We should learn something from the World Cup successes and failures.


The 45,000 crowd at Cardiff for the RLWC kickoff Opening Ceremony was not a raging success, especially since the Wales team was part of the day's events. Not a complete flop, but nothing to get excited about.

Wembley however, with 67,500 in attendance for the semi-finals, was a great success. Almost exactly 50% more people showed up at Wembley than showed up at Cardiff. The BBC TV platform helped it along with its publicity, and with Dave Wood's excellent calling of the game. But the recipe BBC TV was cooking was very good.

The plain truth is that not many Welshmen or Welshwomen give a damn about rugby league. You can try every marketing trick in the book --- promise a public beheading of Phil Clarke on the halfway line --- and still they will never even three quarters fill Millenium Stadium.

On the other hand many Londoners and nearby southerners have an interest in rugby league international games. It has been shown over the years to be true (look at the great Wembley attendance figures for Australia vs Great Britain in the 1990s). The semi-finals this year three quarters filled Wembley.

So we have found our magic formula for rugby league promotion: England + Wembley + BBC TV.

Let's stick to it in the future.

all well and good, however.....how do you explain the bigger crowd at the game which didn't feature 2 of the elements of the formula?

I can only presume you didn't go to Cardiff, there were loads of Welsh supporters there. Just a shame their team failed to deliver this year.

Because that was a very special Big Event -- the Final of a World Cup --- and most of the seats had been sold before anyone knew if England would be there. Similar great crowds show up for the SL Grand Final at Old Trafford and the Challenge Cup final at Wembley.

The semis are much less prestigious and less of a Big Event.

But compare the World Cup semis with the Challenge Cup semis. The CC semis held in the M62 corridor cannot crack 20,000 each. Sometimes not even 10,000 show up. But the World Cup semis at Wembley attract 67,546.

However all of this is not relevant to my main point, which is that the interest of southern Englanders, esp. Londoners, in international rugby league, is significant. It is much stronger than the interest of the Welsh. We need to recognise that fact and keep working on holding international matches at Wembley rather than Cardiff --- every year if possible.

I dont think playing games in the millenium stadium help though i think it would be better if it was played at Cardiff city's stadium and then slowly expand it.

Wales doesn't have a big following for RL.

Hell, the game at the racecourse attracted 8,500, one of the smallest attendances of this world cup, it's not a pop at the Welsh, it's just stating that Cardiff was unsuccessful, would need about 200,000 hardcored Welsh RL fans, and the attendance to be the same.


Arguably, for fans in the heartlands, it's a VERY difficult place to reach, no clubs were running coaches, so access was either, make your own way there, get a train, which was costly really. I know Leeds decided to run coaches at the last minute, and a few private companies ran some, but i felt 45,000 was a great turnout considering the circumstances.

We are on about the same place, aren't we? From reading your post one could be forgiven for thinking the game was held in Pyongyang!

The only thing these kinds of figures do is frustrate the hell out of me. How can we not fill Challenge Cup quarter, semi and final venues?

While I don't consider the double header at Cardiff a failure - there was a significant Welsh crowd there (as was evidenced by the numbers singing the Welsh national anthem in Welsh) - I do think that the Wembley double header idea appears to have been a real success. We acquired over 20,000 new fans between 2011 and 2013. So long as we don't wait too long until then next one, we could feasibly sell the place out for an international double header in the not too distant future.

Wales RU only got 66,000 to watch SA a few wks ago, Australia didn't sell out on Saturday either, quite a few empty seats in the top tier. Economy around here, all the best players off to France + England. Llanelli, Cardiff, Ospreys and Newport not getting many, and that with all the marketing brain-washing going on.

Why the comparison with Union...and in all places Wales

Wales RU attendances in Wales in 2014.
South Africa 66,490
Argentina 46,253,
Tonga 46,523
Australia 67,436
Ireland 71,254
England 74,104
372,060/6 = 62,010 average.

Wales RL attendances in Wales (last 6 games)
Cook Islands 3,270
USA 8,019
Italy 45,052*
England 4,014
France 1,464
Australia 5,233

67,052/6 = 11,175* (22,000/5 = 4,400)

Not sure how many Wales RU tickets were available from as little as 3.75 a pop in 2014.

LOL at doing an attendance comparison with union.

Total attendance for 2007 world cup 2.263,223

KAPOW!

The FA have a slightly easier sale on their hands.......

London/south east have a big event culture and RL has a near 100 year history of staging big events in the capital
Cardiff needs a SL team