Surely people are not pinning the success of NFL UK popularity on FTA TV.

The NFL has predominantly been behind a paywall over here for the over a decade. Without Sky TV there is no way the NFL would be as popular as it is. It's not just the live games but all the support programming that goes on Sky Sports. They show loads of NFL related stuff and even in the off season they still have NFL programming.

Sky treat the NFL as one of its core sports programming.

In not at all unexpected news, the RFL’s favourite promo trick is out in force, Promo codes! Now £15 for KCOM customers (Hull’s version of BT for you out of towners) for tickets that are £25 full price.

All well and good to shift a few tickets, but the problem is next time they try and sell a game those who paid full price and feel ripped off will either wait for inevitable promo codes or just not bother at all.

What’s the promo code?

They never learn.

If they want to fill some seats instead of going down the promo code route just comp tickets. Give them away to rugby clubs, schools etc.

The while promo code reduction simply shows that the RFL doesn't believe in its own product. Sometimes you just have to hold the price rather than devaluing it. If they believe its a premium product then hold the price on the tickets as trying to sell it again when people know they will be discounted is hard work.

KCOM15

17,600 crowd in the end. Very mediocre.

They got the pricing all wrong. 55quid with no concessions on the halfway line, no surprise these blocks were half empty. Anyone who has been to the KCOM knows there isn't a bad view anywhere, so people quite right didn't want to pay the 10-25quid premium for these seats.

Also the usual problems of only marketing to existing RL fans, not aware of any billboards or anything in Hull these last few weeks.

The game itself was entertaining, and an England win will hopefully boost sales for Anfield next week.

Almost 86k at the NFL today, a new record. In just over 10 years they've built an event that consistently sells out, in those same 10 years our Challenge Cup final has dwindled.

Event games are the answer.......the Big Bash double Header in 2013 was a "must see event".....since then the RFL have reverted to type and the results are horrifying. Keep an eye on the attendances at Dublin, Twickenham, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Paris over the coming weeks....."friendly" games designed to do nothing more than generate revenue, whilst we have a 3 game test series between the worlds #2 & #3 sides and we can't sell them out.....

I tried to watch it on TV yesterday but I'm really struggling to see it's appeal. I have in the past been able to appreciate their rugby style skills but I didn't see too much of that yesterday. Another big turn off is the vast numbers of coaching staff stood on the sidelines. All of whom appear to be taking copious notes and blabbing into their microphones for no obvious reason. Awful.

Reading a lot of the comments here just reminds me of this....



Whether or not you find NFL or F1 boring, the reality is that they pull in the crowds - not just from hard-core sports fans, but from casual punters as well. They communicate with a broad spectrum of people, whilst RL spends too much time listening to and worrying about offending the hard-core element.

Wimbledon is another example about how it has the "product" right to appeal to that broad spectum. I've been to Wimbledon and most of the people there are simply not tennis fans, they are simply people who are there for the experience - to say that they have been to Wimbledon and to Instagram their strawberries and cream. They might appreciate the tennis, and the likes of Murray, Djokovic and Federer will attract them, but that's not necessarily what drives them to the event.

All of the promotion and advertising doesn't change what the RL's core problem that we aren't listening to what those types of audience want. Both the RFL and a number of clubs seem to think that the way to attract them is to offer cheap tickets, when it is in fact the scarcity of the ticket that attracts these people - the idea of exculsivity and the fact that it's hard to get in. That means that we end up giving discounts to a lot of people who would have probably paid full price anyway, cutting our profit margin, reducing the money that comes into the game (it was that discounting that were a big factor in Bradford's issues) and putting the sport on a treadmil of discounting that's hard to get off.

We can spend millions on advertising and promotion, but if we don't know who our target audience is and what that audience wants from a sporting event, whether that's an England international or a Friday night in Salford, we can't get the product right and we'll just spend a lot of money telling people about out crap product. This "we just need the RFL to put posters up and tell people about TGG" mentality really isn't the answer.

It's not just about the product on the field (although I'd argue that even that has declined), but the whole experience that we provide and as a sport and we even struggle to get some of the basics right. In 2018, somebody should be able to sit in a premium stand rlwithout having the elements come through the roof above themrl. We should be offering seats with unrestricted views, comfortable seating, a good range of food and drink options and fast service, contactless card payments at bars - all things that a suprising amount of clubs still don't offer. We haven't got that "Instagramability" which, as much as you might hate it, is something that brings in the punters.

Once we have those basics right, we need to build on it to make sure that a day / night at the RL is an experience that people want to pay for and this to me is why it starts with the clubs. They are the ones that control that matchday experience week in, week out. They're the primary point of consumption and the more that the sport can grow its audience and its relevance at that level, the easier all of this becomes.

I know people point out the financial aspect of this, but there is a cost to not doing this - and that cost is the lowest Challenge Cup final attendance since 1945, the lowest Grand Final attendance since 2009, the lowest Wigan v Saints derby attendance since 2003 (despite Groupon tickets), Wigan's first sub-10k crowd since 2005 and 17,000 at England's first 'competitive' match since the World Cup Final.

Does anybody know what the demographic is of the average crowds at RL matches?

Personally I am 60+ and been a Northern/Bulls supporter since the late 60's but what did I do at the weekend? Eng v NZ at Hull (which is 13 miles from where I live) but I couldn't be bothered driving to watch it. Sunday I drove down to London and back in the day to watch the NFL. So I hyad plenty of time to think about this thread (yes I really am that sad).
Atmosphere: The crowd was massive and everyone there was buzzing. Cheerleaders, drummers, supporters dressed up. At the risk of raising the wrath of people it was going back to the years of Bullmania. And as somebody said the ball in play is only 20% but that 20% is explosive.
Eng v NZ; the atmosphere is described as like a library, people turn up 10 mins before the match and leave straight away afterwards, we couldn't sell out the game (even with 40% reductions) in the only city with 2 SL teams.
RL is the sporting equivalent of the working man's club in that it has had it's day unless it makes major changes. If that means mergers then so be it. WE had this raised when SL started 20 years ago and was talked out of it by the traditional clubs. My answer would be that we tried it without the mergers and you couldn't make it work.

Rugbyreddog - what made you go to Wembley rather than Hull?

Having read the last few comments I conclude that society is no longer interested in content, just the thin veneer of glitter. X factor,Trump, Love Island, Premiership football, NFL...I despair!

Several things as I said; a complete event. It's always a good event . For those that have never been to one it is a bit like going to the GF. Not wanting to waste time watching the usual 5 drives and a kick. And at the risk of upsetting neighbours I would have to add that as a Bulls supporter I have never felt relaxed or comfortable in the KC.

You may be right but to paraphrase 'Field of Dreams'; give the people what they want and they will come. Obviously the opposite is also true. I would suggest that people are interested in content and that RL needs to alter their content. Five drives and a kick, messing about at the play the ball and an increase in kinds of play best described as gamesmanship are killing the game. AS they say figures don't lie. A game not played in this country get 85k for 3rd successive week, Eng v NZ in a city with 2 SL clubs gets 18k. Whilst we will all despair with you the game needs a serious shake-up if it is to continue.