On the £60m, nothing will be lost. It will stay in the bank accounts of the followers of the host nation, mainly the English supporters or those marketing to the supporters. Those who traveled to the UK will still spend and will probably still watch the same games on the TV without any real change in spending.

You may have missed the point. The article suggests that is mainly sponsorship of the shirts, both the maker and advertiser, as the England brand wont be as strong.

They make it a must attend event not the rfl its scared of telling people we exist,love the fact they spun the line 450 million world wide watched the opening ceremony but only 8 million in this country so that leaves 442 million other people to tune in big TV viewers in aus,Namibia? The whole of Samoa ? Ah must be Argentina,great spin by them nearly as good as 3.1 billion watched the last final half the world's population its still on the BBC website its about time the rfl thought big time for once

I did my degree in Warrington and played for the RL team who played in a Wire strip, we were coached by Brian Chambers and I did my 9 week 2nd year work experience with the Wire. Now I've always been a RL fan but coming from Manchester I never actually supported a team until I went to uni and I've been an avid Wire fan since.

They've made the event 'feel' big which is a trick in its own right.

The grounds are sold out even for the lesser games, which are all being played in big stadiums, the pubs were packed Sat night for the Eng v Wales game and will be even busier this week with the Ashes game, and we're still only in the group stages

Well done to the RU. We should learn some lessons.

A poor game it may be, but brilliantly marketed.

The Chairman of the event, the head of Eng RU...... when interviewed all come across as smart, eloquent businessmen who promote there sport to the world, unlike the fat, parochial, northern buffoons that represent RL.

I'm not sure what you read when you look at posts, but that's not what he said. He said we should use more spin when it comes to promoting our game.

Agree with this. Amateur R.L is a more intimidating enviroment since i stopped playing over 20 years ago. Even at some of the junior games where some of the parents/spectators act like unruley mobs baying for blood.

I have also seen some local club union games,and despite the action on the pitch the spectators seem better behaved and more friendly.

Re-read his post and tell me it's English.....

Yep. I've said before on here but it's why I stopped playing League and started playing Union.

Now I am a bit of a soft lump but we have to realise that most people DONT actually enjoy large amounts of heavy contact and most people certainly don't enjoy the fights and/or intimidation.
I went to Union and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was enough contact without people going over the top or trying to prove how hard they were. The vast majority just wanted to enjoy playing sport.

As a result they had plenty of kids teams and 4 adults open age teams plus a colts. I still occasionally turn out for their 3rds team despite my appalling fitness!

IME of playing league in the South the OTT violence on the pitch and even the goings on off the pitch is vastly different to that in the North.
I was connected with St.Albans Centurions for quite a long time and even at the highest level of the amateur summer rugby leagues there wasn't that intimidating atmosphere. I experienced a bit of biff on the field of play but nothing on the levels seen in the game in the North. There was a lad from Warrington in our side almost always got involved every game, I think he was atypical of that type of amateur Northern monkey that just couldn't help themselves.
Despite thge odd one or two though & there being a lot of ex-pats in the teams I think the mixture of union lads and that most ex-pats were playing or had played union down here made a difference, the speccies often were union followers first.

I did play a few games of masters which should be likened to the 'old boys' in union except it kind of isn't even with the adjusted rules for age. There's still the very much competetive spirit even if the body is unwilling and because of the (still) relatively fast speed of the game compared to union it's not easy even playing 25 minute halves. You also have to travel big distances as there aren't that many teams about whereas in union every team has an old boys side.

I've a gammy hip, two gammy shoulders, have Crohn's disease & the wrong side of mid 40s yet I still reckon I'd do alright playing union and I might still get around to popping down the local club because though masters is/was a struggle I actually love the physical contact, it was always the hits that did it for me (either way) but fitness wise league is just so much more difficult even when playing against old farts like me

Need to reclaim touch rugby (sic) and remind the tens of thousands of players they are in fact playing a version of RL regardless of what union tells them!

This.

I'm afraid it's symptomatic of the way that the Union and the rest of the nation outside the confines of Rugby League followers, use the term Rugby to describe their sport.

I get the impression that a few posters on here don't understand just how much Rugby Union is a social event rather than a sporting event.
I've lost count of how many times watching Union in the pub I've turned to discuss the game, only for the person next to me to admit that they have no idea about the rules and have never been to a match.

I think they do, it's just how we can turn RL more into a social event rather than a die-hard supporters event