https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/46763920 Have you guys seen this on the BBC website? Looks like our beloved band of morons at the RFL have put another nail in the coffin of the Challenge Cup

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/46763920 Have you guys seen this on the BBC website? Looks like our beloved band of morons at the RFL have put another nail in the coffin of the Challenge Cup

Just a thought....The winner of the CC last year is on the brink of pulling out in justified protest at a boneheaded decision by the governing body. What would happen if the other finalists from last year were to pull out in sympathy? We would admittedly lose the chance of that silverware and the gate money but would gain with fewer games to play and a lowered risk of injury/burnout the SL comp. It may also start a landslide of SL clubs saying "no, thanks" to the CC, maybe even forcing change of the old guard in the RFL. Risk vs. reward?

Not trying to start a fight here, but would love to hear views.

Very mean spirited of the RFL to come up with the idea considering the whole thinking behind the Catalan project was to get a viable & competitive team into the French RL set up so as to encourage more interest & development in their game.

This is a problem entirely of the RFL's own making. 1 - Failure to attract neutrals and non RL fans to the final. 2 - Failure to secure sponsorship for the most famous Rugby League competition in the world. Just look at the RFL board though. Are you surprised by the lack of new ideas and dynamism. No wonder the Hearn's thought "no thanks". https://www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/ab ... _president

This is a problem entirely of the RFL's own making. 1 - Failure to attract neutrals and non RL fans to the final. 2 - Failure to secure sponsorship for the most famous Rugby League competition in the world. Just look at the RFL board though. Are you surprised by the lack of new ideas and dynamism. No wonder the Hearn's thought "no thanks". https://www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/ab ... _president

For me Catalan have to be involved. We would be a sporting laughing stock if they are not allowed to defend their trophy. Think again boys.

Last seasons final there was nothing around the stadium to say there was a Rugby League Final there until the day it’s self. I spoke to someone at the stadium regarding this he had no idea why, we stood watching workers putting up banners etc, just utter disgrace by the RFL.

Yep - I live in London and you see a lot of visual advertising on billboards plus in things like the free Evening Standard that all the commuters read. The NFL games at Wembley are hugely well marketed and also the NFL are very good at getting press coverage - pretty much throughout the year you seem to see stories in the local press about the next round of NFL games, the future plans for an NFL team in London and so on.

The football teams are active in visually marketing themselves, West Ham especially, and this morning I saw a big poster about Millwall FC half-season tickets for sale.

London has a big and transient population and a lot of people are "up for stuff" ie trying new things, especially the younger generation in their 20s and 30s. They put up with a lot of downsides in London - expensive rent, shoddy living conditions, cramped commutes to work, for the lifestyle which London offers which is there are always new things going on. So people will be like "oh, a film festival? I'm up for that. New rooftop bar opened? Lets check it out. New fitness challenge? Lets sign up." This is where the NFL has done very well as it is heavily marketing to an audience which wants new things to do, and Surrey cricket have exploited this for their T20 evening fixtures which are always well attended and you get huge groups of people coming from their workplace, you can see how it has happened, someone has seen it, sent an email round their workplace "who is up for the Surrey game" and loads of people sign up.

So I think there is a market here for rugby league especially given that the prices are relatively affordable. When the 2013 world cup was on and they did the double header semi finals at Wembley (Eng-NZ, Aus Fiji), I got a group from work to come and they were amazed how cheap the tickets were for a world cup semi final - a couple of them were rugby union fans who always complained about the difficulties in getting their hands on England RU tickets at Twickenham.

What you really need is a bit of visual marketing presence plus some good media management to make sure the Challenge Cup Final gets talked about in the Evening Standard. The NFL did a good job on George Osborne because he used to talk about the 'economic opportunities of a London NFL franchise' when he was Chancellor and I expect now that is also why the Evening Standard (which he edits) gives them generous coverage. I wonder if the RFL have talked to Sadiq Khan? He likes to talk a lot, and if you sell it to him as a working class sport, the showpiece fixture has a long heritage of being at Wembley, at risk of being taken out of the capital, you might get Sadiq starting to make statements about how important it is for London to preserve this tradition and then there are media stories.

I appreciate that it's hard to get people in London to become regular attendees of London Broncos games, partly because there is so much other stuff going on people don't like to commit to regular things. But for one off big events, there's a fertile target audience. The milennials down here all want new stuff to put on their instagrams, so taking selfies at Wembley with the Challenge Cup going on behind them would be perfect, and also then spreads the marketing on social media through hashtags to their peers #selfie #rugbygame #challengecupfinal #wembley etc

Good post Sally.

The RFL does not know how to market in the 21st century (if they did in the 20th century). Their current genius strategy seems to be emailing all those people who went to the Magic last time, and who will likely go again, with a 10% discount. As if discounting the ticket price will encourage more people.

How on earth they cannot fill Wembley Stadium on 1 day, for a well known event watched all over the world, in a major city with 8.3m population is beyond me.

In this day & age it is true that the right marketing will sell anything ,unfortunately our leaders at the RFL seem to be doing their best to consign Rugby League to history.

I'd be happy for Warrington to pull out of the competition in solidarity for the clubs expecting to pay to compete in the Challenge Cup.

Hmmm. I like that idea. Put the RFL in a corner.
Reminiscent of the USA and CCCP in the Olympics.

We're hopeless in England in regards to organising a protest. From a football side of things, nothing ever gets done because of the rivalry between supports is too tribal. Look at the things they achieve in Germany where rival fans can come together to protest the issues that effect them.

I'd like to think that the friendly(ish) nature of Rugby League fans could be used to address some (but not all) concerns within the game.

if this saga continues it would be great if all clubs fans could wear yellow vests to a round of matches in support of our French friends.