and yet NZ TV paid $20million a year for NRL and a pittance for netball. Go figure!

How's Netball v NRL ratings on SkyNZ?
Top netballers earn $50k, Warriors just signed Tomkins on $1million, Seriously your comparing Netball to NRL? lol.
Is NZRU still losing money?

if the ARLC got serious about resourcing RL in NZ it could be far far bigger than it currently is. Bringing in a Wellington NRL team and giving the NZRL the difference between NRL grants to Warriors/Wellington and the NZ Tv deal would be a good start!

I'd have 2017 Oz&NZ
then France/Spain
then UK
then Oz&NZ (+PNG)

PNG needs incentive to build a decent stadium for RL, they are going to have the pacific games stadium but it needs major work to make it a workld class RL stadium big enough to pack in the PNG devotees of the game. 3 Kumuls WC games might be enough to get Govt support.

IF...BUT.....Maybe....
RL is a tiny sport in NZ......sorry the facts don't help your fantasy!
NRL 9's will show you

In other news, NSW Country have just returned after flogging South Africa 58-12. www.theherald.com.au/story/18517 ... an-rhinos/ South Africa would have to start training now to get a team ready for 2017.

In other news, NSW Country have just returned after flogging South Africa 58-12. www.theherald.com.au/story/18517 ... an-rhinos/ South Africa would have to start training now to get a team ready for 2017.

I feel we need to go for the 'safe' option of Australia & New Zealand next time, we need to get the World Cup firmly on the calender as a stable event that happens every 4 years.

next time it comes to Europe I hope we stage more games in France though, and even Barcelona

Countries don’t owe this game anything. We aren’t in a position to go demanding things from them. If SA get government and private backing for a WC, it doesn’t follow that we have the right to demand the host something else first.

The RLIF has the job of selling the game to the world, the world doesn’t have the job of selling itself to us.

You do know that a form of RL is the most popular participation sport by far in NZ don't you?

RU players 195,000
RL players (touch and contact) 350,000

Hopefully we can have either 15 or 16 teams in next WC with 3x5 or 4x4 groups.

Don't the Warriors get bigger crowds than Auckland Blues?

They should have at least hold the World Club Challenge or the 4 Natons first, before holding the WC. I'd really like to see South Africa become a top RL side, but thas a pipe dream at the moment.

No......they don't.

Yet the FACTS show that union dwarfs league?
Touch is a separate summer fitness game that the NRL have badged....... Same as the RFU have in ENgland

No touch is a form of RL. It is based on RL rules, was developed by RL and is finely back recognised as part of RL. As a union fan you may hate it but RL, in its different forms, has more players than RU, in its different forms in NZ.

Blues avg 19'661
Warriors 16'197

Hardly "dwarfing" RL.

I think it is funny as that the rfu are promoting a variety of RL. It'd be liken the rfl promoting RU sevens and rebadging it as league sevens but using RU rules.

If you think league is within touching distance of union in NZ even in South Auckland you need your bumps felt bud. As for the crowd averages you used.......same averages show that. Union is bigger in Brisbane......and you and I know that's not the case.

Ok. Just seen a few posts on a NZ Warriors forum suggesting that they do.

They don't
Even if they did it means little.... Reds get bigger crowds than the broncos in Brisbane......RL still rules the roost up there

1. Regardless of the fact that touch is a league based pastime and the aside regarding me being a Union fan, it is a summer fitness sport here in New Zealand and is actually televised on Maori TV. Claiming the participants as RL Players is as desperate as the AFL and their incredible claims regarding OZkick.
2. 2,000,000+ watched the RWC Final in 2011....450,000 watched the Kiwis win in 2008......and as I said, Netball regularly out draws RL on NZ TV ratings.
3. The Blues play all their games at Eden....the Warriors average at Mt Smart is 13,970 the Blues for the season just closed was actually 20,953. The Warriors AND Blues benefited from a duel ticket offer for the season opener and the Warriors benefited with their second biggest gate in Wellington...their average at Mt Smart is the lowest since 2008!
4. The RFU and 02 have locked up touch in the UK.....so again, 2 states in Australia is hardly global domination.


5. Nobody is denying that RL is popular in Australia. All I did was respond to outlandish claims about New Zealand Union being overtaken by League.....not in either of our lifetimes and I suspect my daughters or future grandchildren's either. I attended the Regional RL finals in Auckland this week........I was being generous with my crowd estimates......the game has a bad reputation over here which bit by bit, is being repaired, but it has at least another 100 years+ to go!
6. A wellington team would help, but will take a massive investment to get it up and running.

Union is on the nose in Oz, we just need the stench to drift over to the shaky isles, and for the arlc to support the nzrl better. The winds of change are blowing strong in the NRL and it is onLy a matter of time before they reach NZ. www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/walla ... 6745421794 Can you give me a link that shows netballs higher viewing figures on sky than NRL?

