Quote ="vastman"It's a fair point for debate, so I see it as the following.
Yes, it's on record, the sport was bankrupt by 1994ish.
We weren't competing with football, once the Premier League kicked in Soccer went through the roof.
We had zero TV coverage for the league pre SKY, and a derisory effort from the BBC for the CCup.
With RU's six nations and International fixture if were we competing against them in the winter, SKY, let alone anyone else, wouldn't have looked at us twice once Union went pro. They would have destroyed us because to the untrained public what would be our point in RL. Union dwarfs League nowadays, competing head on would be suicide.
Who do you think would pay what SKY pay now for a winter game (and that include SKY themselves) IMHO nobody, we'd get zip. The schedules are full of winter sports alreadY, summer is our USP.
Just how I see it, so it's a non starter for me. I mean that quite literally, I'm not freezing through a winter on the terraces or wondering if the game is even on, count me out.
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Fair enough, a lot of what you say is probably true. Let's remember though, pre Sky in 1990 BSB came about with a triangular dish! I still have an old VHS tape of when we played Australia, when Andy Mason scored a great try, they showed top flight games and introduced us to Eddie & Stevo well before the Summer era. I do realise that if a poll was taken about going back to Winter probably 80% of fans and players would say no thanks. I'm 50 next year, but if it came about, it wouldn't bother me, if i was fit and able i would go in any season. Even though i was being a bit tongue in cheek with my original post, we still are a 'Northern' game, the expansion never did happen, never mind the big cities i mentioned, which were the original 'dream' like i said. I do think we have rested on our laurels somewhat as in on the field. Ironically with RU, i think it's a far more attractive game to watch than it was even say 10 years ago, probably because half the coaches involved at clubs are ex league! I just think that if the powers that be think we need a big change, then let's have a bit more than, we'll reduce the number of games, a bit of tinkering here and there, and it's all just a damp squib that doesn't actually achieve anything in the long term.....
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