Awesome comedy, man. Really

You have to admit, he does well to play for 80 mins and ref the game whilst he's playing

I am really surprised a mobile phone provider isn't interested. Good demographics for their customer base, inexpensive in comparison to the broad reach they will receive and as sponsorship is all about brand recognition over your competitor I would have though SL would have been an ideal vehicle in the competitive phone market. You could probably sponsor whole of SL for less than one epl team! They could then also link up with the online content market for RL like the Telstra deal in oz.

Despite the perceived 'lower value' demographic, there is, as many point out, on attendance and viewing figures alone, no obvious reason why a decent sponsor can't be found. So clearly is that the case that we ought to question the marketing ability of those seeking the sponsorship rather than make excuses for them every year.

It's easy to criticise the RFL, and they do make mistakes. But it never has been and probably never will be easy being Rugby League. You can promote the viewing and attendance figures or some of the demographics but plenty of folk just won't ever be interested. At the pro level it is in the mainstream on a highly regionalised basis. If you are outside those regions, comprehending that Rugby League could be very influential elsewhere is probably difficult for decision makers to get their heads around.

Catalan make it harder as french laws state that a playing shirt cannot have any alcohol or gambling products depicted on them that was why the bet fred deal was a non starter last year and in itself cuts out alot of recognisable brands

The French RU teams play in the heineken cup but just call it the H cup- so thats a weak excuse if not Bollo*

exactly..

A lot of sponsorship deals are based around perception......and when you look at Superleague through the eyes of a non RL fan, you see a competition that is predominantly based along the M62, with a team in London that is badly supported (Blue Square premier type attendances) and a team in the south of France that has about 9k fans.

In total, about 90,000 fans attend matches every week of the season and SKY TV get between 90k and 190k viewers for it's 2 games a week. The competition gets very little in the way of mainstream media coverage.

Superleague did itself no favours by bartering a deal last year....it's always hard to charge for something you've previously given away with no conditions.....

Let's look at other sports and compare...

Aviva sponsor the other lot to the tune of 5 million a year. The get similar crowds to SL, but they get wall to wall coverage in the media and are associated with the juggernaut that is the England international Team which sells out 80k stadiums and wins tournaments on FTA TV.

Barclays sponsor the wendyball for 40 million a year....it is the #1 game in town, no matter what anglers say



Heineken claim have invested over 100 million in Rugby since 1995.....the European trophy and RWC rights give them massive reach across the globe.

Npower pay 7 million a year to get their name on the Championship....not as big as the premiership, but they have more fans on the ground every week.....decent media coverage too.

Aviva paid 10 million a year for Athletics....Olympics aside, that's a fair chunk of change for sports that only get sporadic coverage in the press.

Rory Mcllroy gets about 15 million a year from Nike

speechless!

Arsenal>Emirates 30 million a year....stadium and shirts.....good coverage in the media and a global reach.

Saracens>Allianz 1.5 million a year.....strange one this as sarries only get about 7k to games normally.....but someone somewhere sees a benefit to it.

England Union get 5 million a year from O2 for their shirts.....not bad for a team that played 9 games in 2012




Engage were rumoured to be paying 1.2 million a year........Stobart got it for nothing.....they'll do well to get 7 figures for it IMO.

certainly doesnt look good reading that!!!

1 million deal would be good for us then! is that not what betfair offered last time

Yeah, but apparently we're too good for gambling & drinking.
I think the RFL are hoping for Snow White to offer some cash !

If I was Betfair my offer this year would be Zero £££ with a bit of free banner advertising on their website, (which would actually be better value than the Stobart deal IMO).

In fact, I suspect that every potential sponsor has started at Zero £££ with some additional advertising on top. The RFL/SL have to justify why the 2013 SL season is worth considerably more (in cash) than the 2012 season (goods in kind) - which I guess they are struggling to do.