More than 10million tourists visited dubai last year, including many Australians. As said there is also a large expat population in the region. End of day this is about making money for the clubs and organiser. If koukash can guarantee the appearance money and it is enough to entice clubs the event will happen.

Personally I'd rather see it held at the new national stadium in Singapore, much nicer place to visit and the locals would love it I reckon.

It's not just attracting fans and sponsors from new markets, it's giving existing sponsors more value aswell.

Nines is fast and furious and the success in NZ is a testament to that. Dave Smith has explicitly said it's the perfect tool to promote the sport in new areas and it's hard to disagree with him.

If the game continues to look inward then it'll just end up shrinking. Imagine if Baskerville, etc had had so little faith in the game that it never reached Australia or New Zealand?

Maybe a Nines comp should be held in Los Angeles or Hawaii then where there is at least a chance of bolstering a local comp rather than playing in front of "expats" in a city on the edge of a Desert where I cannot imagine it being much more than a novelty event.

What will sponsors like Steggles and NRMA and many others get from the exposure?

You have the Crusaders managed so badly that they were almost buggered before they got going.
London allowed to wither on the Vine for years and years.
Bradford a basketcase for years and now pretty well shot.
Half of the bottom teams are hanging on on a wing and a prayer financially.
But hey lets not worry about the foundations of the game lets play a game in a Bent Arab country and see if that gets the game moving forward.

Makes no sense when the core business is going backwards.

Yes, the NRL accepted the proposal and threw their support behind it too grow the game in NZ, if there had been no Council prize money on offer it may well have never got off the ground.
Many of the NRL Clubs were far below full strength for the Nines and it will be interesting to see how they support it in its second year.


Do you think the NRL Clubs will or should support a second nines tournament in Dubai?

Lol, you just don't get it do you? A world club nines would be about money, plain and simple. Not fans, not growing the game, just money. Clubs get an appearance fee, sponsors get new exposure market and the game gets exposure to potential new sponsors. It also challenges the pit village flat cap image the game continues to suffer from. Nines has huge potential for growing RL and it's exposure to new audiences.

Personally I'd like to see a SL nines like the NRL NZ one pre season or in place of magic weekend and then a world international nines in October every other year.

The NRL clubs have no option but to support it, it is in the contract that x amount of top players have to play. Would they support a dubai nines? If the NRL tells them they have to then yes they would. Should they? If the $$$'s are right then yes they should.

Plenty of big names did not attend the Auckland nines.
The Clubs were only obliged to provide less than half of their top players to the tournament.

If the players union say its too many games in a season in will be an issue.

Give the Auckland tournament a chance to get some solid foundations before trying a pie in the sky Dubai competing nines.

What message does it send to the backers of the Auckland nines if another nines starts up on the back of their success.
Its no wonder this game struggles to get investment and sponsors at times.

The Dubai concept is just mouthy Marwan wanting headlines and tapping into English fans need to be relevant in the game.
Without the southern hemisphere clubs and Test teams it appears England cannot get anything happening that sells or gets interest.

England should concentrate on building France up from the abyss they have fallen into in the last 20 years.

Show me the money.

The money that is being offered in prize money and the money to cover all of the teams costs.

p.s I get it better than you appear to do looking at your timeline on when the "Pirates" will be in the NRL, I don't reckon we will see them next year.

Of course it's a novelty event. That's exactly what it should be to start with.
I really don't think playing a 9's tournament in a place that has no RL team in the US competition would boost that competition at all.

More chance of getting the Yanks interested in a sport like League than the Arabs.

Hang on, so it's ok to have it now as long as the money is there to cover costs and a prize fund?
What about the last few pages worth of objections you've put up against it?

I was answering his post.
I don't think its ok.
Its a total waste of time but who is financing this "concept" that everyone is so keen on?

No one is, its a load of rubbish.

The players union? Lol.

And many stars did take part. It was a good mix of 1st graders and youngsters and the crowds responded accordingly.

Where does it say it will compete with the Auckland nines? Union has taken a one off sevens comp and made it a series played all over the world and in the Olympics. Nines is a great format and we should be exploiting it, same with touch footy which is by far the biggest and most geographically spread form of RL being played.

A SL nines in place of magic weekend, which should be ditched as it creates an unfair fixture list, with a end of season world nines would be welcome additions to the Auckland nines.

Absolutely and if there is no money there is no comp. if koukash is serious and has the financial backing there will be. Time will tell.

Ps ASADA will close down the Sharks and we will be fast tracked to ko off next year lol. Probably time to change it to 2018!

The Players Union have capped years where Tests are played overseas several times.

I am not fussed on what Union does to be honest, but League is not Union and does not have that profile or corporate support to sustain two Nines comps in one season at near full strength IMO.

