Your talking about Greater Manchester as a Metro County old boy, would you say Liverpool has a population of 1.4 Million ? Or is that the Metro county of Merseyside?

You cannot class; Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan and Salford in the population of Manchester as a city.

As union makes strides across all facets of FTA TV, we debate which pit village has too many teams......sums it up pretty well really

Rather than squabble about the population of Manchester perhaps we should focus on the positives and the good ideas:

- we have a more interesting club game the Union (and I say that as a fan of both codes)
- we had a great RLWC last year that we need to build the international game on (though RLIF and NRL seem to be doing their best to sabotage that)
- there is a lot of potential for growth still if it is marketed correctly

Some very valid points made about the incoherence of the strategies around internationals and MW. I like Newcastle but I thought it made far more sense to have MW in Manchester which was at least reasonably easy for the majority of fans to get to whilst still being a good day out (and though it pains me to say it the Council House is a nicer ground than St James's Park).

Go back to having internationals at the larger league grounds.

I'd add far more games on Sat/Sun rather than Thurs/Fri.

Exeter have just recorded their third win on the trot and are still to take a shot at Goal for a penalty and have scored 17 tries to date in the Union Premiership.........whilst the All Blacks are beaten by the Box and Argentina.......yep ARGENTINA defeat Australia in internationals. Italian club side Zebre defeat Welsh powerhouse Cardiff whilst Scottish club glasgow traveled to South Africa and Leinster hosted the welsh in a sold out RDS in Dublin.....
.......we'e just shifted the system again and Adam Pearson reckons we can compete with Union now
...

According to supporters of small time RL clubs, playing teams from other countries will never work due to a lack of away fans.

October 23rd 2013.....Wasps defeated Leicester...the best supported rugby club in England whilst watched by 7,040 fans in a rented soccer ground.
5 years on, the same two sides meet in a game played in a ground now owned by Wasps.....18,102 fans in attendance......and neither of these sides are situated in the M4 Heartland, in case Adam Pearson was wondering......12k average this week and none of those pesky EVENT GAMES, although Exeter managed to get 9k for the visit of Sale, some 250kms away.
9 of the current clubs have won their comp.....4 have been relegated and returned.......I wonder if they're contemplating a middle 8 play off structure?????

Yes it is.
That's their first victory over Oz, in Oz, since 1983.

At least that's one thing we've got going for us, in Leigh. Beeching closed our railway, way back in 1969. In fact the town is now reckoned to be the largest in England without a station.

Quote: Alan "At least that's one thing we've got going for us, in Leigh. Beeching closed our railway, way back in 1969. In fact the town is now reckoned to be the largest in England without a station. Alan,i don't wish to undermine your post,but here is a list of towns on wiki without a train station from the 2011 census. I'm sure the population would have changed 7 years on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_l ... ay_station

Quote: Alan "At least that's one thing we've got going for us, in Leigh. Beeching closed our railway, way back in 1969. In fact the town is now reckoned to be the largest in England without a station. Alan,i don't wish to undermine your post,but here is a list of towns on wiki without a train station from the 2011 census. I'm sure the population would have changed 7 years on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_l ... ay_station

Somebody should tell the ARU that, because 120,000 watched their 3 tests v Ireland earlier this year, 110 ,000 people have attended their 3 tests in the Championship so far and now they're off to South Africa and Argentina, before heading north to play Wales, Italy and England in games where they receive a quite hefty appearance fee.

Quote: Call Me God "Somebody should tell the ARU that, because 120,000 watched their 3 tests v Ireland earlier this year, 110 ,000 people have attended their 3 tests in the Championship so far and now they're off to South Africa and Argentina, before heading north to play Wales, Italy and England in games where they receive a quite hefty appearance fee.'" On the face of it not too bad, but look a bit deeper. Its well know that Rugby Union in Australia is down and out. Ten’s live broadcast of the deciding Rugby test match between Australia and Ireland drew a metro audience of 435,000, which was not enough to pull the channel out of last place on the ratings ladder.'" Taken from planet rugby forumTRC total crowds and avg since 2012 2012 - 532'644 (44'387/match) 2013 - 488,113 (40,676/match) - Down 8.4% from previous 2014 - 430,582 (35,882 per match) - Down 12% from previous 2015 - 243,416 (40,569 per match) - Only 6 matches compared to previous 12 matches - but average up by 13% 2016 - 431,288 (35,941 per match) - 0.2% increase from 2014. 2017 - 367,318 (30,610 per match) - Down 15% from previous'" Recent Australia matches: https://www.austadiums.com/sport/crowds.php Wallabies v Argentina 16k Wallabies v South Africa 27k Not exactly a hot ticket whether it be live or on tv. As for TV ratings, its not even a blip on the radar. Super Rugby has about the same amount of people who watch AFL soccer on a weekly basis tuning in.

Quote: Call Me God "Somebody should tell the ARU that, because 120,000 watched their 3 tests v Ireland earlier this year, 110 ,000 people have attended their 3 tests in the Championship so far and now they're off to South Africa and Argentina, before heading north to play Wales, Italy and England in games where they receive a quite hefty appearance fee.'" On the face of it not too bad, but look a bit deeper. Its well know that Rugby Union in Australia is down and out. Ten’s live broadcast of the deciding Rugby test match between Australia and Ireland drew a metro audience of 435,000, which was not enough to pull the channel out of last place on the ratings ladder.'" Taken from planet rugby forumTRC total crowds and avg since 2012 2012 - 532'644 (44'387/match) 2013 - 488,113 (40,676/match) - Down 8.4% from previous 2014 - 430,582 (35,882 per match) - Down 12% from previous 2015 - 243,416 (40,569 per match) - Only 6 matches compared to previous 12 matches - but average up by 13% 2016 - 431,288 (35,941 per match) - 0.2% increase from 2014. 2017 - 367,318 (30,610 per match) - Down 15% from previous'" Recent Australia matches: https://www.austadiums.com/sport/crowds.php Wallabies v Argentina 16k Wallabies v South Africa 27k Not exactly a hot ticket whether it be live or on tv. As for TV ratings, its not even a blip on the radar. Super Rugby has about the same amount of people who watch AFL soccer on a weekly basis tuning in.

Not as big is an understatement. It's a minority sport competing with AFL soccer.

Hooked on tv cash is the wrong term. Its not through choice Rugby Union in Australia isnt viewed by many people.

Where does the $30 mil profit come from?



RA’s annual report cites the messy axing of the Force amid the Super Rugby restructure and disappointing tickets sales for Wallabies Tests as major factors in the downturn.

RA recorded a surplus of $17.8 million following a $3.7 million surplus in 2016 but the year also included $21.6 million in government funding for the new RA headquarters in Sydney.

Without that one off injection, RA recorded an operational deficit of $3.8 million.'"