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| Quote ="Div"More likely for me is that RL will retreat to its strong heartlands based in the North and so will RU in theirs . The sooner the better for me before half the strongholds die in the wilderness outside of SL.
I RL ceased to exist then rugby would for me. Far more likely to watch football than RU.'"
I agree,rugby to me is RL,I used to follow football years ago but every time I try and watch a game now I always turn over.
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Quote ="nickcat0"Whilst it wouldn't surprise me to see the demise of RU in Australia (and good riddance), I doubt the NRL would be able to "crush international RU" in New Zealand.
Australia has always been the poor relation in the Southern Hemisphere when it comes to RU. New Zealand and South Africa (or at least Afrikanaar SA) live and breathe RU, and I doubt a NRL tv deal would do much damage.'"
RU wont be crushed in either Australia or NZ, but i could see it being further marginalised in Australia and weakened in NZ
What i predict could happen in NZ would be that many of the promissing young players, particularly of Islander decent would choose to go to Australia, and get a contract with an NRL club, than try to play for the All Blacks.
Imagine a scenario where a bog standard NRL player is earning £150k a year, with the stars earning £1 million a year.
Then compare it to NZ were a bog standard super 14 player would be earning £70k a year and an All Black £150k to £250k a year.
The players would do the maths and conclude the NRL was a no brainer. In such circumstance RU in NZ would start to haemorage many of its best young players.
Personally think the tipping point would be after a second NZ team joined the NRL.
Taking a broader socioeconomic picture, Australia's population is growing rapidly, but so is its wealth. This further increases the countries buying power, especially compared to NZ which has a tiny population and is pretty irrelevant economically.
A look at GDP figures for the two countries shows the gulf in performance
www.tradingeconomics.com/economi ... symbol=nzd
www.tradingeconomics.com/economi ... symbol=aud
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Quote ="nickcat0"Whilst it wouldn't surprise me to see the demise of RU in Australia (and good riddance), I doubt the NRL would be able to "crush international RU" in New Zealand.
Australia has always been the poor relation in the Southern Hemisphere when it comes to RU. New Zealand and South Africa (or at least Afrikanaar SA) live and breathe RU, and I doubt a NRL tv deal would do much damage.'"
RU wont be crushed in either Australia or NZ, but i could see it being further marginalised in Australia and weakened in NZ
What i predict could happen in NZ would be that many of the promissing young players, particularly of Islander decent would choose to go to Australia, and get a contract with an NRL club, than try to play for the All Blacks.
Imagine a scenario where a bog standard NRL player is earning £150k a year, with the stars earning £1 million a year.
Then compare it to NZ were a bog standard super 14 player would be earning £70k a year and an All Black £150k to £250k a year.
The players would do the maths and conclude the NRL was a no brainer. In such circumstance RU in NZ would start to haemorage many of its best young players.
Personally think the tipping point would be after a second NZ team joined the NRL.
Taking a broader socioeconomic picture, Australia's population is growing rapidly, but so is its wealth. This further increases the countries buying power, especially compared to NZ which has a tiny population and is pretty irrelevant economically.
A look at GDP figures for the two countries shows the gulf in performance
www.tradingeconomics.com/economi ... symbol=nzd
www.tradingeconomics.com/economi ... symbol=aud
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| Despite the best efforts of the media, League is STILL the more popular sport in this country.
Look at the facts, over the last ten or so years, on average the Super League Grand Final attracts over 5,000 more fans than the RU Premiership Grand Final. The Challenge Cup attracts nearly 15,000 more fans on the same basis than the Heineken Cup.
Last year saw RU post a new club-level record attendance of 82,208.
RL's highest club-level record attendance last year? The CC final with 85,217.
As for grass-roots and amateur level, RL is very secure, FAR more popular than RU.
But if you want to take anything from this thread, read what Cragganmore Kid said. One of the best posts I've ever read.
RL will never die.
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| Let's also remember the words of Tevita Vaikona when he was asked what he thought of Farrell joining RU.
"He'll enjoy life in the slow lane here in Union."
That is how they see it, that is why Wendell Sailor couldn't stand it and came back to League, why Chris Ashton has been such a success already, and why Eastmond is going to embarrass the sport when he makes a mockery of their "defences".
It's also why Union execs have slammed League coaches such as Shaun Edwards teaching Union teams how to defend like it's League. Apparently it's made the game even more boring as defensive lines have become as strong as League's lines.
Let's take the truth for the moment... we're happy with our product, we know it's the best sport in the world, some people worry too much about what the other code is doing. Union fanboys will take a pop at us, and when we respond claim that we're "obsessed" with Union.
Plonkers.
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| Fishsta talking sense? i may need to lie down!
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| I always talk sense, it's just that because we're actually united on this front, you don't have the need to automatically disagree with anything I say.
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| Quote ="McClennan"I'd rather watch Wigoon playing league than Saints playing union.'"
Now THAT says something - I think I would be the same. The only bit I like watching about union is the beginning and end of the match.
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| To be fair to Union, there is OCCASIONALLY exciting matches.
But not often enough to attract me as a fan.
