That’s just simply not my experience. People from outside RL heartlands generally don’t dislike the game, they just don’t see much of it, and have an image of it as a small town parochial sport far removed from them. They see clubs that don’t represent them, playing in small stadia, in front of small crowds, in towns they haven’t heard of. Why would they support the game, it doesn’t have anything to do with them.

That’s where the game goes wrong, that’s the big failing it has, part of that is marketing, part of it is the geographic spread, part of it is the p1sspoor job we do in bringing people in to the game. People making an active choice to ignore the game because of a previous affiliation with RU would, unfortunately, be actually an improvement from where we are now. Where we aren’t even a valid alternative, we are game not played near them, where they have no representation, where even if they wanted to go watch local professional RL, they cant.

Meanwhile the heartland are arguing about which small town would make the best West Yorkshire team number 6 in SL.

There seems a counter-intuitivity to me in seeing two West Yorkshire sides go bust, having 3 of 5 not particularly close to making the 10k average they need, to throw another club in their to split and cannabilise that market further.

But that not the case with London though, they’ve been around for thirty odd years now, they’ve been in S.L since its inception. They have decent ground, they have a club representing their beloved capital, yet the fan base remains depressingly low.





Yes they can - go watch London, they just can't get past the "cloth cap" image, whilst Harlequins continue to boast huge crowds, even if London were to win the G.F the interest would remain tepid.



Smokey, I appreciate your desire for a master plan where R.L is a national game with Leeds championing the Yorkshire cause & I've no idea how old you are, but, I assure you, you'll be long gone before that would happen.

And numerous moves, numerous names, not a lot of success on the field, and it is pretty isolated. Also ‘London’ isn’t comparable to Cas or Wakefield. A club the other side of London is about as relevant as a club in Wakefield is to people in Middlesboro.

You cant on one hand argue that it is wrong to expect the people of Featherstone to travel all the way to Cas or Wakefield. Wakefield and Cas have spent 2 years arguing how important it is to have two stadiums within 2 motorway junctions. Yet on the other hand arguing that pretty much the entire south-east of England should be expected to identify with one club.



Its not the ‘cloth cap’ image. That’s your own insecurities coming through. It is the fact Rugby League isn’t something they associate with. One token club in an RU stadium doesn’t build an association with the entirety of London.

It is, unfortunately that, or the game dies. We are seeing it in action now, we are seeing that small towns cant compete, we are seeing that a lack of big places and glamour ties means we struggle for sponsorship, our image as a game played in small northern towns makes us less attractive to TV companies. It is a sad reality that if we stick to being a sport played in a small area, relevant to a limited amount of people our value will fall, when that happens we will go back to being semi-pro. When that happens we will be in a spiral that will end up with the game’s presence as even a semi-pro sport being token. Our best players will leave, people will stop watching and that will mean people will stop playing. In my lifetime we will either see a much larger national presence or a game which, for all intents and purposes, is dead.

What a load of bollax Smokey.

Well the game has finally got its council house sponsor.

Can you ever imagine RU ever being sponsored by anything like a bloody bingo company!

Thats why we need a re brand so RBS, Aviva etc get involved. Not some pastime played in social clubs by "big Birds" on there one night out per week in there Primark dress

Wire Quim, if you're so embarrassed by Rugby League why don't you f-off to Union?

Little dick face the truth

Who said wire-Q was embarassed?

All he did was point out the chasm between the 2 codes when it comes to monatising and promotion.

Have to say, your defensiveness further promotes the marginalisation of our sport.....Foxy Bingo are not a charity...they have identified their target market and will advertise accordingly...as in Jeremy Kyle and now Superleague!
Defend it all you like, but in reality, it bundles your average RL fan in with the inbred redneck scum on Kyles show.......and in case you are in any doubt, that is embarassing!

Mate, its drivel city on here.

Keno bingo sponsor the NRL. Put your posh dummy back in and congratulate the RFL for putting together a group of partnerships in one of the worst recessions ever.

Lets get rid of all the northern types then and have Broncos style attendances throughout SL.

Or take a cheap shot because you are beaten

Keno paid the NRL $3 MILLION a year for naming rights for Super Saturday......Keno is drawn every evening on national TV in 'stralia.

I wonder how much revenue the RFL have got for this association? If it was a decent wedge, we would have been told.....

BTW, there are bingo halls south of Watford....they too are populated by the same stereotype that no doubt their northern counterparts are....nothing snobbish at all, just factual.

Applaud the RFL all you like...I'll do so when they announce a deal bigger than the one closed by saracens RFC.....a -poor union club with 6k fans and 1.5 million a year!

The perceptions of Superleague and the Aviva Premiership when viewed by sponsors are as far apart as black and white and "foxy bingo" coming on board does nothing to lessen the gap.

Check out the sponsors and partners at these 2 sites.
rlSITE 1rl rlSITE 2rl...one of these sites has been professional for less than 20years, the other for over a hundred....yeah, the RFL are doing a splendid job.

BTW, I have no control over the disgustingly shocking going ons at London Broncos..the club is abasket case run by a guy who to date has only achieved on thing of note in 24 months and that was conning the chairman into giving him a job.....but attendances at London are not up for debate, the class/standard of sponsor in ESL is..

Eh? Beaten at what? It's an RL forum not PS Call of Duty. Deary me.

Your typical put downs of everything "northern" does nothing for your crusade to make us want to support a London franchise. In fact it does the complete opposite. If I were you old chap I would start watching Quins.

Back on topic and lets not forgot thishttp://www.halifaxrlfc.co.uk/article.php?id

Speaking to people at the club he also made a lot of other promises that he failed to deliver on.