agree with everyone who has commented on RL "hijacking" the RUWC and marketing our games, especially the London game, what an opportunity to miss out on ( presuming we have), thousands of casual/neutral fans attending a 'rugby' game at the Olympic stadium, and possibly enjoying the occasion, then notice posters/flyers etc around the area advertising England v NZ and that tickets are available, a lot of them possibly won't know the difference but will just think it's a rare chance to see an England rugby game live!

or maybe get some people on the streets, in the tube stations etc handing out flyers/promotional stuff etc, im pretty sure a lot of us would have offered if the RFL asked?

the counter argument to that is that a lot of those people might be attending a game for the first time and actually enjoy it and decide to go again, and/or seek out their local teams and plough money into that club.
we should never be just happy with getting 25,000 people, we need to be getting as many people as possible to attend games, whether they are regular supporters of the club game or just casual spectators.

I know what you mean Yorksguy but I'd rather see a higher attendance with some "hangers-on" there than a lower attendance that's full of die-hard fans.

What will determine RL's future is its ability to sell itself to those who aren't die hard fans as they're the ones with the extra cash and the ones the advertisers and sponsors want.

I don't agree with the suggestion of someone earlier in the thread that we should play all 3 games at huge stadiums. If we played the 3 tests at Wembley, Olympic Stadium and Old Trafford then you'd see 3 very empty looking stadiums probably only a third to a half full each time.
For starters, we can only do 1 of the 3 in London. As much as I want us to target London the core of people going to the games will be from the north and most are relatively cash-poor. They aren't going to make the trip to London twice in 2 weeks. The point about London is to make sure as much as possible we have some event in London every year that attracts people from there. Unfortunately club games won't do it, Londoners in general aren't bothered about Leeds v Hull KR even in a cup final. The only club that has any traction there is Wigan, which is why I'm delighted they're starting to have a go at London, it just needs more help from the RFL.

Ideally id have the other 2 tests at slightly bigger grounds but unfortunately there aren't many that are just the right size in the heartlands. Elland Road is just the right size but it's both a pain to get to and not a great viewing experience for most people over 5 foot tall.

But if we hold 3 Tests at Wembley, the Olympic Stadium and Old Trafford it'll look very bad and you run the risk of it being embarrassing with maybe only 20-25k in Wembley. Plus it always depends on stadium availability. Which is what people forget when comparing us to Union. They have their own stadium that, on top of earning them millions a year on non-match days, means they can have games whenever they like.

another suggestion that i would have, but doubt it would be feasible, is to stage an annual game, be it a one off test, or as part of a series in London, so people in London know they have an even to go to every year, yes they have the cup final, but maybe they don't feel part of it if they don't support one of the teams.

by staging an international game, be it England, or even an ANZAC test.
maybe try and get a venue that would be like a "home" in london, obviously we have wembley but we need to build the interest and get people going to games before we can fill wembley, somewere like the olympic stadium or white hart lane/stamford bridge would be ideal

FOR god sake stop talking sense you will never get a job wive the RFL

Totally agree. Our national team should be playing each year at least once in our capital.

I think also, the wider problem is the poor and inconsistent annual international calendar we have.

It should be so simple; a 4-yearly cycle culminating in the world cup (which they seem to be aiming for), more games (we had no home games last year!), and designated International "weekends" both mid-season and post-season. Let the Aussies play their state of origin over three weekends in June time, and we can have our own test matches.

Any new fans England attracted at the World Cup have long gone, waiting two years for another international home game is just too long.

Agree.
I'd like to see the NRL take a 3 week break whilst SOO is played. England could come to an arrangement with NZ to play a test v each other every year during those 3 weeks. It can alternate locations. And both NZ and could play 1 more test v other nations. So when over England & NZ could play France or Wales too, or down under play Fiji or PNG.

I'd also like another mid-season international period where England would play France twice and Wales once every year. They could be done whilst SL continues, the clubs would just have to manage without their England players.

That would give England 5 games every single year plus whatever happens at the end of the season. And at the very least 2 games every year in England. Set them at the same time of the year, every year. Establish an England RL supporters club with priority ticket periods, a small discount for members and member events throughout the year.

Going to all 3. Looking forward to the London one the most, am optimistic of a good crowd.

Big fanfare over the coming years (start marketing it from Autumn next year onwards, get adverts on terrestrial television, billboards in the cities) to say the Rugby League Great Britain Lions are back in 2018. Three test series v the Kangaroos at St James' Park, the Olympic Stadium and Elland Road.

Let's aim high!

Make the Olympic Stadium our London home for Internationals. I'm not saying have that as our Primary home ground but have a test there whenever we have a test series/4Nations.

Hey just wondering if anyone has started receiving their tickets yet? When I bought them guy on phone said they would be sent out in October and haven't got mine yet but should be coming soon

Most likely be posted out after the GF has been played....the RFL struggle to do more than one job at a time

Huge assumption HIM. I believe there are some stats from the previous Eng v NZ at Wembley game that shows a significant % of attendees are from the south. Large % of SL followers on Sky are from the south.

There are more RL fans down South than people realise. I met a bloke on a training course at work once from London. He never went to watch London Broncos as it was across the other side of the city to him but he had close links with an amatuer RL club and did some refereeing too. He said RL was a relatively big sport in London (considering it being a Northern sport and London being a football city like Manchester and Liverpool), played by a number of people of all ages at a growing number of amateur clubs. But that just wasn't represented in Broncos attendances.

I agree, but they're unlikely to come to more than 1. They aren't die hard fans, they're still seeing if they like it or not and using it as an event/day out. But we shouldn't count our chickens too soon.
We still only managed approx 60k for a WC semi final double header. I'm not having a go at that, it's a good attendance. But were unlikely to repeat that attendance. I'd rather we packed out 1 game of approx 50k in London than have 2 of 25k. Because if we get these non-diehards in and then provide a poor/not great experience ie a half empty stadium, they're less likely to come back.
If we give them a full (ish) stadium they'll probably think of coming back next time.
London has to be a consistent build rather than just "moving our internationals there".