Quote ninearches="ninearches"Tbh the impression i have always had is that the inter war years & 50s were the big times for RL when big gates were regular features.
As for Union ,since they turned professional & reduced the need for Welshmen to turn pro they have deprived us of what used to be one of our best sources of good talent. Their game suddenly became awash with money & sponsorship to be able to spread far & wide with a European league & worldwide interest in the sport.'"
Union are simply better managed. RL could have built its own National Stadium (Odsal in its heyday probably the best spot) RL could have built up its own '6 Nations' instead they focused on the club game and got it all wrong. International RL has improved again the last few years, but it's all a bit too little too late.
RU are also a lot better at involving their community clubs, often they have them selling tickets to big events for commision, and some even international RU games have a community feel with picnics in the carpark etc, RL has instead cast its smaller clubs to one side, and then expects the fans of those clubs to still come to Magic Weekend, Challenge Cup Final, Grand Final and England games.
RL often has decent ideas but it doesn't stick enough money in or we don't give things enough time. For example The Exiles games weren't a bad idea as such (and RU get much coverage and revenue from the similar Barbarians) but after one or two poor crowds for games held midweek and promoted little (and at a time the profile of overseas imports had temporarily dipped) the whole idea was binned. We've also had new SL structures and rules about every other season, the casual fan has lost interest in keeping up with what the actual format is.
Hindsight is a great thing: but instead of focusing on mergers when SL started which caused a lot of controversy as it just isn't British sporting culture. They could have simply picked the biggest team out of the proposed merger and focused on them. Instead of starting with places like Workington, Oldham & Paris which were either not interested or just too small. We should have been focusing on the big northern cities Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds & Newcastle. If we wanted a French team they should have gone with the South Of France where the game is strong from the off.
Instead we haven't won the big cities (Leeds aside) and the small towns and cities have shrunk in power, population and interest in RL. Sponsors aren't interested in paying to sponsor teams that have small, low income followings. Our own clubs sponsors have got smaller and smaller this decade, 10 years ago we were getting P&O, Tetleys, KCOM, all stock market companies, now its local building firms. Fortunately our loyal fanbase still brings the cash in through the turnstiles and the shops, but people are starting to get bored.
And we might get 6th now.