Union is on the nose in Oz, we just need the stench to drift over to the shaky isles, and for the arlc to support the nzrl better. The winds of change are blowing strong in the NRL and it is onLy a matter of time before they reach NZ. www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/walla ... 6745421794 Can you give me a link that shows netballs higher viewing figures on sky than NRL?

Quote ="JB Down Under"Union is on the nose in Oz, we just need the stench to drift over to the shaky isles, and for the arlc to support the nzrl better. The winds of change are blowing strong in the NRL and it is onLy a matter of time before they reach NZ. www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/walla ... 6745421794 Can you give me a link that shows netballs higher viewing figures on sky than NRL?'" throng.co.nz knock yourself out......you really have no idea as to how small league is in NZ outside of south Auckland

Quote ="JB Down Under"Union is on the nose in Oz, we just need the stench to drift over to the shaky isles, and for the arlc to support the nzrl better. The winds of change are blowing strong in the NRL and it is onLy a matter of time before they reach NZ. www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/walla ... 6745421794 Can you give me a link that shows netballs higher viewing figures on sky than NRL?'" throng.co.nz knock yourself out......you really have no idea as to how small league is in NZ outside of south Auckland

You of all people can tell us what the last few crowds for warriors outside of Auckland have been. How many NRL players have come from clubs outside of Auckland? Looks like a fair bit of interest to me.

It's nothing like oz kick. Ozkick is a kids short term programme to introduce children to afl skills. Touch footy is a competitive variant of RL played in structured leagues by registered players. FACT is touch footy is a variant of RL just like 7,s in union or 20/20 in cricket. The point RL has been stupid in allowing one of its creations and forms of the game to become brand disassociated from the code does not change the fact it is a form of RL and these players are registered RL (touch) players.

I disagree.

The RLWC is the biggest tournament in the game. You don't just give it to countries that flash their wallet. It's got to be more than that. If it fails, it damages the tournament.

It's the same reason why the NRL don't just give franchises to the place that flashes the most cash as soon as they make an interest known. And the same reason why SL have been stupid to do so (failed expansion clubs damage the game).

There needs to be some idea of what they're offering to the game. The RLWC is too important.

In what way? In the way of Fifa taking a far bigger world cup to the USA, South Africa or Qatar? Of the IRB taking theirs to Japan? Like the European Golf tour taking competitions the heartlands of European golf in in the Middle East India, China and Africa?

We cant on one hand argue the international game needs money and expansion, then when a new country comes in and offers loads of money to host a tournament expect them to jump through hoops. It isn’t about asking what South Africa as a nation is going to do for the game but what the game can do for South Africa. It is up to the game to sell itself to South Africans, its for the game to get South Africans interested, get them playing and supporting the game. Its not for South Africa dance to our tune just in the hope we will throw them some scraps. The RLWC is the best option for selling the game to anybody. The interest generated is far and above anything else. If someone else wants to pay for the best sales pitch, the best advertising and marketing, the best opportunity for this game in SA we would be idiots to turn them down.

Look at the interest generated here for the WC. It massively outstrips everything else we have done. The biggest boost possible to the game in SA would be the WC. Not only in terms of seeing it there but the investment that would go on in the build up and the legacy it would leave. And it would all be on someone else’s dime.

Nobody is saying just give them it. But if there is a properly financed and costed bid, ready to go. These opportunities don’t come around every day.

If part of the deal is to spend enough money on the South African Rhinos to get them up to a competitive standard within four years, that might be enough gain for the International game.
I think it could be done, but they would need to hire a top flight coach and get some games every year for their side.
South Africa were knocked out of this cup by USA, and not the beefed up USA of the finals - domestic strength USA.

Do we never learn? You can't beef up the Rhinos in four years! It will take schools programmes, jnr development more than the current few amateur clubs, significant investment and quite a long period of time before the Rhinos are even going to compete in tier three of int RL.

I don't think people on here understand the awareness issue of league in SA - I'd be willing to bet it's less than 1% of the population (just some ex-pats from the north). There is NO league shown on TV, reported on in the media.

Now couple this with the strength and media dominance of RU (they even broadcast the university matches in SA), I think the result of a WC in SA would be to raise the awareness to around 1%, with perhaps a couple more percent claiming to be 'confused' that they're not rucking and mauling.

Yes, the RLWC13 has done well in raising the profile across the nation, but at least they come from a start where RL in the UK is just about regarded as a major sport.

With the FIFA WC in USA at least there was a league structure and awareness of the sport, and 'soccer' is the most attended sport in South Africa so not sure what Smokey's point is there.

I could see a proposal where rich SA businessmen set up a national league with a major sponsor and TV deal, runs for 8 years, then the country is ready to host a WC. But you don't just drop a WC on a country where no one is watching/playing the sport.