Ah the great League country of Lebanon, I must have missed them in the recent world cup or even in the 2008 WC

Have you seen a map?
Dubai is not in between Australia/NZ and the UK.
LA is about the same distance for each League, Dubai is as far from Oz as LA is, its a dam site closer to the UK.

I mentioned the USA because it is a popular tourist destination for Australians and they did make the last world cup (full of ring ins)

There is a far better chance of the USA embracing or backing the game than Dubai.

There is no chance of the game ever being anything in the middle east so why promote it there.
Are you Arabic by the way?

Why do you keep going on about LA? There's no RL team in LA or Hawaii. How would it build interest in the US competition when there's no competition for those people to watch?
Also, go to some southern US states and kiss your boyfriend in public and see what happens. You won't be arrested by the state but you won't like the experience.

You really aren't getting it. It's not to try and build RL in Dubai so that eventually there's a Dubai team or league. It's to try and bring it to a global audience. People from all around the world visit Dubai and businesses and wealthy individuals pay attention to things that happen there. If it attracted just 1 more Marwan Koukash wouldn't it be worth it?
Maybe if we'd had a 9's comp in Dubai before then Dr Koukash might have got involved in RL earlier.

Do you think HSBC would be so closely involved with Union if it hadn't had the 7's in Hong Kong?
Take a look at the top British Union sponsors, like HSBC, Adidas, Land Rover etc they're all "proud" of the global reach the sponsorship offers them. Not once do they mention Leicester and London. They mention Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai etc.

If we sell ourselves as small time we'll get small time. If we can offer world cities and destinations that sponsors can attach themselves to and get their brand out to then we'll attract bigger and better sponsors. If all we offer is 2 restricted areas then we'll get restricted, 3rd rate sponsors.

HSBC, Addidas and Land Rover have what market share in Australia? (answer is not much) and what they have has frigg all to do with the Union Sevens its about the same thing across the Globe at the moment Price and bang for your buck.

Because I think the USA and be it Hawaii, LA or East Coast it would serve the game better in the long run.
League is not Union with the old Hong Kong Sevens.

Dubai would get no support from the NRL or its fans, I do not know why you think a League game played there would get any more backers or sponsorship than a game of Curling.

It must be something that English fans dream of a game in the middle East will sort it all out and the Sheiks will pour money into the game.
The Arabs have taken control of much of old England and pretty well own London lets play in their backyard and see the money come in.

Dreamers.

Cracking thread this.

Ah. I'm getting it now. What would only benefit Australia and the NRL. I see.

What on earth makes you think RL would be built in an area with no team in the national competition? It's utterly bizarre. If you were to have a 9's comp in the US it would be on the East Coast, where the majority of teams are.
In that case why have an Auckland 9's?

Christ on a bike. Do you think AP fans or Super 15 fans fly around the world watching 7's? Of course not. It's locals, ex-pats and holiday makers who attend. It also introduces Rugby Union to a part of the world that can't sustain 15 a side Rugby. I'll say it again, would HSBC or Cathay Pacific have got so involved with Union without the Hong Kong 7's?
2 massive global companies putting the kind of money and partnership in that ALL of RL, including your amazing, wonderful NRL, would only dream of.

Rugby Union has spread beyond its traditional borders. Partly because of the old boys network & compliant media but also partly because in the 70's, when RL was in-fighting and killing themselves for the next 30 years, Union was planning for the future. We have to start that process now. If we stay within our own borders we'll slowly wither and die bar a small enclave of die-yards. Even the NRL will in the future if Australian RL doesn't embrace the international game.

But we don't have an old boys network or a compliant media. RL was in-fighting and killing itself long before the 1970's. The post war record crowds occurred when soccer also enjoyed big crowds, even county cricket enjoyed healthy tournouts.

Just to qualify the "success" of the Auckland 9s......the city council essentially underwrite Te prize money and the promoters look after the financials. In £25 a ticket for 2 days they offered a brilliant 2 days entertainmet where NRL sides had to bring at least 3 of heir top 10 earners and played for a prize pool bigger than that of the NRL itself......
Having never been to Dubai, I will take it under advisement, but is be stunned if such an event would interest the NRL/RFL or clubs........7s does wel there because England/Australia/NZ/SA etc need nothing other than jingoistic rivalry.......NRL clubs are not supported in anything like the numbers needed to attract the same level of interest.

Why would the NRL Clubs do something that has no benefit to them?
They are privately run Clubs or Clubs owned by investors, its called running a profitable business.

I will say it again, England should do far more to get France moving rather than silly novelty ideas in a place like Dubai.
Its just easier to try and spin dumb ideas like the "Dubai Nines" than it is to do the graft and hard work to get Englands neighbour building some real foundations and becoming a force in this great game.

I think this is going around in circles, I have said what I think, the rest can rummage through through the thread and have their say if they want.

Have a good one

feel free to run through a list of any sporting clubs in any sport that are "profitable run businesses"...

Most of the NRL Clubs, and they invest those profits back into the game and community.

Rubbish, you have one NRL club making a decent profit. One or two who scrape a profit if they have a good year on the field, the rest losing money or reliant on league club grants to break even.

If koukash offered NRL clubs $500k appearance fee they would play where ever he told them to.

I still think dubai, Singapore, USA etc would be better suited to an international nines rather than a club nines. Needs a European club nines in place of magic weekend.

The Leagues Clubs are part of the organisations except maybe for the Storm, Knights and the Titans.
Without the Rugby League teams there would be no Leagues Clubs or Pokies.
One of the major objectives of the Leagues Clubs is to generate income to financially fund the Team.

Do you think Koukash is likely or able to pay the NRL clubs 8 million in appearance fees?

I agree with your last sentence.

Wrong......most NRL clubs make losses.

No they don't.

The Football teams may not show profits but the Clubs make money.
You would have to know the structure of each organisation and book keeping practices of each Club to know that.
I am pretty sure you are not privy to that information.
The Clubs are a partnership with their licensed Club who finance the team in the way of grants.
There is no way any Club wants to show a profit on the books to be taxed on it more than they are already taxed, the money has to travel down to its junior leagues and supporting structures, they are not there to show a profit.

They don't have to make money on just gate receipts, TV deals, sponsorships and Shirt sales, they have the financial backing of their business arm which brings in much of the revenue from the Clubs fans and guests.

Next you will be saying Penrith Panthers are going broke because its team can not get generate enough money.

NRL clubs are not profitable businesses........spin it how you like but the fact is a large number lobbied for cash advances in the year before the TV deal kicked in.....