It’s been massively hyped by the broadcasters involved as well. They’ve chucked a load of money and propaganda at it, hoping the casual watcher believes the hype.

In sporting terms, It’s just a reworked T20 that wasn’t needed.

The hundred has been a running joke for the last 2 years in cricket. It was originally setup to get money off a particular broadcaster, I think it was the BBC, who then dropped out. The money injection has mainly gone to the counties as some sort of bribe to not have them involved. Leaving very little for the actual product. So it sounds like something the RFL would organise already.

It was also, and this is the big thing for RL fans to remember, setup for non cricket fans. Fans of cricket were told over and over again that this product wasn't intended for them and it was an attempt to appeal to new fans. This is something that RL fans, as well as cricket fans, struggled to accept. However the ECB just carried on and now they seem to be appealing to a wider audience, at least for the time being. This is something the RFL would never stick at as the usual suspects would complain and the RFL would flip flop.

If we want to copy the "Hundred Model" we need leadership in the sport that is willing to do things that are unpopular and is willing to stick to them. Appealing to a larger audience requires doing things a lot of the traditional fans won't like. If we want to grow the sport we have to stop pandering to certain groups in our game.

Another long winded waffle with a little dig at Warrington hidden in amongst it. Pretty sure we usually play Wigan at magic, plus we've played the mighty saints a few times as well. Although these days a game against saints is like being given 2 points

Some more unsubstantiated anti-Warrington nonsense.

Salford - Win
Huddersfield - Win
Hull KR - Loss
Salford - Win
Huddersfield - Loss
Widnes - Win
St. Helens - Win
St. Helens - Win
St. Helens - Loss
Castleford - Loss
Wigan - Draw
Wigan - Loss
Wigan - Win

Poor Saddened. Being proven totally wrong on this point on top of his embarrassing Twitter meltdown last night. Not been a good time for the lad.

Put simply, before you try to decry something new that is designed to attract interest, sponsors and fans to a sport, why not ask yourself why the MD of Travis Perkins was there, rather than at Magic Weekend, or the Challenge Cup Final? No matter how much money the ECB threw at this, they've also put in the hard hours of planing, media work, press releases, press conferences, big name signings like warne at lords and the real kicker is they've probably given the TV rights to the BBC for peanuts and hoped SKY can flog the Indian and Pakistan rights for a few bob.
All it will take is 2 indian billionaires (they have a few) who missed out on the IPL and this game will become a 30 day gambling dream.....

Meanwhile, somewhere up north, in a dusty smoke filled room, the RFL are trying to think of how to get the likes of Wakefield and Salford to vote for their own demise......but let's all point at another sport to make ourselves feel better

To be fair,cricket is a national sport, rugby league isn’t. That’s why more people enjoy cricket

To be fair, he did say “years” and for the last 6 years you’ve been playing rabble whilst the top teams have been playing each other

Wigan have been poor for a while now but it's harsh to call them rabble.

They were rabble tonight....made an average rovers look good

I reckon the Hundred will have lost a heap of cash come the end. I got an email offering me free tickets for everyone of the Originsls home games bar the one against the Yorky team. Even with that the grounds have been half full most of the time.

What it does show is how people can perceive a sport from outside looking in. They’ve bigged it up on tv, got it talked about in the press and they manage to give it a look of being a huge success. I think it will be in time but it’s very much a case of speculating to accumulate at the minute IMO.

T'other way round old chum so you've just called Saints 'rabble'. I don't disagree to be fair.

All SL will do is hire some northern indy band like they do every year. Its lame

so that's a guess then

most businesses spend thousands even before collecting their first profit and yes its a revamp of the 20/20 personally I've enjoyed it whether its bringing enough income we will see

The fact people are talking about it proves its worked. Few friends of mine went for the first time and enjoyed it and may go again. More money for cricket in the long run.

Not really true. This thing has cost them a fortune. It's been well received and earned a fair bit of very expensively earned media coverage. But if it doesn't last in the long run, as it probably won't, the cost benefit analysis is going to be tricky.

Only by spending money and advertising do you get people to go/watch on TV. I agree it may be a flop but even if they make a loss if they get more people getting through the turnstiles it could be a success. Depends on numbers vs cost I suppose

Little chance of Rimmer going to any sporting event and taking notes that might stimulate interest in Rugby League. He hasn't yet and very unlikely he will ever do it.
For what it's worth i would like to see a Super League 9's competition taking place preseason to hopefully pique some interest in the coming season, but little chance of that happening

The last time we did a nines competition it was not success.

