The Virtual Terrace • EPL clubs battle for 2021 world cup games

I have no idea who attended that game or what the ticket prices were or what marketing they did. However, I do know that there is huge interest in international rugby union that simply doesn't exist with international rugby league. England rugby union gets 80000 at Twickenham seven or more times a year. England rugby league could only get 67000 at Wembley for a once in a blue moon World Cup semi final in 2013. I'm not knocking England RL - I like the sport and I'll always back my national team - but you can't pretend that the two sports are equal in terms of interest in the international game. Therefore just because RU can do something, it doesn't follow that RL can just copy it and achieve the same results. That's just pie in the sky stuff.



I'm saying that RL needs to be realistic. It needs to forget about RU and look at the evidence from past attendances and be sensible when trying to decide what sort of stadium is appropriate for each fixture and each stage of the competition. In principle I'm not against using any stadium. I'd be delighted if they used Wembley and got 90000 for Samoa v USA. But my head tells me that sort of attendance is unobtainable. I think 30000 is probably too optimistic as well. Good marketing and promotion can help any event - sporting or otherwise - but it can't work miracles.




The BBC doesn't hide anything. That's paranoid nonsense. The RLWC just isn't worth showing because not enough people are interested in it. What they do cover they do well. You can't tell me that Mark Chapman, Dave Woods, Brian Noble etc. aren't positive and enthusiastic about RL. But you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear. If RL is unhappy with the BBC's coverage of the world cup it can instead go to ITV or Channel 4 or Sky or BT. Or are you going to claim that they're all against RL too?

Statistics: Posted by Muggins — Wed Dec 13, 2017 1:07 pm — Replies 22 — Views 613

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