Why has RL never taken off in Manchester and Liverpool?

Quote: Cronus "I've lived in Manchester most of my life and rarely do United 'sell themselves' around here, except a few campaigns in the MEN and the Tevez billboard. They don't generally need to (unless the occasional European game is selling short). Their sponsors, 'partners' and the media will do it for them.

I have, however, seen Salford marketing themselves far and wide, especially since Koukash took the helm. It's certainly not true to say they sell only in Salford. Far from it - they've targeted a wide catchment and are active on the radio, in local press and via other means including social media and mailshots.
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Salford and Man Utd are at different stages of their lifecycle, you would expect their marketing to take different forms.

Quote: Cronus "For all practical purposes, 'Manchester' is the area within and bordering the M60 (sorry, Salford); the defined borders mean very little in reality. Except for a small hardcore in the Salford and Swinton area there is almost no interest in the game. A scattered passing interest, perhaps, but not much. Football areas are football areas and you haven't a cat in hell's chance of breaking in. But then there are other demographics people forget. A huge Jewish community in North Manchester. Enormous Asian (and other immigrant) communities in more areas than I can probably name. The large Afro-Caribbean community centred around Moss Side. A massive student population, many hailing from non-RL areas and many of whom remain in Manchester to live & work after university. Then there are areas such as Wythenshawe...though the less said about those the better. So there you have huge swathes of the population with - again, for all practical purposes - absolutely no interest in or indeed awareness of the game. The 'traditional' RL audience in Manchester is limited, so new inroads need to be found.'"

Large Asian and Student populations? like Headingley? Large Afro-Caribbean community like Chapeltown, birthplace of the black pearl, added to a whole long history of RL players of Afro-Carribean Origin from all over the country. You tell me that RL can't break in to the Jewish population in Manchester while for years other clubs would make anti-semitic chants at Leeds because of the links with the Jewish Community.

Albert Rosenfeld was a Jew playing RL a hundred years ago, Billy Boston was a welshman of Afro-irish origin playing RL 60 years ago, Ellery Hanley is a yorkshireman of Jamaican origin who was playing RL 30 years ago and who became the first black man to coach a british national side 20 years ago. There has never been a traditional RL audience.

Quote: Cronus "It has to start in the schools but that's a challenge in itself. A friend of mine coaches sport at a college nearby. He's a football man but also loves RL and when the Head of Sport decided the college would coach and play RU, it was simply due to funding and support from the RFU, who send development officers into colleges to help out. Some of the Sport England funding would do well bringing back the RFL development officers of a few years ago who were doing similar and making some strong inroads, including converting the school the Bury Broncos had moved to. Invest, invest and invest in get kids playing throughout their school lives and you have players and fans at the ready. Then you can start to think about cracking big cities who frankly don't care about RL.'"

Schools are hugely important to the overall health of the game, but expecting schools and youth rl to drive attendance is simply the wrong way round.