Not down to us though is it.

That's even more ridiculous than your original argument. What do you think this is, Fields of Dreams?

Like this?

I'm not saying it is and nor do I care.

We had a massive thread on here when the game was announced at widnes. WOTT, to be fair, nailed his colours to the mast and criticised the league for picking such a small venue. All I said, all I've ever said, is that if the game doesn't sell out, it's the correct decision and I reserve the right to take the p155.

We're all grown ups, people ought to be able to give and take criticism. Again, to be fair to WOTT, he gets a lot of stick on this board (bumming chickens and his lack of any RL knowledge whatsoever) and he takes it all in good heart. Also, he is at least prepared to fight his corner.

Again, Latchy, to be fair, also gets slagged on here but at least he puts his hand up and has a go. He may get a lot of rumours wrong, 'Hicks to Union' being a personal fave, but at least he has a good guess.

<above not aimed at your specifically '85>

I like to relax on here the footy thread is where I get down an dirty.

Hang on a moment soldier, apart from hicks (which i explained) how many more are unfounded

Are we counting Sinfield or not?

pm sent

what's the problem? You all said we wouldn't even be close to selling out? I'm saying we could have sold alot more.

Exactly. Plenty of time for the match to sell out before August, and I echo your rentiments on the game attracting a bigger crowd had it been played at a bigger stadium. If the RFU were in charge of RL, who knows where the sport would be at now.

Does anybody know how much extra it costs the RFL to rent and put on a game at the Reebok compared to Widnes?

Would the extra cost be justified considering how many extra (if any) tickets would be sold?

No please tell us...

That was almost the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me

right now jwp is circling in the direction of this thread and post....

I assume the club aren't going to get anymore tickets then?

Almost. What was the nicest, can you remember?

"yes sure, this seat isn't taken."

Well, I think you've got a beautiful soul.

Langer7

I assume the club aren't going to get anymore tickets then?

No thay are not so get to wigan and buy theres

I'm not saying that mistakes aren't made, but if the RFU were in charge of league, it would be exactly the same.

When they organise an international game, they require very little effort to sell out. They will go to less effort getting 82k in for a 6N game than we would for 25k in the 4N.

Union fans are much more prepared to go out and be involved in their events, whereas many league fans would rather sit around moaning about it.

Callum Watkins.

Ticket update?

Totally get your post '77 (as usual) but, personally, I would have bought 8 tickets together for the CC (for my family and mates) if I didn't have to buy tickets for the bradford game to qualify for them. As it was I only bought 4 tickets for close family (missus, daugher, me, best mate). Now I cannot get 8 together. The venue may not sell out but this is not neccessarily due to lack of interest.

Furthermore the walk up attendance to this game will be nill (by definition), whereas I believe there may be some people in the RL heartlands who may fancy this game a bit closer to the time.

Ergo I think the venue is a little small for this event based on the manner of how the tickets were sold. I dont think that having a circa 100 tickets left (odd ball and none together) proves your point.

Having a stadium close to sell-out with 7 weeks to go (as it was) is not ideal in my opinion.

And why do you think this is? Do you think the RFU sit on their bums and not nurture the media, corporates and club RU fan base? The RFU wee wee all over the RFL in terms of marketing, and this is from an organisation which used to be amateur. We have a lot to learn from RU.

I disagree in terms of merketing individual events, which is what I was referring to.

I agree that the RFU have done things in the past which has got them into this position, whereas historically the RFL have made a lot of mistakes, not least failing to capitalise on some very good INternational crowds in the early 90's IMO.

With regards to events and one off events nowadays, the RFL generally do a very good job of what is a tough sell, in part due to the lethargy of many RL fans to big events, especially when compared to Union fans, who generally like to attend 'events', IMO it is a reason something like the Barbarians works in Union but would never work in League.

Forgetting the history of what has happened (which is very relevant, but not the point I was making) and I reckon if you arranged two similar events, one Union and one League and did exactly the same basic marketing, the Union event would attract a load more fans.

RL fans like to moan about the RFL but often don;t put their money where their mouth is.

A perfect example of this was the Northern Union game at the HJ a few years back. Fans did nothing but moan that it wasn;t very well advertised, yet I would defy any RL fan to claim they did not know it was on. The game was publicised on Sky Sports (200-350k viewers during playoffs), was included in the RFL Events guide which is sent each year, was advertised in club programmes, the SL website, emails, RL press etc. Because people don;t see posters and billboards they think no promotion has gone on. The game attracted just over 6k IIRC. Union can attract 50k to Wembley for a Barbarians v Australia game, and I'm prepared to bet that they didn't do much more.

League is onto a loser with much of the media, look at the mass hype that the British Lions tour has had, despite the viewing figures on sky being massively lower than regular Premiership football, much lower than most England T20 games, and even lower than the Darts finals at the beginning of the year. The fact that some papers had 9 and 10 pages dedicated to the Lions in the build up and the post match reviews is farcical.

I know that Union have generally been much better at courting the media, however nobody can argue that they haven't been giving a big helping hand.

The RFL, although not perfect, are pretty well run nowadays, and work very hard for little visible returns at times.

Apologies for the ramble, but that is what I was getting at with my original post.