Yep. If the game was as big and popular as the delusional on here think it is, we'd have a 16 team SL with all clubs getting 10k+ attendances and a similar sized league below full of teams that could effortlessly move up....

Wow? Really??







The current fanbase of fans have a history of generations of over 100+ years of supporting M62 clubs which has got us our 125 years of history.

You can't really believe that's a solution?

I've spoken with many people who run businesses and lament they don't have the number of customers who like and buy their product/service they would ideally want. but have never heard any of them suggest they get a totally new customer base...

Tell us how this works??

I am suggesting growing the fan base that doesn’t mean neglecting the heartlands and existing fan base, they need to be encouraged back after Covid.

Not unless they play one another 3 times and i can't see that happening.
My opinion is that we will have 3 leagues of 12 with 1 down from Super League and the Championship Grand Final winners getting promoted and 1 team getting relegated from the Championship and one team up from league 1

I am suggesting growing the fan base that doesn’t mean neglecting the heartlands and existing fan base, they need to be encouraged back after Covid.

What can I say but "more fans" is something every commercial department in every Superleague and Superleague wannabe club have been targeting for decades.

I've heard this suggestion many times but the fact always is that you can sell rubbish to your diehard core of fans easily enough but to get the casuals in regularly you need to spend more on marketing and probably concede less money by offering cheap deals to non-fans, paying fans resent.

You don't get much better than Hetherington's commercial department at Leeds who have a very good operation, what's your message to Gary?

Where is he getting it wrong?

The reality is the reliance on SKY is everything and so it's not really possible to move away from what they want. Proof of that is their recent reported comments that they were not happy with some games, and these were not likely to be ones from the top teams. Further to that there's been comments about how SKY like the loop fixtures as they increase the number of big games for SKY to show. I think

that when it's Saints and Wigan again

NOT AGAIN

SKY look forward to big interest TV and a great match, and a big crowd still rolls up.

Meanwhile purists feel that Toulouse.v.Featherstone before 900 would be much the better game to show. That is absolutely fine all entitled to their opinion.

But the bottom line is does Superlague give up £££Millions of revenue to placate their small purist fan base????

That's the tough £50 Million question, think carefully before deciding??

Yes it does, by focusing on a 'new' area you take that money from an existing area.

The opposite must be the way, focus on the low hanging fruit and when you have maxxed that move onto new pastures which will automatically be more responsive due to larger crowds and the better spectacle as a result.

Foundations are critical in any expansion, how we include them is the key to future success for all stakeholders, including Sky. That is why 2 x10 is essential - but it must be funded to be a FT second tier with p&r between the two and the best way to get there is 14 clubs in 2022 before inviting the T6 in the Championship to show they can fund a FT club in SL2.

If the Turkeys in SL vote to keep the vast majority of the money leaving too little to become FT in SL2 then change should not happen as it becomes a championship name change only - 5/600k min should filter into SL2 which should have a 1.2m salary min spend.

OK so late season thousands of telly fans look to who is on the Rugby league tonight, and it's a choice of Wigan.v.leeds or Whitehaven.v.Halifax

Wigan.v.Leeds is the fifth meeting this season but not all the other four matches were on TV anyway...

And of course thousands of fans don't remember the other two times this fixture was on as it was months ago, those that do, remember a top class cracker.......

Anyway Leeds.v.Wigan attracts only 10,000 fans at the gate as it's for the 5th. time, but Whitehaven only get 900 got their first clash with Halifax.....

Perhaps you can finish this off by suggesting which fixture would get the biggest TV audience with eyes on the adverts......

Adam Pearson is quoted in the BBC website saying something akin to press the big red button to save the sport. He is right about vested interests and about needing to get bums on seats. Most of what he is quoted as saying has been said before with mergers and geographical spread being mentioned but no new ideas.
He seems to be going down the outside investment route but I cannot see us getting anything like the venture capital that TO have had.
I cannot help but think that we are in for a tough ride.

