Dream on.....

By the way, the Heineken Cup final in Dublin this year was between 2 French teams and it got 50,148. The previous year, the final was played in London between 2 Irish teams and got something like 82,000...let's laugh at the bigger and better run code some more shall we?

The mere fact that you had to drag union into the debate to try and score points indicates you accept Billy has a point...the RFL do not seem keen to address the problems this year as they were to back slap each other last year.

feel free to tell us all how wonderful things are in the SH, but it won't paper over the fact that the RFL are systematically screwing the game up in the NH with ineffective management and a total lack of know how to run a sports/business in the modern world. They are responsible for Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales in RL, yet they turn over less revenue than the scots RFU, have no naming rights sponsor for their flagship comp, have flogged TV rights for the RLWC to an access TV station, have seen massive year on year reductions in fans attending Challenge cup games and they are now circling the wagons to reduce the comp to 12 in the hope that any more administrations are avoided. The Exiles concept is flawed, but they press on with it anyway, the autumn international series was a waste of time last year so in reality, by the time England run out at Cardiff in October, it will be 24 days short of 2 years since they played a meaningful international fixture.....but hey ho, let's laugh some more at the bigger and better run code some more shall we?

SHOW ME UP?

I didn't say all sports......I said other sports and I didn't mention union before the honourable gentleman in Western Australia.
The important stats are 11.5% down in SL and 15.5% down in the Challenge Cup

Oh come on, you were comparing to other sports and RU as a team sport in the same vein is the closest comparison. If the only important stats are those of rugby league then stop bloody comparing us to the other code yourself.

I repeat...... I didn't say all sports and I didn't bring union to the thread. You can imply I brought union up, but the evidence is there for all to see in black and white!

I said.....

WA Red said....


Followed by the irrelevant comments regarding Europe in the context of the London games...


...but ignoring the Amlin and Rabo Pro 12 comps because they didn't suit his irrelevant point.

I responded to this irrelevance with a tongue in cheek....


to which WA Red retorted....



feel free to point out how me saying that other sports are kicking on and doing well on the back of the Olympics has somehow been shown up by irrelevant English and European Union crowds?

The you jumped in with


when in fact the only thing that was fundamentally flawed was your ability to read what I posted....

There is only one sport there. Many different events, but one sport.

No sports away from athletics are riding the olympic wave. Even the athletics 'wave' is debatable, despite the attendance at a one off event marketed as the London anniversary games. Bet the majority of the crowd were oblivious that it was actually a diamond league meeting.

This is true.

Even the hype over 'handball' subsided faster than St Helen's challenge in a grand final.

One of the paradoxes of a big event like the Olympics is that it doesn't particularly drive people to go and watch the sport domestically. Having just watched the elite, in some ways, watching the day-in-day-out competition can feel like it would be a let-down. County Cricket both suffers and benefits from the commercial success of England. Cash trickles down by design, but interest doesn't. The relationship between the highest international levels of a sport and domestic competition are very complex, and very different across sports - there's no easy "do this and it'll all be reet" answer. For example, we bemoan the lack of high-level international RL - but realistically, is trying to ape (say) the 6 nations the way forward? If it's not realistic, we need to look at other sports for different parallels. For example, football would carry on almost as normal if the world cup and other internationals were all stopped tomorrow. The highest national domestic leagues and the Champions League would see to that. For me, that's why I've always thought that every effort should be made to develop our equivalent of the Champions League - not some one-off end-of-season jamboree, but something embedded in the sport - that the best of the northern and southern hemispheres should have regular clashes, sufficiently spread through the season to encourage higher interest, and strive for the almost constant media coverage other sports achieve as games are covered in build up and aftermath, not just on the day.

This in itself feel miles away, and very difficult to achieve, but it seems like a better use of time and resource than trying to manufacture international teams and competitions.

Which is not to say we shouldn't have a world cup, lions tours, develop smaller nations (those where the interest in the sport is real that is ). All these are Good Things, but are not the shortest route to boosting the profile of the game. Higher profile feeds on itself, and helps build every aspect of the game, so lets seek the easiest (relatively that is, none are 'easy') path to convincing journalists and broadcasters that Something Important is happening and worth shouting about.

Just looked at the Wakefield attendances like for like. We are showing quite similar averages on games so far. Some higher some lower
2012 - 8,164
2013 - 8,116

Average at end of 2012 was 8,172
We have Bradford, Sts and Cas to play at home. I imagine Bradford will be bigger than last time and Sts will be much the same.
Depends whether Cas have a run and make it an important game at the end of the season to see whether we are higher or lower.
But if we average more than 8k again I think we've done a good job.

Gutters I frankly don't appreciate your tone of argument nor your claim that you 'shamed' me. I assumed you meant sports like RU for riding the Olympic wave because I don't see why RL should be expecting to be riding it when RU and soccer certainly haven't. There's been a lot of questioning in our media about what impact the Olympics actually has. The anniversary of the Olympics has always been marketed as the sort of last gasp of Olympic sport before we return to normality, it's not a 'normal Diamond league meeting'. No sport has been directly boosted at all by the Olympics being in Britain.

I agree somewhat with this, we do need to lose our obsession with being like RU and focus on what are realistic targets for us.