Not bad that....for a sport that has only been (officially) pro for a wet weekend.
Like'm, Lothe'm or leave'm the RFU are streets ahead of the RFL in all areas of the game in the UK......They quickly grasped the idea of marketing the game correctly, to the right audience. Then they priced it correctly, threw a load of cash into becoming world champions and are still reaping the rewards.....
Must be a reason that the Barbarians v New Zealand can attract nearly twice as many fans as say, England v Australia in League........

It is simply not possible for the RFL to get anywhere near the RFU without the cash generating powerhouse of a national stadium/spiritual home of the game owned and run by the RFL.

I would suggest it has more to do with the BBC having the 6 nations more than anything else. SKY are all well and good, but true national coverage and the fact it's one of the last things the Beeb have make it a much more NATIONAL game than little old Northern RL.....

Well there's certainly something to that too. Over to John Inverdale at Twickenham the home of rugby, John? "I'm sorry, I've just cum".

OK......SKY want the game to grow. The RFL want the game to grow (to keep sky happy). Most fans want the game to grow (regardless of what Sky/RFL want) so why not try this.....
GIVE the BBC/ITV/5 or 4 the broadcasting rights to 1 Saturday/Sunday afternoon game a week. One 3pm kick off that doesn't clash with SKY's coverage. Not a financial money spinner for anyone involved, but what it would do is give the British Public...(and by that I mean the ones who have either stopped going to soccer because it's too expensive, stopped going to union because it's like watching paint dry or just stopped going to sport for whatever reason) a chance to see how good the game can be. The BBC also have to be MADE TO PUT THE SL Show on Nationally at a reasonable time......either that, or give it to one of the other stations.
Whilst SuperLeague is only shown on SKY the game will always be considered a regional sport.

rubbish

good quality league kills union

ie australia and france

once SL develops as a competition it will easily eclipse unions club competetion

without their internationals union has got zero

when it comes to lieing, cheating and stealing, union is in a world of its own

the game also lacks the morals to admit when its wrong or when it profits from evil actions

its their 6 nations which does it for them

and why clubs like crusaders and toulose are so important for your game

Did union give up when rugby league was the 2nd biggest spectator sport in England for the bulk of the 20th Century?

This sort of defeatist attitude sums up UK rugby league at times. And many posters on this site who reside there.

its why RL struggles there

the soft c**k attitude they have towards union

its almost like they are apologetic for breaking away from union.

3 comments...

1. Source?
2. What is the average over 12 rounds?
3. "16,500" sounds very rounded.

I am confused


Does this mean Union gives [uyou[/u a Hard on? And if so, is that why it's a 5th tier sport in Australia.....I think we should be told

that's the trouble when you sell your sport for an exclusive deal for 50 or 60 million or whatever it was its not yours to give to anybody. like them or loathe them superleague is sky's property until the TV deal runs out and any crumbs that are offered by way of limited highlights on terrestrial TV are purely at sky's discretion. Without that exclusive deal we wouldn't have got the amount of money to prop our clubs up in a superleague.

My point was that in the Long run it would benefit SKY. They would get to keep their ad revenue from the scheduled games and if, say the BBC were to show a game every Saturday at 3pm, it may attract more media attention to the game, ergo, more coverage, ergo, more fans. I never had Sky TV until I became London Broncos fan. I had binned soccer, given up going to London Irish but once I became a fan of RL, I looked forward to the games on Friday and Saturday nights.
I am not saying SKY should carry the Outside Broadcast.....but if there was, say Bradford v Saints on BBC this Sunday I would lay odds that the audience figures would beat friday and saturdays combined. Any "potential" loss of gate revenue argued by the bulls could be off-set against the increased revenue from the hoardings/sponsorship at the game.
BBC win....they secure 28 games of top flight RL for little or no outlay
Sky win....they get THEIR GAME (they do own rl) shown to a MUCH wider audience
Clubs win....they get the opportunity to be showcased nationally.

If Italian Wendyball got good viewing figures for C4 on a Sunday Afternoon, then RL can do the same....

union comes last in australia

A League soccer has overtaken it.

there is a lesson there for anybody that looks closely

and union had $50 million in cash reserves to promote itself

just about gone

I am fully aware that Union is 5th and soon to be possibly overtaken by Basketball........but that didn't stop Super 14 handing out a 5th franchise to even things up. The IRB will do everything in their power to shore up the ARU and believe me, as much as you aren't keen on Union, you wouldn't want to stand toe to toe with that lot financially on a global stage. Sevens is the key to their future and now it's a 5 ring sport, they will get the chance to be promoted to a far bigger audience than League could ever hope for.
On the flip side, if the new regulations on Gambling come in, the NRL will be too busy shi77ing themselves to notice what ARU are up to

By what criteria? Apart from Melbourne I'd say the S14 clubs are alot stronger in each city than the Aleague teams, and overall the S14 comp is more popular and has a higher income than the Aleague. Western Force made a $2million profit last year, which Aleague club managed that?

clearly you havent read the media reports on A League soccer relegating S14 to last on TV.

the soceroos crowds kill what union gets now too.

if you are talking about losing money, the NSWRU, QRU all lose millions too

so would the ARU if they didnt play a test match in hong kong

australia shows clearly that if you get the competition (RL) to a high standard union will die off.

The reason they created a fifth team was so that could buy more RL players and not look desperate (they are) and to try and desperately search for yet another remedy to their depth problem (cf: ARC - giggle).

If your comparing Leagues then club for club the S14 clubs are still stronger than the Aleague clubs.

If your comparing soccer to union as codes then yes I would say soccer is ahead of Union which seems to be drifting into obscurity, and good riddance!

yes im comparing different sports.

as i said before, union is the weakest football code in australia and has been overtaken by soccer.

ARC.

Better yet, give a game to a terrestrial channel with adverts, and have the first and last adverts in any lead up/half times/end before review as SKY adverts, so people can watch it for "free" and if they like it there can be a bloody great advert for where they can get more of it. That should be somewhat appealing to SKY also?

I sort of wish BBC/ITV would get their own sports channels on freeview, and just stick on any football shows/SL show etc during the daytime. I'm pretty sure they could get something out of that, and have more opportunity to show live games?

Good idea in theory, would never happen in the real world unless they were forced to break up their exclusivity, but even if they could be persuaded to give up one game a week, i imagine Sky would want to keep the big games for themselves, leaving the Salford v Catalans or Wakefield v Harlequins (for example) which although could be a draw for regular RL fans, wouldn't be much of a draw for the casual sports fan.

Still it would be a shot to nothing for Sky, they could even produce it and sell it on cheaper or for a bit of free advertising if it went to ITV/Ch4/Ch5/Dave!

A national weekly highlights show on FTA at a decent time would be a good start. In fact showing the best bits of games will actually lead to more interest than showing full games initially.