Super League officials target one-off London fixture.rlhttp://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/dec/23/super-league-one-off-london-fixturerl

As the thread title suggests, we are way too late with this one, having allowed London to wither and get to within an inch of their life.
Although hindsight is a wonderful thing, it may have been better to have a couple of the "Magic Weekends" down there to try and help stoke
interest but, it's too little too late, unless of course London look like making it back into the top flight.

1) Do they not expect London Broncos to get back into Super League?
2) We already have a big game in London, its called the Challenge Cup Final
3) Who are they expecting to attend the game in order to get a 40k + crowd?

I was at an event a couple of years ago, and the RFL guy was talking about the long term plan to move the Grand Final to the Emirates Stadium.

We're not even taking even one of the "flagship" World Club Challenge games to a larger stadium along the M62! We are where we are in London now and its up to the Broncos to resolve this - whatever the timescale. Test matches or a World Nines in London - great. A one-off club match will not promote the game to a new audience without 5 to 10 years effort and massive media buy-in beforehand, and we've no track record in wither forward planning or media engagement!

We cannot sell 40,000 tickets for Magic Weekend, we cannot sell-out Wembley - why try this beggers belief.

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.

Wouldn't it be better to have a well promoted NZ Warriors v Wigan Warriors or similar or a top Aussie club? In other words, something other than 2 Northern towns / small cities? Something that could be promoted and attract wider interest?

I'm afraid the naysayer argument just doesn't cut it - I may be many things but a naysayer? The game's history is littered with one off "good ideas that we should get behind" and they have produced little or nothing. Super League itself was launched as a shadow of the vision because of internal bickering - if I recall the "Greater Manchester" clubs couldn't even agree a meeting place to discuss the proposals!
If we want to develop the profile and geography lets see a 10 year costed plan with clear milestones and targets.
If this event thing happens I will be there (as I will be at all three World Club games next year) but it will be just another one off like the On the Road game we successfully hosted in Northampton in 1998! From that point that Sheffield Eagles no longer exist and Halifax has reconstituted at least once. And when we toy with out of heartlands semi-pro clubs we partner with the Northampton Town soccer club; ploughing on with no engagement from the game locally; who then walk away before they even enter the League!

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.

I suspect the reason is to try to show there is a market for the game in London and thereby attract an investor to take on the Broncos / set up another venture.

I'd rather the RFL be put some effort into getting Eng v NZ down to Wembley.

Premier Rugby????

I don't have an issue with the idea and I applaud the ambition, particularly if the Olympic Stadium, Wembley or the Emarites are chosen but as ever the issue lay with the people implementing the idea. If they're thinking of staging it in 2016 they need to start pushing it now with a concerted effort going into getting the competing teams visiting the schools, youth centres and sports clubs around London.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Magic Weekend at the Olympic Stadium would be a winner. The novelty value of it being in that stadium would draw large crowds from the north and curious Londoners, the Park itself is well served with facilities that would make it a great family day out, and there's plenty of (affordable) hotels in east London (not to mention great connections to the north via Kings Cross.

Of course, I fully expect the RU / NFL to do this first...

Stupid idea! We already have enough 'events' on the calendar with the expanded World Club Challenge, Magic Weekend, CC Final and Grand Final. The fans won't shell out for another long trip, and even for the bigger clubs losing a major home game would be a big blow to the finances.

I agree with the above that moving the Magic Weekend to the Olympic Stadium (once the retractable seats are in) would be a better option, it has great transport connections, a massive park to hold a fan-festival and aside from West Ham that side of London has few sporting attractions.

NZ v Aus wasn't a sell out at the Stoop. Why do we think Wigan v Leeds, Sts, Hull would be bigger?