To be fair.
union has always been referred to as rugby, and they do have that right to market it so as it was the original game.

In the southern hemisphere the world union is rarely used.
Its either rugby or league.

I don't hold the BBC responsible for the lapses of league promotion over the years.
The RFL are the only sports body I know that constantly shoots the game in the foot by getting behind something and then walking away.

The BBC used to show by and large more rugby league than any other sport. For six months of the year Grandstand would almost weekly play RL games, only mainly not transmitting them when big events like the Grand National, Four Nations Rugby (ouch!) or for (coughs) The Boat Race etc.

The BBC were not responsible for the dropping of the John Player/Regal Trophy, The Lancashire Cup, The Yorkshire Cup and The Premiership competitions. Plus the RL Ashes tours of GB Lions v NZ or OZ.

That is a lot of terrestrial RL that we don't have any more!

(There was also the short lived BBC 2 floodlit competition too)

I think you are right when the RFL themselves do not appear to have the best interests of the game at heart, I think your 100,000 is a bit far of the mark but the sentiments you express I fear are all to true, think small and that is exactly what you will become, a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Yes, you are being paranoid.

There isn't much RL news around at the moment, due to the season not having started yet, and no-ones bought any players recently.

Regrettably (for the sport), the Raynor story is news, and any media outlet will align Raynor with RL.
The Rhino's cannabis plant lamps story was also used in a similar story for one of the NW's football sides, and there was no throwing up of arms, then.
I see no problem with either story being on the Beeb's RL website, otherwise, there'd be nothing on it (the site), so there'd be whinging again.

I bet there'll be a pre-season preview on in a day or so, so we can all relax.

You do come out with some tripe!

Let's address what the Beeb have lost, not bidded for or snubbed

You say the BBC weren't responsible for the dropping of the Yorks/Lancs Cup.......They showed their last final in 1983, yet these comps went on til 1992 (ITV showed the finals from 1989 onwards). So yes, the Beeb were responsible for dropping them, as they had them, and then no-one showed them....that's the definition of dropping.

The Beeb showed their last live Premiership Final (or qualifying rounds, for that matter) in the early 90's. So they either dropped them, or got outbidded by Sky.

Likewise, International Tests. The last Tests shown live on the Beeb from memory were (iirc) the SL tests of 1997, and the Beeb didn't show another live International for over a decade. So they've again been outbidded or just couldn't be ar5ed.

...and you spout more claptrap about them dropping games in favour of the Boat Race/National/4 nations....absolute conkers. That's NEVER happened as long as I've been watching the game.

Why let the facts get in the way of a BAD argument, eh duckie?

A good amount of blame CAN be laid at the door of the Beeb, but it's their choice. If people weren't watching, they're going to drop them.....or maybe they couldn't be ar53d.

Just for clarity I am not advocating think small at all. Rugby League can be a brilliant, exciting, flair game with wider appeal. I suspect if we add up all the attendances at any weekend for the top 3 leagues we would get a total around 100,000 spectators.

What do we expect the BBC to do with this relatively low level of appeal ?

Well the BBC profiled London Broncos in their televised season preview, so

I have no problems with you using the boards to correct me and welcome it. However its not a place for personal insults.

Where lefty did I say the bbc "drop" Rugby league games for the boat race?

errr ....I think "drop" can equate to "not transmitting"

as for personal insults, I haven't insulted you.

HTH

Garyhulsefan has informed us (on another thread) that the RFL has increased it's prize money to £100,000 for the LLS winners

I've just looked on the Beeb's website, and it is their lead story on the RL page

Proof they do care

Then that is your interpretation and not what I said.

Perhaps I could have ring fenced it and said not transmitting rugby league on that day as there would be no rl cup scheduled because the BBC would be televising the varsity boat race!
But...
I assumed you might have worked that out and I totally didn't expect a barrage of insults from you because I hadn't been so attentive to pedantic details.

You've come on here, pontificating that the BBC never dropped RL (when they did, in certain circumstances).

Then you say that they dropped RL cup games to favour the Boat Race....they never have. As far as I can remember, for decades, the Boat Race was always transmitted, 99% of the time, on a Saturday, as were the Challenge Cup semis (they were on at the same time of year, late March/early April). The BBC didn't drop the CC games. They may have had to get round the Boat Race times on the Saturday, as did the Boat Race itself due to tidal times, so they co-operated around each other. Please don't go round making stuff up, just to "big up" your perceived claims of BBC neglecting RL, and then, in a different paragraph, NOT neglecting RL. For God's sake, make your mind up on which side of the argument you're on.

Or better still, give up while you're behind.


...and again, I ask, when have I insulted you

Our clubs are easily on a par in terms of spectators as Union. Look at this from 2009, a while ago, and some League clubs have well upped their attendances since then...(for some reason i cannot find a more recent version of this...?) well indeed.

With an improvement (a huge one needed, granted) in the organisation running our sport there's no reason at all that we should just be falling by the wayside in terms of the way we are covered in the media and perceived by the rest of the country. The product we have on the pitch is better than theirs and if we can just enlighten the world to that then we are onto a winner...it's just how we do that (we need the Aussies on board with our game here for a start and the World Club Series is a great start with that!)/

I think a glaring difference between the 2 codes is as Buckley Street says "how the game is run". Unfortunately ,ruggah has the patronage of world class sponsorship & is run by what is seen as the establishment ,with its heartland right in the middle of England's great & good ,many of whom rub shoulders daily with Britain's captains of industry. The best thing that ever happened to Rugby Union was turning professional because ,at a stroke, it stopped players leaving to join League clubs so it preserved their player base & starved rugby league of its main source of top players. Union is also played in the top universities which also happen to produced most of the previously mentioned great & good so it is hardly surprising at the forward strides the game has made recently. It is going to be a hard slog but marketing may be the key in the long term & attracting world class sponsors to lift the profile of our game....Emirates needs to be just a start.

As for the BBC , we are still only a convenience for sky with it's scheduling slots.

I didn't argue that SL and RU League attendances were broadly similar (Union have the edge by 10% or so). I said that compared to the 6 Nations it is dwarfed in terms of mass appeal and interest in the UK so you cannot blame the BBC for it's limited coverage.

In terms of the product on the pitch being "better" this is subjective. I have some RU mates who criticism Leagues formulaic play, lack of value of possession, lack of ruck, uncontested scrums etc. They honestly prefer RU. It appears to me that the majority of UK citizens prefer RU too. This would explain professional clubs in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the popularity of the 6 Nations (as much as it pains me to say it).

What organisational improvements do you think the RFL could make to improve the way RL is covered in the media and perceived by the rest of the country ?

You can bet your life that if rugby league somehow managed to become the pre-eminent code, with clubs all over the country, and regular 5 figure crowds each week, and loads of media coverage, people would be on here moaning that 'the game is not what it was', 'why the bloody hell are we letting these Southerners and Midlanders get involved?' and 'if you think I'm driving to Hemel Hempstead to watch Warrington you've got another think coming' etc, etc. RL is what it is, Union dominates media coverage. So what? It's always been like that, we think RL is better, it doesn't mean everyone else has to. They can just be 'wrong'