Rugby League at the Olympics

Quote: JB Down Under "Soo>>>>>>>>Bloodyslow cup
Southern Hemisphere...head to head.

RLWC 2008:
18 Games
293,965 Fans averaging 16,331
Semi finals attendance 42,422 in stadiums with a capacity of 98,000....43%
Final attendance 50,599 96%

RWC 2013
48 Games
1,477,294 fans averaging 30,777
Semi finals attendance 118,717 ...capacity available 121,000 98%
Final attendance 61,000 100%

More people attended the last 5 games of the RWC 2011 (1X QF 2X SF 1X Final & 1 x Bronze) than watched the entire RLWC

The most watched game of Rugby of either code EVER across australasia (Including Kiwis like the NRL do so as to look bigger than the AFL)...was when 5,207,180 Viewers tuned into the RWC semi between the Aussies and AB's.....that's bigger than AFL or NRL grand Final figures and a whole 20% ahead of anything SoO can muster.

We get it JB, NRL fans are insecure little mites when it comes to other football codes and have an almost religious fanatacism with regard to TV viewing figures/attendances.........but only when it suits them.

Facts as they stand at the moment are that the NRL will get a billion dollar deal for it's TV and internet rights.....Fact is that's a massive amount of money......but it doesn't change the fact that 15 teams along the east coast of Australia as well as a team in south Auckland doesn't register anywhere else.

I was reading an old thread on insecurity central (league unlimited) the other day, where you NRL defenders of the faith were trying to laugh off the RWC Final getting 800,000 live viewers in the USA........there's another thread where the 17,241 who watched the USA v Italy was ridiculed....yet another thread that held up the 3,661 attendance for the game between Canada and Georgia as a sign of the decline of Union, but ignored the attendance in Bridgened for the Wales v France test 1,464.

Why is it that fans of RL in general refuse to accept that whilst TGG is far better as a spectacle and rightly question why more people don't get into it, that Rugby Union is a far more popular sport in those countries it is played Internationally.

I'm not knocking it, because it's a lot of fun putting you straight and watching you come out with plans for world domination once you've got your billion, but I would caution you with this.......maybe you should dig the 15 clubs that are on their s financially out of their holes before expanding even further. Penrith were in a $22,000,000 hole last time it was reported...certainly puts Bradfords debt into perspective, doesn't it