www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5829340973 their owner claimed they were as popular as the knights. looks like they arent id hoped they stayed around long enough to help get the ground extended to 40,000 at least they helped get the new grandstand done.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 5829340973 their owner claimed they were as popular as the knights. looks like they arent id hoped they stayed around long enough to help get the ground extended to 40,000 at least they helped get the new grandstand done.

Dally,

On a serious note why do you think Soccer has never taken off in Australia?

This is the most popular global sport in every major country except USA, Canada and Australia

The Aussie national side has made the world cup there are plenty of high profile Aussie players playing in Europe

In the UK I am more frustrated about the coverage soccer gets than I am about RU - an example The quad nations final between England and Australia - the national sport radio station had coverage of a division 2 soccer match on its main channel with the rugby on the digital channel - the same will happen for the CC final only this time it will be a friendly involving a PL side or a preliminary round for some low level Euro comp.

On a saturday 5 live will have 3 back to back live commentaries on PL matches so between 1.00 and 7.00 it is all soccer and nothing else - on a Sunday they will have two live commentaries, Monday night a live commentary same for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when there is European comps on or cup replays then on a Friday they have a football discussion programe about the following week - RL is again on the digital channel.

With the world cup this summer it will wall to wall soccer - 24/7

first remember soccer, AFL and union were in sydney and brisbane before league. sure they werent massive except union but they were all there.

RL won the battle for nsw and queensland from 1909 and has stayed there.

AFLs hold on victoria, SA and melbourne has never been challanged. they are 50 years older than league

soccers always been around. kids love playing it.

up to under 16s they have more juniors than anybody else but then they leave the sport.

dean young whose an nrl player was a junior soccer star.

why hasnt soccer caught on ?. id say :

1. RL here is a much better product than anything soccer can offer
2. aussie soccer is really slow vs Premier LEague soccer so all the best players go there.

heres something to consider, if the RFU werent so bigoted and forced the code to split, would soccer be the dominant sport in england?

remember places like manchester and liverpool were all rugby bastions at a time before soccer took over as the RFU didnt care.

soccer has all those european competitions as well. places where rugby never was tried which helps it.

RL will never overtake soccer in england (sadly) but if SL can get to the same level as the NRL is, the game would be massive.

part of your problem is a poor competition for so long.

ive got loads of people that like soccer but not aussie soccer

they all follow the Premier League in some shape of form

these same people dont have an NFL team for example so its not a case of watching a major world sport

italians and greeks (large populations in sydney) will all like soccer
lebanese on the other hand all go for league

So good points

I think the comp here was as strong as the ARL upto the early 80's and attendances were lower than now so I am not sure the quality of the comp is necessarily a massive factor. Since the inception of the PL that gap has widen despite SL attendances growing year on year.

Soccer's top players are sporting icons - even in Australia I bet Beckham would be in the top 3 recognisable sportsmen probably number one.

Soccer in the UK is watched by all social levels something neither code of rugby is able to achieve in the UK. It is also has geographical spread and in London soccer is massive.

Your point about if rugby hadn't split would soccer be as strong is an interesting one - one of the reasons for the split was to modify the game to be more interesting for the fans when compared to soccer. And a lot of the older soccer clubs were rugby clubs who switched - Manningham Rugby became Bradford City soccer

i doubt the a-league and its backers would allow the jets to fold on this debt, if it gets to the point were they are forced to pay and can't they will probably be bailed out. embarrassing for the jets, but remember the knights owe the stadium operators a larger sum and if the debt was called they probably couldnt pay.

the knights settled that bill. the knights held back paying because of damages caused to their business due to the stadium not being ready on time

what happens after they (jets) get bailed out and incur more debts.

the slump in a league crowds will be affecting many a league clubs

i mean crowds of 3000 or so (gold coast) are a joke for a "global" sport

soccers is a simple sport to understand, and easier for kids to play than league.

RL in england should aim to be at least as popular as rugby union.

despite institutional bias (media etc) theres no good reason why league cant match union.

if managed right RL has decades of growth ahead of it.

im hoping over time what will happen is rugby union and soccer clubs will see a vibrant super league and then bid for licenses (eg leicester RU, Stade Francaise, london soccer sides like QPR etc)

I've been following the English Soccer most of my life. I used to follow the Australian stuff back in the early - mid 1970's and I watched the first two season of the A League, more in hope than anything else.

You couldn't pay me to watch the A League now. It is utter garbage.

There isn't a CC1 side that wouldn't wipe the floor with any A League side.

Having said that, they shot themselves in the foot a few years ago when they suddenly demanded that everyone call it football and their journos started taking potshots at the NRL.

Bad move. They needed NRL fans to watch Soccer in the summer so what did they do, alienate Rugby League fans from Wagga to Townsville.

i was watching the show "football" superstar.

they were talking about the Gold Coast soccer teams upcoming first game there as the first game of football there, despite the titans being there for 2 seasons

so when they get crowds of 3000 - 5000 youve got to laugh

truly karma.