how was what I said "ludicrous bile"???

Fact: almost every paper had a feature on their Wembley game, some had several, some for several days.

There is no bile, just a statement to the ridiculous comparison between two Rugby Union (which as you say is a much bigger sport anyway) giants and one championship-sized RL club, struggling to keep afloat in a full-time pro league.

I don't give a flying one what people think.......the attendance at a union game has no place on a RL forum.....

on that....you have my whole-hearted support, dude.

Then why did you continually compare RL crowds to Union? Especially re the World Cup?

Did it get more than 25 people watching on TV? ha ha.

Union calculator at its best. Best lend it to s15 so the Australian teams actually look like anyone gives a sht about union in this country lol.

A couple of my work colleagues regularly go to RU internationals and big club games.....they have never paid for a ticket yet.

Possibly but only because BT Sport were showing it free to view.

There were lots of tickets on discount at websites like Groupon and Wowcher (£13 adult, £5 child), and I'm sure they had plenty of prize competitions and freebies to clubs.

Couple of genuine points. The first I knew of this game was when I saw someone in attendance post a picture on twitter, other than that I have seen or read nothing to make me know about this game. Whilst the Rugby Union are undoubtedly good at marketing big events I think it is fair to say that the average person will know more about Super League than they do the Aviva Premiership, even if that knowledge is limited.

Secondly, I would love to know out of that 80,000 how many have been to a game prior to it this year and how many will go again in 2014 to a domestic game. I'd wager not many as a %.

Same on every thread. I know the point of forums is to get traffic and these wits are good in the short term but they won't be good for the long term when the normal posters leave.

I'm at my last wits with the VT. I came on during my lunch hour the other day and clicked on four different threads, all four had been hijacked by the same two people (no prizes for guessing who). What started as provoking debate has just become dull and repetitive.

There were nowhere near 80,000 there, the commentators were joking about it themselves, more like 50,000 , which is still a considerable amount, and shows how good the RU are at marketing these events

The relevance to RL stops there

sadly this is just not true. I was at Wembley yesterday and whilst it took a while to build, 5mins after kick off I estimated about 85000....official att was given as slightly less but looked about right.

As I said, the commentators were joking about it , it was around 60% full, there were nothing like 80,000

It was just convenient that they announced a new World Record, slightly higher than previous

My friend is a Saracens fan and whilst this isn't the first time they've attracted a huge crowd to a Wembley staged game she says it has little impact in increasing their regular attendances.

That said, I couldnt imagine a regular SL tie between say, Wigan & Saints, even half filling Old Trafford , regardless of lots of cheap/discounted tickets.

and As I said.... I was there....idiot

and counted each person individually to prove the point



Whether there were 8 or 80000 there makes no difference if the product is not that good , but hey, people like McDonalds, Lager and Coronation Street so........

Saracens can obviously afford to rent wembley for the day and make a loss so fair play to them but its embarrassing to then turn round and claim a world record when clearly there was never 83,000 attendance.

And?

Saw it on telly and did not switch over just after kick-off, Wembley holds 90,000, there were a lot of people who obviously never left the hospitality bars if there was over 80,000 there.

However, why does it matter?

It doesnt, as I posted earlier it just shows that the RFU are quite good at marketing, and that there are enough idiots out there to be marketed to, obviously those who attended



There are no RL clubs that are breaking any pots with regards crowds, so no comparisons are actually relevant

It matters because it shows there are well over 80,000 people willing to attend live rugby in the London area

Don't forget PT Barnums famous saying about people.

It is also open to debate whether or not they were watching the game or each other as an ego boost

Yet only around 10% of that amount turn up each week to watch Saracens.

So far in the Aviva Premiership there have been just 20 games (out of 93 non Twickenham/Wembley event games Rounds 1-16) with an attendance higher than the Leeds v London crowd. And 8 of those are Leicester's home games.

The RFU are very good at marketing and getting good crowds to event games in London. For regular games, the Union clubs struggle with attendances similar to those of League.

League can get high crowds too, we struggle being based in the north (ie well away from London) and with having less central funds to play with than in Union.
But we also don't put enough effort into it, both at club and governing body level.

Except there wasnt

Shane mate. You're flogging a dead horse here.
The same company that the RFL used to "fill" Wembley for the Double Header Semi-Final Big Hit Event last year were used by Saracens to promote this Event.
The key thing is the use of the word EVENT, as it points to how these games are promoted. Not as a something for the Rugby enthusiast of either code, but as something to grab as many mates as you can and head to the big stadium for. Given the pricing, which I expect included freebies through cheapies to fully blown fat cat corporate pricing, it becomes an opportunity for "ordinary" folk, who can't afford £100+ for a ticket to a Wembley game of Soccer to visit the National Stadium....something that I am sure many of us would like to do at least once.
Then you have the corporates. Harlequins RU do not pull their crowds from Twickenham post codes, but are themselves known as the "City Club", drawing support from all over the stock broker belts of South West and West London. Offices will have been offered bulk tickets at cheap rates and for every stuffed shirted Jeremy who went, he'd probably have dragged a stuffed shirted Jemima!

As for the aesthetics and financials, Saracens have no apparently now played at Wembley 11 times in 4 years, so I very much doubt they do so at a "loss". It boosts their seasons average (18,002 last year.....not bad given their home grounds only holds 10,000) and also helps them further promote their "brand". Now, this is where the chipped shoulder brigade sharpen their keyboards.....BRAND.

Saracens invested some £20,000,000 in the building of the stadium......no small amount of cash. One of the ways they needed to re-coup some of this money was through sponsorship opportunities and the German Insurance Giant Allianz opted to pay them £1,330,000 a year for 6 years to rename the arena, as well as for the front of their shirts.
I'm not sure about the NRL, but £1,330,000 a year is £130,000 more than Bradford got for FOUR YEARS in a deal heralded as the biggest in SL history......patently the shiny new stadium at Copthall is worth slightly more than the Iconic Odsal?

Now, to my favourite subject.....London Broncos.

If ever a club had been more ineptly managed than London Broncos, then it's not one I have ever heard of. David Hughes has "invested" close to £14,000,000 over the last 7 years and has only allocated 7% of that for marketing and promotion. The rest he has ed away on inadequate coaches and pension seeking ANZACS combined with kids that needed a few more years at the Skolars/Academy grade before stepping up. As a result, in the same 7 season period and that includes the 6 games this year BTW, the team have managed to win 47 of the 167 SL games they have played. Not sure about you buddy, but a 28% win ratio isn't going to make attending games a habit I'd want to form.
So, no marketing and no excuse to come back if you happen to be a new fan, which leaves the existing base. 2008 saw close to 1,200 ST holders.......to gauge the level of disconnection achieved by Hughes and his CEO in recent times, less than 200 this year. I know of fans who will not go to the hive until Mackay (CEO) leaves, which is rumoured to be at the end of this month








This means that whilst there may be 80,000 people who will attend games in London, I'd be stunned if .5% of that number bother on Thursday at the Hive.....London Broncos had something to advertise a few years back, but now they are simply an embarrassment to the top tier of the game in general....it really is frustrating, but it is too late to help them now.