Quote FearTheVee="FearTheVee"Anyone who has ever read my thoughts on international rl will know full well I'd take England success over saints success. Without blinking.'"
My response to the same question on the saints board before we were knocked out of the playoffs :
I think people are missing the point.
It's not about media exposure, although that would be nice and a positive by-product. It's about restoring integrity to the international game. We have been whipping boys for a generation, and international RL in England now has a horribly low profile, even amongst RL fans.
It would restore credibility to SL and pride to English fans. We would harp on less about the substandard fare served up in SL and see it as a top level competition that has bred a World Cup winning team. It would help oil the wheels of Ashes tours, a proper world club championship competition. We would start to have more of a seat at the table in international discussions. It would increase our value to Sky as a demonstrably top line competition with international results to prove it. The international game would be more marketable to TV, bringing more of a buzz to that scene, more revenue and boosting international crowds (which should be the sport's number 1 money maker).
We trail behind union due to the international game. Building the international game is central to the sport's survival and future prospects. A world cup win would move us along the road to recovery a lot quicker IMO.
By comparison, Saints winning the GF would probably reduce our club's annual loss be a couple of hundred grand.
