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.

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.

Yes hard to believe when every other sport leap into bed with the bingo,betting and booze crew.

I would think (or hope) we have gone back to Heinz with a begging bowl

Given the size of the NRL's TV deal, I think Nigel Wood should go prostrate himself at the feet of our Aussie cousins, and ask for a few crumbs from their table, on the grounds that they won't miss the loose change, and it'll enable their players to carry on coming over here for a jolly for a few years more.

Last year's deal was an absolute shocker, which not only got us bugger-all last year, but has - as others have pointed out - probably made it much harder to get a deal this year. A few of us called that at the time....

I agree its not easy, and that the RU brand is worth far far more ( basically because your brand gets all the additional free exposure from the wide media coverage ) ... however....they're paid good money at the RFL and its not supposed to be easy. The question is not 'are we doing as well as Union?', because that would be unrealistic, but rather, 'are the current people at the RFL delivering somewhere near the best that could be realistically acheived?' The reason I don't like the excuses is that it seems we have virtually no standard by which to measure Wood et al. if every 'failure' is excused by 'well its hard'. How will we ever know if they're doing a good job? Put it this way, if I were an applicant for the job, I'd expect to have to commit to delivering a decent sponsor within 9 months, and expect to be fired if I didn't. I don't think its unreasonable for Wood to be held to that standard. If, after firing him, the next guy also fails to find a decent sponsor, then Wood would have some grounds to turn around and say "told you so, aint so easy is it" but he's been in the job too long and we should thank him for his service but take a shot at some new blood and fresh thinking.

Can we not go the same route as cycling?

They avoid the over reliance on one title sponsor for races like the Tour de France by signing up a pool of smaller sponsors.

The risk and exposure is lessened and its easier to find replacements when one sponsor leaves as the cost for a new company is shared with other title sponsors.

What I fear is that a publicity seeking, desperate RFL promote one of those lotteries where companies can pay £5k or something for a ticket and there is a clubcall type draw to pick the winning name. For me that would cheapen the value of SL.