Does it hell.
People who attended the same school or had the same group of friends often continue this association into their professional lives...regardless of if the school was boarding or a comprehensive.
I have business dealings with guys I went to school with 30 years ago, but I don't do this because of some misplaced loyalty to a school tie, but because I make money from it. The same goes for any school and any industry......it's not who you are, it's who you know.
Him bemoaned the lack of money, the lack of media, the prosperous south and connections with major companies...he was whining about the unfairness of it all......he is wrong.

The RFL has an ex Davis Cup playing Director of Tennis for the LTA at its head......hardly the son of a stockport miner, but instead a grammar school educated Surreyite.....with not a pigeon or whippet in sight!

Class distinction or Class War are easily rolled out to suit an argument, but the fact remains the RFL look like idiots when compared to the achievements of the other lot when it comes to most things.......

Apologies Gutts, I edited in the quote tags and added emphasis elsewhere while you were posting your reply.


Theres only you who seems to find any difficulty with the concept of former public schoolboys and their sporting preferences....What type of School did you go to, what was your preferred sport and who was one of your first employers?


Lol, its about connections gf.....so you are saying the old school tie doesnt and has never existed?.


Its not about class war gf...its about having access...even in the 'heartlands' League had to fight just to get into some schools and then in general, the secondary schools played League while grammar schools tended to play union.
its just how it was.

Whilst on the surface it may look like good marketing, if the returns on that marketing is poor, then it is in fact poor marketing.

It's all well and good spending a minge-full but the point of getting people in is so that you can make money on them, although this maybe in the long term.

If the RFL decided to blow a few million on Magic Weekend and ended up losing a couple of million on the event then I'd be spewing with them. THAT would be bad marketing, not spending a modest amount and getting a decent return.

People get confused when they relate a large crowd to great marketing. The fact that Saracens are losing millions each year, suggests that they haven't got their marketing strategy anywhere near right.

I went to a Rugby Playing boarding School in the Republic of Ireland and my first employer was The Bailey on Duke Street, Dublin 2 where I served a 3 year apprenticeship in Public House Management.


Any school will have a network of past pupils.....because those that went to grammar or above schools keep in touch has little influence over whether past pupils from a comprehensive do. Facebook and its like will only make this more important for the generations to come...



I still say that the decision by companies such as Mastercard, Landrover, Heineken, Soc Gen, Blackberry et al has 100% to do with ROI and little to do with who went to school.

The RFL laid their stall out 100 years ago as the proigressive modern and professional game and they have nobody else to blame that the old farts down the road seem to have completely overtaken them in every area of the game off the field and in some cases on it!
The same excuses have been rolled out since time began......it's the Leagu way to blame everone else but themselves.

BTW........what Old School tie networked prevented the 40,000 empty seats at the Double header being filled?

But the large crowd gives the Club/ sporting organasation lots of good pr, column inches and airtime and allows them to make spurious claims about avg att and records being smashed.
Their sport is on the up and everyone loves a winner. We used to have similar 'big' occaisions but now people would rather sit at home and blame the RFL for holding the event in that London or Wales...we even struggle to sell out Internationals in Wigan.

Look at the press and media coverage this one game has got and calculate just how much that would cost to buy in real terms and then add in the intangible 'feel good factor'.

In an interview before the first Wembley game the saffacens ceo stated that one of the aims of these games was to produce a bump in att in the following home game at Watford....What actually happened was att at their next home game dipped below their then season avg.

Bet you played and continued your interest in union as well gf. Take it you just forgot to mention the summer job at Huguenot House?

Not that your schooling had any affect on you, ay Gutts.


Is that a yes, the old school tie does in fact exist?


Lol, so none of your cohort who work within adversting and post quite openly on planet punt monkey would ever put in a 'good word' for union. c'mon gutts...Im kinda hoping you do the same thing for RL...in a more cultured way obviously




I'm not a capper gf....I'm aware of mistakes and stupidity of previous generation of RL governance, just as Im also aware that as far back as the sixties the game could not get a fair deal for its TV and other commercial rights, a situation which continues to this day imho.


Youre just being daft now

Bective Rangers then London Irish.
Carried out marcoms work for the IRB between 1998- 2005 in a professional capacity on behalf of my employers.
My Schooling taught me many things, including respect and good manners. I have never considered myself better than anyone (except maybe the brains trust over on TFC

)
The Old School tie network exists in many forms......see linkedin.com and facebook as modern examples.
I will market RL in any way shape or form I can for free. Petone Panthers Centenary being an example....my local club here in NZ. I will market Union so long as they pay me.......and they do!!
Your last comment about getting a "fair deal" is an odd one. The ESL gets good money from SKY and regardless of what Auntie says, the CC will be on FTA TV. The rest, rather than whining on about it, needs to be confronted head on and dealt with. Everyone with the exception of soccer has to fight for revenue and the RFL need to learn how to fight smarter (dirtier if need be)
As for being daft......there were 40,000 empty seats at the double header. Reading yours and hims explanation, I expect there to be a reason why RL fans couln't make it....2 games for a tenner........TGG.......surely the fans would have flocked in their thousands marching from Jarrow and the like



Lastly, Landrover are an Indian owned company.......what Public school did it's CEO go to?
Research in Motion are Canadian........Mastercard American based, Heineken Dutch........none of these are countries you'd expect the Old School Tie network to be in, yet they all sponsor the IRB world cup. Do you suspect the committee that elected to have 7"s at Rio in 2016 were all old eatonians? Mill Hillians maybe?

Like Londons weekly brown paper bags stuffed with cash from the RFL, conspiracies are hard to prove without cold hard factual documented proof and without that, conspiracists come across as bitter whining fools

Didnt say we got no money gutters, I suggested that historically the sport has had a problem getting a fair deal for its commercial rights.


I agree. Trouble is the RFL cant get higher values for its events partly because they arent supported by the fans. Not saying the RFL are blameless but some of the, errr, logic spouted on here is...well, stupid.
There was a fella earlier tonight who, if I read it right, suggested in this thread that the RFL were wrong to play Aus WC games in Warrington and Leeds, cos all their support is in the south, while suggesting in another vt thread(and with a straight face I assume) that support from Australians in London for RL is a myth.
You wouldnt post anything that daft, would ya gutts.


LOL, you are being daft. You are a former fee paying school boy who went to a union playing school who retains an interest in union through playing union at school.
Your existence proves Him's point!... Jarrow...pmpl.

All the dbl header att suggests to me is that fans didnt travel.




Hoping ppl will forget Your spurious claim that no public schoolboy spent any money promoting the London saffas.


Not sure anyone has ever said you were bitter gutts......

Gutters - please do be careful. The combination of straw men and hot air in your posts represents a serious fire hazard.

I would love to know what could be done with the sport if the RFL broke the bank to bring in Barry Hearn...just look at the revolution of darts

Aye, the sport would be live on Sky and played in front of crowds of baying, drunken idiots in fancy dress who have no interest in the sport itself and are just there for the beer.

So much like autumn international rugby union then...

I'm not saying it would need to take the darts path, I was more thinking along the lines of the fact that the guy knows how to market a product