Does that include his own.

Who`s Neil Pearson?

Whatever new structure comes into play, it will only be for a few years anyway, before the inevitable re-restructure

Perhaps some of those "self interested" clubs should take a long hard look at themselves, you know, those that wouldn't release players for the recent England game and those who seem to regularly fail to complete their fixtures.

Sorry, Adam. Just not paying enough attention.

A lot of bluster and big statements from Pearson but nothing of any real substance. Again there’s a focus on cosmetic stuff. I keep going back to it, the quality of the product simply isn’t as good as 10/15 years ago and because of that you’re gonna get less bums on seats, less viewers and less revenue. Finding a way to low key improve the quality on the field should be the base of decision making. No need for radical knee jerk changes but subtle things to gradually steer a better long term path.

[urlhttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/jan/07/super-league-clubs-transformed-adam-pearson-hull[/url

Great post. There absolutely isn't the need to panic. the crowds 15 years ago were 9K and that's down to 8K now but Bradford's demise is a big part of that and not a general malaise. If we keep going on about the "old days" being better, and talk about a "current malaise" we will create our own self fulfilling prophecy.

Just getting Bradford right again and relaunching SL2022 with the biggest and most ambitious clubs will do the trick as it's likely a lot of lapsed fans will fancy geting back out for regular live rugby league after this long lockdown.

Pearson is correct though in the sense other sports are growing and seeing money pumped into them but rugby league hasn't seen any growth and one could argue the sport has actually got smaller.

Also the way super League is governed needs to change. This continued nonsence letting the clubs call the shots will never work.

Comparing the 3 Major Football codes in the UK over 15 years.....

Superleague 2005 Att: 8.800 - 2019 8,450. 3% down
Premiere League 2005/6 Att: 33,500 - 2018/19 38,102. 13% up
Union top flight. 2005/06 Att: 11,000 2018/19. 14,500 31% up

And before anyone bangs on about "event games" in Union boosting their attendances, that's the bloody point......they're proactive whilst the RFL pay their own wages with Magic Weekend and.....and....er...nope, that's about it.

There is absolutely a need to panic. The game is on less revenue from it's main source and is on a warning from that source to "buck up its ideas". In the meantime, The HULL FC owner is spouting more tripe about other 'quick fixes' less than 4 years after saying that SL taking control from the RFL would deliver a level playing field with Union.



As another poster has said. We're not a national sport, especially at elite level, so the game needs to decide what it wants....but I can assure you, 8 Northern English Teams and 2 French isn't going to get SKY or anyone else parting with more cash.

This. The game has no vision, no plan and is happy to just carry on as it is.

It's funny Pearson talking about mergers.
Didn't Hull F.C contrive a fake Merger of Convenience to keep themselves in Super League ?

I wonder if Pearson will be bold enough to volunteer F.C to merge with K.R & play out of Craven Park under the K.R name ???

Well, the KC lease is due to run out

.
no, its up for re-negotiation, lease is still another 30 year or something like that, same as the football club

I agree. I went to 20/20 cricket game at Trent Bridge this week. The ground was pretty much full, it was full of families and folk of all ages groups. The pre match was busy with lots to watch on the pitch, with lots of music, pre recored interviews with the captains on the big screen and other cricket news (the day India were bowled out for 7icon_cool.gif. Surely there is a media group that could produce similar short 'programmes' that could be put out at every game, prior to kickoff.

During the game there was lots of entertainment in the form of short bursts of music and replays on the screen. They had the 'flex (muscleman) cam, the dance cam, the bongo (drums) cam etc, where the crowd can interact with the entertainment. It was slick and fun. Again, the ground was nearly full.
I appreciate that cricket is not RL, but there is lots to learn in order to boost crowds and the sport as a whole. It reminded me of the Bulls (Bullmania) at the start of SL and that, in addition to the rugby our sport must be entertaining in order to bring families in. Lots of work to be done. The sport need to be focussed on being more professional and much more entertaining.