The issue here appears to be that some people want to try and solve Rugby League's problems with a solution cricket has developed to address its own issues.

Cricket has the issue that its games are too long and tedious for most viewers, even in its shortened versions. This is not a problem our sport faces. There are bits there about marketing and promotion and media coverage which we already knew, plus the excitement of the new, but the tinkering with the sport's format isn't a great learning point because that isn't the problem. The complete opposite if anything.

I'll try not to be too brutal here, but the harsh reality is that but if you take West Yorkshire,, you have Castleford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield. Batley. Featherstone, Bradford, Dewsbury & Halifax....9 sides from the top 22 in the country.
2.4 million residents.......and yet you'd struggle to show me an average of 5,000 per game hosted by all these teams in 2019. Leeds will be the anchor side in SL, Bradford in Champs in terms of average crowds, but the reality is that Leeds v Cas, Wakey, Hudds.....these games should be 20k sell outs......

Next year, half the top flights english clubs could be from one county......it's time for some tough love!

You say this as if it’s a weakness but it could actually be one of the games strengths.
How about 2 SL conferences,
East - Cas, Huddersfield, Leeds, Fev, Wakefield, Bradford, Hull, Hull KR
West - Leigh, Wigan, Sts, Salford, Warrington, Catalans, Toulouse, Halifax
Each team plays the other teams in the same conference home and away and each team from the other conference once, home or away. Scrap Magic or have it for the quarter finals of the CC. Playoffs - top 4 from each conference play E1 v W4 etc.
That would give lots of local Derby’s without the overkill of loop fixtures plus juicy inter conference one offs. I agree with you that they have to be marketed for all their worth - sell outs should be the norm for most of these matches. 8 team conferences only gives 11 home league games which might be a problem but sometimes less is more and increased attendances might help. Otherwise pressure Sky to up the funding for what should be a more attractive competition.
Just a thought.

Not just the money.
If the Hundred encourages more kids to give cricket a go, it secures the player pool for the future both in the mans and womens game

The cricket authorities realise that 4 and 5 day county cricket is failing. The IPL and Big bash leagues have taken off. Why not make changes, attract new audiences, speed the game up, add music, flashy lights, colours .........Well done to English cricket

Ralph take note

Absolutely it’s a guess. I don’t think we could do anything else at the minute but getting offered up to 6 free tickets for every Originals game is not a great sign, I’m sure you’d agree.

I’ve enjoyed it also. It’s not been helped by Covid and the raft of players who pulled out but it’s still be a decent watch. If it is to be a raging success in the future though something will need to give with the scheduling. Once Buttler, Bairstow, Stokes etc went off to play for England (a break in Stokes case) it lost a bit of shine for me. I want to see those guys involved and the best players from other countries but it’s unbelievable the amount of cricket they’re playing nowadays. They can’t fit everything in or not properly at least.

SPARK (a local Telco provider) is showing all the Hundred here in NZ...They are the broadcaster for RLWC 2021 (2) (?) as well as the Premier League, Champions League and all the european comp stuff.
Now I have no idea how much they paid for the rights, but they won't be free from SKY UK, given we have SKY NZ, part of uncle Ruperts Cabal.
The ECB are listed as another sports shown on this channel, so it looks like they've got a good working relationship with the games ruling authority.......as many have said, this 100 comp may well have cost heaps and they may have been giving away free tickets by the bucket load, but it has been shown live in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, India, Pakistan and even the USA.....so there's some money coming in, even if it's not from ticket sales. Then, there's the venues. In many cases owned or leased by county Cricket entities who are controlled in turn by the ECB.....so when 19,000 are reported to be at Edgbaston, that's 19,000 chances to sell beer, wine, cokes, burgers, sandwiches and merchandise.
It may fail....like the London Monarchs, but I can assure you that my nephews loved going to Monarchs games and for a couple of years they didn't miss a game....if the Hundred can get people into the habit of a 3 hour event, then they're on to a winner. As I've said, US300 MILLION is the Buy in for the Indian Premiere League....if the ECB could sell it's 8 sides for 5% of that number, it's already bigger than Superleague