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| I have been watching this great game of ours for exactly 50 years and in that time I have lost count of the number of times this point has been raised. I can even remember the famous Maurice Lindley quote that Rugby League would be the pr-eminent spectator sport in the UK within 5 years - back in the eighties! In reality we are two different sports. When RL threatened RU by taking its top stars did we think that RU would fall into oblivion? Now that RU is professional they have the ability to attract our best players the other way. But they have a long way to go before they can match the number of players that we took from them. And if we look at France the RU code has done its level best to obliterate RL for many years - and that in a country where RU has been professional for many years before the rest of the world and RL was for so long amateur. In my opinion it is a concern but, as with all businesses, before it gets to be critical the game's leaders will do something about it. Tony Smith at Warrington has suggested raising the salary cap for example. If Sky suddenly announced that they were pulling out of RL that would be critical and could damage the sport. But because they too are business men who understand that Superleague as a product can pull in the fans they too would do something to halt any demise in RL. Put simply - there are far too many vested interest to allow RL and RU to merge - unless any merged game play by RL rules of course!! And in reply to Fishta - yes, there are occasional exciting RU games. I can't remember one recently.....................unless we are talking about a certain swan diving ex RL players antics of course.
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| Quote ="Old Warrior" And in reply to Fishta - yes, there are occasional exciting RU games. I can't remember one recently.....................unless we are talking about a certain swan diving ex RL players antics of course.'"
The only one I can think of off-hand that drew me in was a Heineken Cup match, think it was Munster and Toulouse or something like that.
You can usually tell after the first few minutes whether a match has the potential to be exciting or not.
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| Quote ="Fishsta"You can usually tell after the first few minutes whether a match has the potential to be exciting or not.'"
Is that a personal sexual metaphor?
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| Quote ="Dux"It'll be interesting to see if the renegotiation of the TV deal for next year will bring in any substantial increase in revenue. If it does then I'd have thought we'll see an increase in the cap (not enough to put it on a par with RU, but enough to help).'"
Good point.
Considering we get bigger crowds than yawnion, and pretty good viewing figures, you would think that we are in a strong position and Lewis's comments indicating we have been approached by ESPN for SL and ITV for the Cup, it looks like we are going to try to get a better deal.
Last time Sky conned us by offering an improved deal which would only be on the table for a short while and we were too frightened to call their bluff and we broke off negotions with Setanta (thank god we did!).
£16M per season (inc Cup and Nationsal League etc is not enough IMO considering we are the 3rd best watched sport.
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| Quote ="saint at wire"Good point.
Considering we get bigger crowds than yawnion, and pretty good viewing figures, you would think that we are in a strong position and Lewis's comments indicating we have been approached by ESPN for SL and ITV for the Cup, it looks like we are going to try to get a better deal.
Last time Sky conned us by offering an improved deal which would only be on the table for a short while and we were too frightened to call their bluff and we broke off negotions with Setanta (thank god we did!).
£16M per season (inc Cup and Nationsal League etc is not enough IMO considering we are the 3rd best watched sport.'"
Guiness Premiership averages are better than Super League.
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| 38k at the Auckland game today which I am told is more than the combined total attendance of the last 4 super 15 RU games in NZ.
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| Quote ="Fishsta"
As for grass-roots and amateur level, RL is very secure, FAR more popular than RU.
.'"
What makes you think this? I would suggest (but I am by no means certain) that there are far many more amature union teams and registered players than League.
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| Quote ="wigan_rlfc"What makes you think this? I would suggest (but I am by no means certain) that there are far many more amature union teams and registered players than League.'"
There was some sort of study and official report done into popular sports. In terms of amateur following, tv audiences and overall attendances, RL is the second most popular sport in the UK, second only to football.
The only thing that lets us down is a marginally lower average attendance in week-to-week league matches than Union. We average 7,414 more fans per year for the Super League Grand Final than the Union Premiership's Grand Final. We average 11,100 more fans per year for the Challenge Cup Final than the Heineken Cup Final.
A Union fanboy I used to go to school with made fun of League recently, saying Rugby League could never bring 80,000 fans to a match. Presented him with the facts and he went strangely quiet.
Our biggest problem is the lack of space devoted to the Greatest Game in the newspapers. With people like Jim Holden (Daily Express writer, one article of his resulted in [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Petition-Rugby-League-Fans-Enough/dp/1903158265this book[/url and the movement behind it.) being so ignorant our sport through whatever bias/prejudice they may have, we may be waiting some time to "break the walls".
Did anyone hear the report on Radio Manchester, think it was last week, where a long-time Union broadcaster and fan "dragged" himself along "begrudgingly" to watch the Wigan-St George match? His reaction afterwards was that he had never seen such skills and intensity in Rugby before, that the quality and excitement far outweighed anything he had ever seen on a Union field.
Final points to be made, things that Union fanboys often don't have an answer to; ask them why ageing RL players who were past their best can literally WALK straight into the England Union team (and a World Cup-winning team at that), why Wendell Sailor left Union (answer: he was too bored) and why they think it's ok to pay over £20 for an 80-minute match consisting of only 37% (30 minutes) of action, whilst we pay £17 for 69% (55 minutes) of action!
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| Quote ="Saddened!"Guiness Premiership averages are better than Super League.'"
We were talking about sky tv viewers.
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| Quote ="saint at wire"Good point.
Considering we get bigger crowds than yawnion, '"
I think this is where Saddened's point was aimed?
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