I can't tell if you're joking or not, so excuse me if I've missed the sarcasm.

Let's take a real example.

Barrow will be competing for local sponsorship with other similar organisations such as the local football team. Them being shown several times a year live on Sky Sports in front of 70,000 viewers makes their case for sponsorship much stronger in comparison to the competition.

The fact that Barrow are live on national TV creates a sense of excitement in the town given that it is generally a small nothing town of little consequence to the rest of the country. As a result the club gets some of its biggest crowds of the year in the matches when it is on TV as people like to feel part of the big event.

Barrow will become "cooler" in the eyes of local children as they are now on TV like the big clubs not just playing other small towns in the local rundown stadium, and as a result the community department can get in to the schools and build the game up in the eyes of the children. A school tournament can be held which culminates with games on the evening of the match itself and as a result more young people in Barrow are interested in the club and the sport.

So you are saying that the people in Featherstone who watch Featherstone on the TV didn't know that there is a RL club in Featherstone




As I posted earlier virtually all sponsors at this level sponsor because they are supporters of the club , even with TV coverage , most are local businesses and never get a return on their investment , so while I agree that yes the potential exposure is bigger , in reality it doesn't work like that



Given that the potential for free tickets is up to 800 people unless these clubs are getting up to a 1,000 extra above their average then they are not getting a higher attendance [ paying wise , some clubs will make extra on the sales of food and drink but no extra because of a thursday night rather than a sunday




Little change in attendances and clubs requesting a lowering of the Championship Salary Cap for next year would suggest there is not

I'm saying there are people in Featherstone who will have never watched a RL match and may well be tempted to go after seeing them on TV.



Looks to me like Championship clubs have a mixture of sponsors ranging from small local businesses to large multinational companies. TV exposure gives them a stronger position when negotiating deals and the possibility of attracting more sponsorship from larger companies.



As I said I believe the 'free' tickets are paid for by the co-operative. 1,000 extra is a significant increase on the average attendance at most Championship clubs so a proportional (significant) increase in food and drink sales would be expected. I can't imagine food sales are great at three o'clock on a Sunday, seems a strange time to be eating, unlike half seven in the evening.

Some of the bigger clubs [ support wise have had their games against each other played on TV and have had significantly reduced attendances compared to previous weekend matches against the same opposition

TV exposure does not automatically benifit clubs at Championship level

Thursday night is not a good one for many fans , it makes travel for away fans much more difficult , and yes you like many others will say that there is little travelling support in the championships and that is true , but getting fans to go to away matches is vital to try to produce atmosphere at these games , as that is what is most lacking

With grounds sometimes less than 10 % full it is like a morgue in many of them , however a decent away following can make even those numbers much better

Whats the saying " all publicity is good publicity " not really it isn't

So yes it is good that more people are watching on the box this year than last , but until the clubs themselves start to show some benifits , ie a decent jump in attendances or record sponsorship deals directly attributed to the TV slot then I wont be jumping through hoops about it

Will the RFL be claiming how wonderful the TV viewing figures are for the play offs this year on the back of some truelly appalling match attendances ?

Please tell me are you for real or some sort of surreal joke ?

It's for real. Some of our fans are absoloutely determined for things to be .

then by all means tell us about them

If however it is just the emperors new clothes argument again dont bother

Very insightful post there , I am now totally enlightened as to the massive benifits the Championship clubs have now realised through the TV coverage

Hunslet for example are positively booming as a result of their TV coverage , same for Blackpool and the Skolars

blackpool n hunslet haven't been on tv, skolars have been on once (and were the away team)

HTH

Were you?

Wow, what foresight - considering everyone else thought extra TV coverage, particularly of the lower divisions, was the last thing we could ever want to happen.



This sums RL fans up for me. Moan when you don't have something, moan even more when you do - because it's not exactly optimum, in every possible way, according to your opinion.

Which is, of course, different to the next guy's opinion of what is optimal - so if you got what you wanted, he'd start whining instead.

Good post , lots of letters and words , but no content , usual VT bollox

Come on lads , surely you can do better than this

If we take Widnes for example:

Thursday night matches means basically we get no away support, with Leigh having been the only club anywhere near us.

Secondly we get no benefit from increased food or drink sales as that goes straight to the council.

Our sponsorship is a direct result of our owners connection with Stobart, nothing to do with tv coverage.

Lastly, as far as I am aware, the attendances have not risen in the non televised games.


Where is the benefit for us?

Ask the directors!

For the Cougars walloping by Dewsbury there were so many new "temporary" advertising hoardings it looked like a different ground.

I assume the club got a few bob out of that.

So the general jist seems to be `pointless covering these matches -don`t know why Sky/clubs bother` .

I reckon you'd see more SL followers at Chp games following the TV coverage. I know a few from the Warry that have gone along to games after following the Chp on telly.
But more than anything a TV profile raises awareness.
When a teams on telly, the money given by Co-op equals about 500 paying fans doesnt it? even if you dont get that many through the door free thats still a nice cherry

This is a local game for local people. Nothing to see here.

yep, all sport on tv is pointless. scrap the whole lot

No it is not , that is far too simple a conclusion

If you dont analyse the result of something you dont get full benifit of it , at the moment there doesn't seem to be a great lot of benifit to the clubs of the TV deal , some clubs manage to get people in to the games but seem unable to convert these people to regular fans , some clubs because of the Thursday night timing lose fans

One question that needs to be asked is if the audience continues to grow will the TV coverage result in a more lucrative sponsorship deal than the one the Championships currently have and would that sponsorship exceed any potential loses to the clubs

Also if the audience grows at what level will the TV coverage then become worth paying for by the provider of that coverage

The question could be asked ' what benifit do the SL clubs get from the SKY TV coverage over and above the 1.2 million per club ' as it seems to me that many fans moan about it a lot more than the Championship fans do

Clubs in the Championship are generally traditional small rugby league towns with an ageing supporter base. For example, Featherstone isn't even mentioned on the local news more than once a year and is a nothing town of little consequence to the rest of the country.

The fact that its sporting team is featured on national TV gives the club and the town a sense of importance and gives the game a heightened sense of occasion. This is why the crowds have often been bigger for the TV games. This is why sponsors are more willing to get involved.

Thursday nights give small clubs like Leigh the chance to have their 15 minutes in the spotlight. Some clubs embrace the coverage and make better use of this than others. All clubs benefit from the exposure it brings to the competition, the sponsors, the clubs and the sport.

Plus the wad of cash they get for featuring on telly

whilst we're on the subject of TV

playoff ratings

Hudds-Catalan drew 143,000

and Rovers-Wigan 224,000

and boots and all that week got 33,000

No one has taken your bait yet

Flatcaptastic