Player profile is the key

James Grant management now have Sam Tomkins and Josh Charnely on their books

They do loads to get their clients profiles up

Follow Andi Peters on twitter (one time BBC producer with fingers in many pies, such as James Grant, model agency that suppliers cover models for Men Health mag, TV producer, the bloke that put Vernon Kay on tv and many more), you will see how hes been in London with Sam and Josh recently introducing Sam to NIKE, producing short films on Sam that have been sold on and shown by Transword sport etc etc

I used the extreme ' a team full of ' only to make the point that individuals do make a difference. Team full of 'box office', higher attendance than a team without stars. Somewhere in between, attendence somewhere in between. Not complicated. Certain players we respect, other players we hate or adore. The latter two categories are the ones that worth most money to the game. I 'hated' Shaun Long and Tommy Martin ( only in the pantomine villian sense for 80 minutes, for all I know they're perfectly nice people ) but you wouldn't guess that from how often I payed to watch my team play against them.

What does that have to do with what I said? Did SBW playing in that game attract attendees to it? I do not think so. He was making his reputation then and that game helped but the people of West Yorkshire did not attend because SBW was playing.

I've spent a lot of time in the past sponsoring some of those banks and building societies. Yorkshire Building Society has possibly got the most RL-passionate workforce of any company I've ever had involvement with, the place is full of League fans (granted it's a 5 minute walk to Odsal). And Halifax used to sponsor...well, Halifax.

When I worked for Lloyds Banking Group up in Halifax, they used to have frequent events with Fax where you could get cheap tickets- I'd imagine that they'd be receptive if the effort were to be put in.

On another note, I'd scrap Magic Weekend and get some matches on the road., ideally double-headers. I'm sure people would still travel, and the sight of thousands of people in unfamilar tops would surely create a buzz. Especially in smaller towns where there is not likely to be much in the way of competition in summer, and especially if there can be a double-header with a local team or two from a lower tier.

Leeds-Bradford and Sheffield-Doncaster at Bramall Lane, for example. Or some such.

Already involved with Salford and the new stadium.

There are about 160,000 fans who REGULARLY attend RL games in the UK....the trick isn't to market to these people...the trick is to grow their numbers.......because although those 160,000 are club loyal, they patently aren't "game"loyal, as the recent international attendances would point to.

SBW and his like, are all well and good, but they aren't going to convince a Bradford City or Leeds United fan to come and watch RL.....

Reality is RL fans aren't stupid and not band wagoners. They will pay and give up to time to watch a decent game that is a contest. Only stupid people are going to pay good money to watch one sided hammerings. Until int RL becomes legitimate games you can't expect tens of thousands to turn up.

Have an ashes series where gb are a genuine chance of winning and you would pack out stadiums.

Please name the scottish, Irish and Welsh players who would join the England team to make it GB and then explain how this mythical team would be any more competative than England?

Which doesn't explain why they don't turn up for England/GB games v Australia or New Zealand.
The reality is RL fans are more bothered about their own little club than the national team.

Its a local game for local people, that is even on the Stobart trucks

I agree with you on GB and the pointlessness of contrived games.

On your other point, a couple of things. Firstly, there aren't many 'stupid bandwagoners' around full stop, so chasing them won't help (although TBH I don't really know what one is - someone who only goes to a limited number of games? That's me if so). More importantly though you talk about 'RL Fans', which is fine, and I'm not being critical of your post, but it reminded me of what frustrates me when the RFL talk about marketing. They surely need to focus on the people that don't turn up, not the ones that do. E.g. They bang on about how fans love the Magic weekend. How do they know? Presumably by asking the ones that went! Wow, so people that watch rugby, er, like watching rugby. Useful info, eh? Save yourselves a ton of marketing cost and start with the assumption that the people who turn up are fine with things. Sure, they might want to tweak things, but if you're tasked with building the sport you've got to be a hard-headed t%#t and not worry so much about them. Let 'em whinge, but bottom line is, if they turn up, job done. Spend all your inbound marketing effort seeking out and questioning those that didn't go to whatever match. And preferably, for quicker results to begin with, start with the low hanging fruit - those that you know *have* watched league before but didnt show up, before worrying about totally new markets.

How I'd love to see a press release from the RFL that instead of self-aggrandising, said something like: "we love the magic weekend and we know a lot a fans do, but we'd like to see it sold out. So, we asked 1000 supporters from each club, who didn't go, to tell us why. Here were the main reasons: (blah, blah) So, we've taken that on board and propose the following changes/initiatives*: (blah, blah). If you missed it last year, try it now!" ( I use Magic weekend just as an example, same applies to England games, playoffs, etc )

Never going to happen, because such a press release would imply the RFL aren't perfect in everything they do. Maybe they fear that any public comment that could be interpreted as self criticism would be bad for the game ( as if constantly banging on about how we're the best sport in the world helps ). It would do the opposite, showing a thoughtful, honest sport, eagerly seeking what works, and would give fans confidence that the RFL was listening, not just thinking up random ideas.

We've got to be totally honest as a sport and NEVER blame the fan who couldn't be @rsed to go...find out why and take them seriously!

*note the difference between changes/initiatives randomly launched after a meeting at the RFL and those based on proper evidence.