I'm English. Not Scottish, Northern Irish or Welsh. They all hate the English!



In what way?

In that many thousands (tens of thousands) more follow the NFL, the viewing figures for the Super Bowl (in terms of UK viewers) far outstrips the Challenge Cup Final or Grand Final.

Wembley could be sold out 4 times over when they play games over here, believe me, I've been in every lottery for tickets.

True, but they make a fair wedge out of the Challenge Cup final, a cut of all gate receipts and grants from Sport England and the like. I think the clubs and fans would respond better to the clubs getting 60% of the ticket price than the RFL getting 70%. The RFL could take the hospitality package money if its not part of Club Wembley and the FA lets them.

Anyway, my main point is more to do with the RFL giving the clubs and the fans the power to make it a success themselves in a way that best suits them and the RFL being really clear and open about how they do that. Free tickets are good and well to appeal to newbies with no club affiliation, but there are enough supporters in this country that want to help their club, watch good rugby and support the game as a whole to fill the stadium. The package just needs to be right.

Wasn't the viewing figures so high because it was on at a fairly sensible viewing time (a friday evening) and because of the novelty that it was on one of the terrestrial channels for the first time? And, that it was on during the winter when nothing else was on?

The Grand Final's on Sky, which limits the audience, and the CC final is on a Saturday afternoon and on summer Bank Holiday weekend.

The Wales-England 6N's match was watched by 7million this year. It doesn't mean there's 7million Union fans, it just means that if you put a reasonably popular sporting event on the BBC on a Friday evening in the winter people will watch it.

They get loads of people from mainland Europe coming over to watch it as well.

IIRC the NFL International Series game at Wembley last year kicked off at 6pm on a Sunday night in the middle of the football season. It was - as with all regular season NFL games - live on Sky Sports.

The Superbowl kicked off at 11pm on a Sunday night. It was on both Sky and terrestrial TV, as it has been for the last three or four years.

Apart from that, you're bang on.

cheers. I humbly stand corrected.

and so you should, it always amazes me the inability of RL fans to grasp the limited appetite their is for the game, not just internationally but nationally.

put it another way, if we took the Challenge Cup final to Miami, would we fill the JRS?

Not unless you had a time machine you wouldn't...

Ok, I see, let's move from reasonable and interesting debate to insults. Nice.

I like the beer, I love the fins ground, but it will always be the JS to me!

and Chorlton, I wasn't insulting, just making an observation.

England at Wembely would be great and we could potentially sell it out.
I agree with your general idea, that all clubs (super league, championship, community) should be selling tickets for England games and getting financial rewards for doing so. If they got 20% of the tickets they sold I think this would be enough for clubs to push selling them to their fans at home games ect.

Also this should of been sorted with the venue, date and clubs selling tickets ect before the start of the season. At the moment we dont know if England are playing at Wembely or not

I think that is such a brilliant idea for the RFL to give clubs an incentive to sell tons of tickets. Think of what it could do for a 'smaller' club like London Skolars if they could sell say 1000 tickets to the schools around their ground, or even an amateur club like Leigh Miners just to put on a coach full to Wembley could have a huge impact on the club.

It's a great idea, the RFL should be e-mailed.

Utter drivel, as usual.

Yep, look at the huge success of gridiron in the UK. 2 teams went pro or semi pro (I dont care) both folded.

I am not talking about people attending a poor relation to the sport, I am talking about the popularity of the NFL, not a UK version.

I'll make a note not to help you on other threads in future, you pathetic little man.

What can I do if you keep posting drivel?

American Football is a minority sport in this country. Some people have a passing interest in it and go the Wembley game, but nothing more.

you research the viewing figures, compare them to RL and come back with your findings.

more people fly to the USA to watch the NFL than watch the grand final.

try looking at the facts

So because more people watch it on the box and fly to America to watch a game or 2, you conclude the sport as a whole is better supported?

Come off it.

errrm, yes, how do you measure support, people attending and watching games I assume?

I never realised you were so hard of thinking, actually, given your avatar, I knew.

Well I'd wager more people in the country have attended a Rugby League game this season than they did in the NFL last season.

What are you saying about my avatar? Care to explain that comment?

attendance is not the sole measure of support, and if you don't understand my comment about you avatar, then my case is made and proven.

shame we can't add mods to our foes list, no matter how idiotic they are.

Okay, you keep thinking that the NFL is better supported than Rugby League in England, that's fine by me





No, I don't understand the comment about my avatar, please explain.

I can understand facts, I guess you're just a bit behind the game on comprehension.

For a single huge game from the regular NFL season yes you can sell 80k seats with no problem at all. In the same way that you could take Man United v Chelsea to America and sell-out any stadium....

Have an American football league in this country and you would not see crowds like we get in RL.

In the same way you don't see the MLS being as big as the premierleague.