You are right, a game held outside the heartlands between two random heartland teams, where both those teams were limited to 500 tickets each probably wouldn’t be very well attended.

In fact, if you held a game between Cas and Wakefield in Wigan and limited Cas and Wakefield to 500 tickets each it probably wouldn’t be very well attended.

People from outside the heartlands aren't going to come to us so we need to go to them. I think that the best bet is to take games to places such as Leicester, Northampton, Worcester etc. We would be more likely to attract people from RU areas as they would be more likely to appreciate the skills that RL players can show.

The point that CTID doesn't get, is that this idea isn't plonking a game in the middle of nowhere, it's stategically placing games where there is a base interest in RL already (through strong amateur/semi-pro clubs, number of schools playing etc). Places like Bristol, Nottingham, Gloucester, Oxford, Toulouse, Gillingham, Hemel & North London. Even places a little closer to home like Sheffield.

...and not just doing it once, wait 15 years and then expecting something to happen.

I'd try and hit one place three or four times in one year with one fixture each time and allow the interest to build up. A game in April, June and August for example.

But the idea would be to do it in a place where we think there is potential to build a club there, and I don't mean artificially plonking a franchise there like Gateshead. If that's one if the current CC1 clubs then go with it. But a real effort with strategy needs to be made, not hit and hope "see how it goes" one off on the road games of the past.

You got my point entirely wrong. My point is that it is better to repeatedly and methodically expose somewhere to the sport, rather than a casual occasional gesture.

The sport's problem more than anything is surely our relative lack of national exposure. If you live in places like Brum, you're not likely to take an interest in RL unless someone brings it to you, and makes an event of it.

Exactly. Excellent post. I still think some games in a large untapped urban area not too far from the heartland would be worth a go as well, though.