So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a professional cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals.
Why?
Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing!
Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience.
Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such.
Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths.
Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am
So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a professional cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals.
Why?
Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing!
Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience.
Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such.
Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths.
Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am
Last edited by HertsSaint on Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a profession cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals.
Why?
Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing!
Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience.
Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such.
Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths.
Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am
I could not agree more. The game day experience being bigger and better MUST be a priority for all clubs and the RFL.
'Great defence, always wins games, y'only have to score one more point than them. If tha does, tha'll win, if that doesn't tha'll lose, learn from it, more than the win last week.'. Peter Fox, 1980.
Some of us *myself included* have posted this kind of "College Football" stuff on the Leigh fans pages on FB recently. Clubs need to engage with fans & ask & listen to what we like.
Ask if there is a popular song to enter to like "Jump Around" & "Enter Sandman" used by College grid iron teams. Ask what the club can do for kids & adults alike to get us in early & spending money.
Do we want a 9's Comp ?
The big difference here is that College Football is attracting 40,000 + fans & R.L 3k - 10k !!! Easier to create a scene like that with a rammed full stadium every week.
Wigg'n wrote:College football is bigger than all sports/leagues over here except the Premier League.
There are no comparisons you can make to RL in terms of investment, spectacle, level of athlete.
I think Leeds make around £10m revenue? Penn State make £75m+ and they’re barely in the top 15 colleges for revenue.
Yes I know - 106,000 at the game last night. Not sure your point? Obviously they’re bigger but that wasn’t the point I was making. I gave a whole list of similarities in the areas they leverage which are not dissimilar to our strengths and using these to promote RL seems a good direction to market our game.
So I’m up late, watching college football on espn and the solution to RL’s problems has come to me in a flash of inspiration. College Football in the states has a lot of similarities to rugby league in the UK. A game built on tradition spanning more than 100 years, rivalries which are equally as old. There’s a professional cousin where much more money can be made but college games actually get larger attendances. And…..they generate huge TV revenue deals.
Why?
Because of the tradition, the rivalries, the histories, the stories going back generations, the pride in your local team. And of course, as you’ll see in the clip - the gameday experience! I’m watching Penn State v Auburn and no-one going to this game tonight would say they’ve not enjoyed it….whatever the result. Getting so many people bought into the same thing is amazing!
Imagine a “White Out” game at St Helens…..everyone wearing white, get there an hour before, get the music blasting, Zombie Nation…. “WE ARE THE SAINTS!!”. Make it so that there’s only one place to be in town on that Friday / Saturday night. A can’t miss experience.
Don’t worry about London, Toronto, New York or whatever, let’s make our game the biggest event in the towns we already play in. It would look amazing on TV and we go from there. I know for me (40s), for you (60s probably) the game itself should be enough…..here’s some news..it’s not! We’re in competition, not as a sport but as an entertainment product - so let’s get it bloody set up as such.
Look at the Hundred or the IPL in cricket….fake teams that have no real basis. We have such a huge headstart on that, play to our strengths.
Anyway, if anyone at Saints or RL marketing want to talk about it, you know where I am
Back of a beer mat musings do not make for a structured achievable plan. YOU are already a RL fan. The good folk who live in St Helens, Wigan, Warrington etc already know the teams exist and that games are on....they just don't care enough to go. You're correct that the matchday experience isn't as good as it could be, but that's more to do with the clubs themselves cutting back, not the game as a whole. Your "imagine a white out" comments betrays you as a fan. What is needed is non RL people to be engaged in selling the sport. The RLWC 2013 semi final was marketed by a non RL company and was a huge success. RL has to stop milkingnth same fans (some clubs issue 4 or more replica shirts a year) and reach out to new ones.....a "white out" ain't going to do that. The game needs to reconnect with its roots....schools, amateurs, local companies.....I recall Wigan selling half a stand to a local firm a few years back for a game....Heinz? Didn't the big soup sponsorship thing happen soon after? That's how you grow the game......and forget the hundred or IPL.....the amount of money ploughed into the hundred by the ECB would bankrupt us....and the ipl is owned by billionaires. College football is based around affordability and school rivalries......they have societies and groups who are responsible for whipping up support and selling packages.......if you want to engage locals as fans, start with the schools.....attending games is a habit and if you get them young you've got them for life.....it's a problem now faced by football in the UK with 18-25 years odld being less engaged with the game now than at any time in the modern era (80's onwards) Eddie hearn is quite probably the answer. It's just that the RFL/SL can't agree on what th question is.
Isn't College Football huge somewhat because of the relative lack of other big sports teams in some town/cities in the USA ?
So you can pull in RL supporters via a gimmick, Keighley and Bradford did that pretty well, but unlike the USA there's plenty of other UK sports vying for your supporters attention within a 1 hour drive
I don't disagree that the game needs to re-engage to grow, just in how it does that.
shinymcshine wrote:Isn't College Football huge somewhat because of the relative lack of other big sports teams in some town/cities in the USA ? So you can pull in RL supporters via a gimmick, Keighley and Bradford did that pretty well, but unlike the USA there's plenty of other UK sports vying for your supporters attention within a 1 hour drive
I don't disagree that the game needs to re-engage to grow, just in how it does that.
Very good down to earth post.
People know what they want and what's on offer, last Friday 13,000 found their way to Headingley????.
Fair play to genuine posters who float such ideas
Truth is however the cost of mass advertising campaigns always far outweighs the value of the number of fans that are consequently attracted to the game.
Leeds marketing know how to best get a crowd, without spending an extra £10,000 on advertising only to sell £5,000 worth of extra tickets.
As much as we should be trying this, can you imagine rl fans, 'what they want me to wear a *insert colour* t shirt, they can chuff off, im not doing that'
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