But surely only by looking at and accepting what makes Union the bigger, broader sport can you ever hope to catch it and surpass it?

Unfortunately not. Admittedly, Union is run by very shrewd business men who know how to sell a
polished turd but union is also the sport of the Great British establishment (as George Orwell recognised) and it will always retain its position in the British sporting/social hierarchy. No matter how well RL is run it will never overtake union.

Overtaking it isnt the issue, but only an idiot doesnt look and learn from the success of others

Well sorry for being an idiot but it was you who expressed the notion of surpassing (overtaking?) Union. Anyway I never said we couldn't or shouldn't learn from union - we could and we should.

Well surely the ultimate aim of any business is to be the best in its field, so Champions League beware , the higher you aim, the more chance you have of success, simple as

Hey guys.....re-read the ing thread title




Irony accepted....you were the one who claimed the RLWC had paved the way for world dominance over Union

Actually, there is a lot that RL could learn from Union.....both sports have similar domestic averages in the UKyet one has the bigger TV deal, the naming rights sponsor, the column inches in the media, the greater number of replica shirt sales and an international stadium that delivered 300,000 fans to 4 games this autumn paying an average of £50 a ticket.

Are you referring to RL as professionals and Union as Amateurs? How is it then that the Amateurs are rolling in cash and sponsors whilst the professionals have foxy bingo?




...yeah, because soccer doesn't have the lead over everything else, isn't generally dominated by northern teams and struggles to attract sponsors, fans and corporates in RL towns like Leeds, Hull, Huddersfield or Manchester?


I want nothing more than RL to improve the way it is run.......at present, it is run like an amateur sport (see above) and I have never accepted that schools/old boys and media bias should be accepted as a reason for the inferiority complex that balances out the insecurity of certain factions of the RL community.

...good for you. Alas, more people watch the snobs from Eton, more money finds its way to the toffs at the RFU/IRB and they can stretch to a slightly better class of sponsor than foxy bingo

The things we could learn from union don't relate to "rugby" but to off-field matters, which could be just as easily ne learned from other sports. The learning has been all one way for a long time no - union learning from league. That includes all the things they / the establishment laughed at - club names, matchday fireworks, sons etc as well as coaching and on field matters. League has been the innovator of British sport for many years now. our problem relates to finance and that largely relates to the geography and the attitudes of its clubs and supporters.

I guess the issue will be how to charge one half of the supporters £75+ per ticket whilst offering the other half of the supporters £20 tickets together with a 50% off code.

Other sports? Other than soccer or Union what other team sports would be good to learn from off the field?
Soccer is #1 in the UK with hundreds of thousands of fans attending games each week....it is no mystery that they get the big cash, nor is it a mystery as to how they fill Wembley.
Union on the other hand is one of the cleverest con tricks ever. Similar domestic attendances but a massive interest generator internationally and decent TV deals.

As for Geography? Sales and Salford play out of the same stadium....so do the Leeds sides. The difference is the calibre of people charged with running the clubs/sports.

It's simple really when you think about it, union has been learning off league, they've stolen our coaches and players, they've looked at all our innovations and matched or improved on them.

We know our on field product is superior, it's vastly more entertaining.

So what is the solution, merge League and Union, have our game and their. ..well their everything else.

We then have a huge number of players to pick from , clubs all over the country One game we can all unite on, our own national stadium.

Union doesn't pull in big sponsors because they are innovative or forward thinking , it's because they wear the same old school ties as the CO's of top blue chip company's while RFL struggle to get appointments with the marketing arm of the jaffa cake factory down the road. Nothing to do with know how but who you know.
Lord Farqar Quentin III is not going to put a dime into Rugby League.