https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4u1bmhE0o4 So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a professional cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals. Why? Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing! Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience. Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such. Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths. Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4u1bmhE0o4 So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a professional cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals. Why? Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing! Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience. Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such. Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths. Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am

From here. rlhttps://www.yourschoolgames.com/taking-part/our-sports/rugby-league/rl

These 40,000 kids who in some way have been in contact with and played a form of rugby league are the target audience.


At London we'd bemoan the fact that the Kids who would play the mins tournaments before KO at the stoop would invariably bugger off before the main game, either dragging or being dragged away by their parents......but the issue was ours. We had been delivered 100 + kids + Parents etc and we did absolutely nothing to encourage them to stay.
If the kids were playing a minis tournament, I'd have fed them as the main match was kicking off and had prize presentations (with a prize for very team) at half time, on the pitch. We had small gates but still, 4,000 people applauding you on a pitch in a stadium is a pretty big thing for a kid....but nope, we let them slope off

When the NZ warriors play a game down here in the Capital, they are out at local clubs for the days before hand and visiting schools.....I know that when they played wests here a few years back every school they visited got 100 tickets to the game.....Vodafone were handing out flags and scarfs and every seat had a vodafone folding cushion/beer holder thing.......22,500 rocked up and the boost to the game down here was great. In the following weeks, the head of Wellington RFL ran RL courses at 25 Primary schools across the region....volunteers managed hundreds of kids and we havd loads of warriors freebies for them to take home.....it's not easy, it's not cheap, but with a lot of hard work it can be done.

Instead, your average RL marketing department will stick posts in the ground, announce it's a "wear white day" to their existing fans and wonder why they still only get their normal gate figures. Any new fan they do attract receives no follow up and are expected to have fallen in love with the game immediately....it's insanity.

The game isn't flush with cash, but it has a core of supporters who would gladly volunteer for their clubs.....and some do. I still chuckle when i remember the switchboard messages at Saints recorded by Johnny Vegas........and it's not all bad marketing....The Tomkins one with wigins was a fantastic advert, but more often than not, RL is not very good at promoting itself......it reall does need someone from outside the game

Your being deliberately "wound up" here to put it mildly

Across North Leeds schools played Union and fed into local RU clubs like Roundhay, Roundhegians, Yarnbury, Moortown, Old leodiensians, Old Modernians to name a good number. They all still exist

It was and it remains quite a situation where a big Rugby League giant like Leeds draws most of it's fanbase from an area that hardly played and largely still don't play any Rugby League in the schools, or amateur. Some of these schools were working class ones as well.

It's the same today, many schools across North Leeds still play union, players feed into the RU clubs because there are the facilities of clubhouses and quality pitches. Rugby League only really gets going in the centre of Leeds like East Leeds and Milford, and the south - Hunslet Warriors and Hunslet Parkside.

Union dominance is not confined to Leeds. Bradford Bulls are on the south side of Bradford, and you can find Rugby League at schools and amateur clubs there like Wibsey which has a great set up, Go north and we are back to Rugby League having very little presence as you travel up towards places like Baildon and Shipley..

Attempts to rectify this have largely failed across the north of Leeds and Bradford and this is the fragility of the game. If our top RL clubs cannot expand in their own back yards, and can't convert schools to League by going in there with top players carrying armfuls of trophies, then what chance do the likes of Coventry RLFC have where Wasps and Coventry RUFC rule the roost. This is why Coventry will be easily dropped by the clubs when they go to 2x10........

This is why when overenthusiastic and unrealistic fans talk "expansion" it's worth looking at where RL was strong at the point of breakaway, and look where it is strong now, and it ain't in London, Coventry, Wales or even Newcastle......Nor could they make it work in Gloucester or Oxford......Nor does it work in London either where ££Millioins has had to be pumped in to simply survive at the lowest level.

Parky.....you norvun monkey......we've missed you.

The 9s competition, maybe as a season opener sounds like something we must be developing.

The match day experience needs to improve at a lot of grounds, at Hull we have a new set of draconian rules where you can only bring in sealed water now. And the budget for any pre match entertainment went years ago. So you trudge in with only the pre match warmup to watch and have to pay inflated prices for food and drink.

Of course not every club is on our situation with a football club running the ground. As much as it pains me to say it Rovers are onto a good idea with their Craven Streat, makes the game a proper afternoon or evening out.