ASADA are a joke and will not close anyone down, has there ever been a bigger fiasco in sport than how they have put their case forward.
Its set drug testing back a decade in Australia.

you are a terribly ignorant person, what makes you say that? you do realise that Lebanon although not strictly Arab have a rugby league team? and there is local rugby league comp here? And there has just been an international rugby league match played in Dubai?

Also in response to why not the USA have you ever seen a map? what country is half way between the UK and Australia?

Dubai.....

Hard to read what you were saying there, it was all included in my post.



Not that ignorant, I know how to post a quote and reply unlike you.

The fact is the country has been built on imported slave labour
The fact is homosexuality is illegal and severely punished if discovered.
Its run by a bloke that is not much better than many past dictators.
No I would have no interest in going to Brazil AT ALL.
I know third world people and I feel its terrible that people accept paying them slave labour wages and rationalize it because its better than they get back home. I work with many people from third world countries.

Many imported "workers" are treated like absolute e in Dubai and many females are almost nanny "sex slaves" they can not go to the authorities because they would be locked up and condemned.

Not interested in the place, Desert, Arab "culture" Climate, people or "skyline"

Mongolia looks more attractive to be honest.

Ah the great League country of Lebanon, I must have missed them in the recent world cup or even in the 2008 WC

Have you seen a map?
Dubai is not in between Australia/NZ and the UK.
LA is about the same distance for each League, Dubai is as far from Oz as LA is, its a dam site closer to the UK.

I mentioned the USA because it is a popular tourist destination for Australians and they did make the last world cup (full of ring ins)

There is a far better chance of the USA embracing or backing the game than Dubai.

There is no chance of the game ever being anything in the middle east so why promote it there.
Are you Arabic by the way?

Why do you keep going on about LA? There's no RL team in LA or Hawaii. How would it build interest in the US competition when there's no competition for those people to watch?
Also, go to some southern US states and kiss your boyfriend in public and see what happens. You won't be arrested by the state but you won't like the experience.

You really aren't getting it. It's not to try and build RL in Dubai so that eventually there's a Dubai team or league. It's to try and bring it to a global audience. People from all around the world visit Dubai and businesses and wealthy individuals pay attention to things that happen there. If it attracted just 1 more Marwan Koukash wouldn't it be worth it?
Maybe if we'd had a 9's comp in Dubai before then Dr Koukash might have got involved in RL earlier.

Do you think HSBC would be so closely involved with Union if it hadn't had the 7's in Hong Kong?
Take a look at the top British Union sponsors, like HSBC, Adidas, Land Rover etc they're all "proud" of the global reach the sponsorship offers them. Not once do they mention Leicester and London. They mention Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai etc.

If we sell ourselves as small time we'll get small time. If we can offer world cities and destinations that sponsors can attach themselves to and get their brand out to then we'll attract bigger and better sponsors. If all we offer is 2 restricted areas then we'll get restricted, 3rd rate sponsors.

HSBC, Addidas and Land Rover have what market share in Australia? (answer is not much) and what they have has frigg all to do with the Union Sevens its about the same thing across the Globe at the moment Price and bang for your buck.

Because I think the USA and be it Hawaii, LA or East Coast it would serve the game better in the long run.
League is not Union with the old Hong Kong Sevens.

Dubai would get no support from the NRL or its fans, I do not know why you think a League game played there would get any more backers or sponsorship than a game of Curling.

It must be something that English fans dream of a game in the middle East will sort it all out and the Sheiks will pour money into the game.
The Arabs have taken control of much of old England and pretty well own London lets play in their backyard and see the money come in.

Dreamers.

Cracking thread this.

Ah. I'm getting it now. What would only benefit Australia and the NRL. I see.

What on earth makes you think RL would be built in an area with no team in the national competition? It's utterly bizarre. If you were to have a 9's comp in the US it would be on the East Coast, where the majority of teams are.
In that case why have an Auckland 9's?

Christ on a bike. Do you think AP fans or Super 15 fans fly around the world watching 7's? Of course not. It's locals, ex-pats and holiday makers who attend. It also introduces Rugby Union to a part of the world that can't sustain 15 a side Rugby. I'll say it again, would HSBC or Cathay Pacific have got so involved with Union without the Hong Kong 7's?
2 massive global companies putting the kind of money and partnership in that ALL of RL, including your amazing, wonderful NRL, would only dream of.

Rugby Union has spread beyond its traditional borders. Partly because of the old boys network & compliant media but also partly because in the 70's, when RL was in-fighting and killing themselves for the next 30 years, Union was planning for the future. We have to start that process now. If we stay within our own borders we'll slowly wither and die bar a small enclave of die-yards. Even the NRL will in the future if Australian RL doesn't embrace the international game.