had the 'expansion' debate we've had and the attendant debacles is the desperation to rid the game of this image and attract a broader audience. My point is that Wakefield are a massive hindrance in this mission and by not facing up to the real issue we continue to stumble into absurd transatlantic forays. Huddersfield, possibly slightly less so and all credit to Ken Davy, but still box office dog doo.'"
I know that some like to see shiny plastic seats but, we should be selling the product and not the "wrapper".
For example, the Cas v Saints play off game a few years ago was one of the most dramatic and compelling games of recent years.
NOBODY was looking at the lack of seating or the quality of the facilities.
RL scored a HUGE own goal by setting it's mythical 10,000 attendance figure, something which only 4/5 clubs can achieve.
It's absolutely right to try and push up standards on/off the field but, watching a decent game in a poor ground, beats watching a poor game in a half (or worse) empty ground all day long.
Strangely, Toronto's ground with it's psychedelic multisport pitch markings, was as bad as it gets but, "we" were pretty keen to get them into the comp.
It's utter nonsense to suggest that clubs like Trinity hold back the TV deal.
Do you really think that if they were playing out of a brand new 12,000 seater stadium, there would be, even one more penny on the TV deal
Of course everything looks better when the games are played to "sell out" crowds, although this seems very unlikely in the foreseeable future, for any club and there is no doubt that Trinity and others, need to make progress with their ground, least of all to open up additional revenue streams for themselves but, we still get back to the game of RL and using the Cas / Huddersfield analogy again, the game looks and sounds better from The Jungle than it ever has at Huddersfield but, you surely know this but, couldn't help having a pop at Trinity , again. It's like you think that they stole something which was yours ??