English RL needs more high profile matches (e.g. a Yorkshire v Lancashire series) and the England RL team needs to play high profile matches at home, every year. Simple as that.

As a supporter of the England RU team, I know I will have a minimum of 7 or 8 matches to watch every year that will be played at Twickenham or in the same time zone (Wales, Scotland). Unfortunately it's virtually impossible to get tickets for Twickenham so my support is restricted to watching on TV and perhaps buying a replica shirt or other merchandise once in a while. The point is that I feel part of something and I put a bit of money into the game.

How many home games have England RL played this year? One, against France. That is not enough. Of course we also need to tour Australia and NZ as often as they come here, but in my view it is essential that at least one of them comes here every year for a three match series. I also firmly believe that a three match Roses series is essential to give those people who don't have a club team in their area (which I imagine is a fairly high % of the country) another high profile RL event to watch. I don't buy all that crap about it being too parochial.

There has never been so much sports coverage on TV as there is today. Whilst this is a good thing in many respects, it also means that individual sports have to work harder to get their product noticed. Back in the 1980's and 90's when GB matches were shown on BBC Grandstand, it was often a choice of watching that or some American show on ITV. Nowadays people have the option of changing to any number of other channels, so if your product isn't delivering, the audience will be gone. And when I say delivering, I'm talking about things such as playing in big, packed stadiums (which means RL fans supporting the game). I don't care what sport it is, I am far more likely to watch it if it's being played in front of a packed crowd in a famous venue. Or if the teams involved are notable ones. No disrespect to either team but Halifax v Widnes isn't a game I'd add to my sporting diary. Lancashire v Yorkshire, however, is!

Until RL grasps this basic fact, it will carry on as it is. Which, incidentally, is absolutely fine, providing you're happy with how it is and you're not one of those who whinges continuously about what RU is doing. RL is a perfectly good sport played by teams predominantly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with the occasional international match thrown in. It's survived like that for 100 years and it will do for another 100. There's only a problem if it has ambitions beyond that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Rugby League NEEDS a national stadium. Not a 80,000 seater, yet, just a simple 20,000 seater, advertise correctly, fill the stadia on a regular basis where international games are played. Once we get that consistent full capacity, extend the stadia - so on and so on.

The problem is still , who would we play in it ? , a stadium needs to be used to be viable , it would need 15/20 full houses a year to pay for itself , we just dont have that many games to put in it

Just put the Cricket on , the stadium is empty apart from the Barmy army on holiday , hardly an aussie in sight , nobody is interested in a no competition match , even in Australia for their national sport

Its because test cricket is about as exciting to watch as paint dry.

Seriously... who on earth would pay to go and watch a game that can last for 5 days... yet there is not guaranteed to be a winner?


The Twenty20 form of the game is a bit more interesting...at least they try and belt the bejesus out of it.

Test cricket is sooooo boring

not another stadium ?we have stadia coming out of our ears and can you imagine the RFL paying out a couple of hundred million on such a hair-brained scheme ? What's wrong with the DW for example ? or LSV or The Keepmoat ? These are wonderful venues,make one of these or,Hillsborough,Elland Road,Estlands etc the National RL stadium !
I refer you to the brilliant idea to build a wonderful new staduim in Milton Keynes - great idea eh ? they called it the National Hockey Stadium wowee !!! used for Hockey Internatinals (another minority sport like RL) and the MK Dons home matches with a few thousand soectators ! yet another white elephant...

no,not by the peole anyway but the Mayors are elected every five years - to be anyone in france it's helpful to 'know' the right people...

We have one. it's called Wembley - a national stadium in the national capital.
Building a smaller, largely unused, stadium in the north would simply be agreeing with our detractors in the national media that RL is just a small regional sport of no interest.

I'm with you tb, Wembley is a Rugby League Stadium, we should use it more, First test of any series I think. Sell tickets from the bottom up, so if needs be, the top tier doesn't get used.

yes,great idea

If your in London now you can't miss the advertsing for the next Saracens match at Wembley.

Its all RL need to do to fill Wembley for a test, cheap tickets plenty of marketing and maybe drop the word league from it and con a few people into thinking its Union and show them something decent.

Total absolute non runner.











Shame cos it's not a bad idea.

Actually, it's very easy to miss it.

And yet you find union interesting Barry.

Yes it is , but if there had been a chance of a win , even the smallest , it would have been packed

So you don't leave it unused.

I've said this before. The RFL have missed a trick with Salford's new ground. Oh, it's great news for Salford and that's good - 12,000, allegedly growing to 20,000 seater stadium with corporate facilities and retail outlets...just another unremarkable HJ or LSV.

A little bit of ambition could have seen a 40/50,000 seater stadium hailed not only as Salford's new home, but the home of Rugby League in the UK. Our very own 'Twickers'. Salford use it throughout the SL season, but we make sure it gets utilised and makes money. We play internationals, Challenge Cup semi-finals, amateur finals, youth and reserve finals, etc. We use it as a centre of youth and amateur excellence with sports science and development facilities. The RFL relocate there. We invite Sale to play there in the winter and charge them for the pleasure. We use it for concerts and other events. Boxing, Monster Trucks, NFL, etc, etc - we might not get them all, but we put the stadium forward as a venue. The massive focus on this stadium not only ensures a cash income but exposure for Salford, and hopefully a crowd boost.

Bang on the M60 and adjoining motorway network, easy for the heartlands fans to get to, excellent transport links - the potential could have been huge.

Got to say that is an absolutley cracking idea

I posted a couple of years ago that the RFL were desperate for the ' iconic ' original design for the Salford stadium , as it would become the prime RL venue apart from the SL GF and Wembley

But your idea takes it all the way to its logical conclusion

Why didn't you suggest this earlier

like starbug says,brilliant idea.
personally speaking i would use your ideas to transform odsal.
lancashire has got two 50,thou+ stadia in manchester and a new one in liverpool coming soon 'hopefully'. yorkshire has nothing like this,and as most RL teams are based in yorkshire it seem to make more sense to me.

yes,have to agree with the Salford idea - seems logical but the Odsal idea is equally as logical - pity the RFL can't take heed of such brilliant suggestions !

Which part of "we have a national stadium" did you not understand?

Which part of ' it's too big and we dont make any money out of it ' do you not understand ?

Don't the RFL have a share in Wembley?

So, to go back the OP and the subject of this thread: "How have we lost this?" where "this" is being able to fill Wembley for an international – we've lost it by decided that Wembley is "too big"?

Like I said earlier, too many people in the game have lost all ambition and have accepted that rugby league is and should remain a small regional sport of interest to no-one - while still moaning at the national media for regarding it as a small regional sport of interest to no-one.

Putting Widnes into SL in 2012 will sadly prove it!