Joined: Oct 20 2004 Posts: 5766 Location: Coventry
mav wrote:Wow, they have more clubs beginning with 'B' than there are in MLB and the NFL combined. Rugby union must be the powerful sport in the US.
Meanwhile, rational earthlings do not compare the number of clubs in a single league with every single club that play a sport no matter how small or at what level thinking it proves anything.
You would be right if it weren't for the fact that every single RL club in the USA plays in the AMNRL
Joined: Oct 20 2004 Posts: 5766 Location: Coventry
Hull Kingston Bronco wrote:STOP PRESS: This story just gets better and better - have a look at this stuff we were hearing in 1997 FFS http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4370954.html
I'd forgotten all about that! The sooner our sport stops getting wound up by these jokers, the sooner we can just get on developing real opportunities
Also the West American Rugby League are supposed to be starting a new league almost every single year but the most they ever got was a scratch one off Utah Vs Arizona game a few years back
Hull Kingston Bronco wrote:STOP PRESS: This story just gets better and better - have a look at this stuff we were hearing in 1997 FFS http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4370954.html
I'd forgotten all about that! The sooner our sport stops getting wound up by these jokers, the sooner we can just get on developing real opportunities
Also the West American Rugby League are supposed to be starting a new league almost every single year but the most they ever got was a scratch one off Utah Vs Arizona game a few years back
Joined: Aug 17 2003 Posts: 17226 Location: South Wales
Hull Kingston Bronco wrote:Erm, yeah
Union is focusing on growing participation, and diversifying the player base. Feel free to stick your head in the sand and write them off as posh frat boys, maybe they were but they won't be eventually - because they have a plan to change, and the resources to do it. I can't stand the game personally, but if you think that's a worse long term strategy than having a few clubs on the East coast for a few years and then pretending a pro league wil just spring out of nowhere like magic in 2010, then good luck to you mate. I loved that Kevin Costner movie too, but I reckon in the real world they won't just come if you build it - you need a step-by-step, organic approach. Step one? Get amateurs playing the game for fun. The obsession with professionalism and illusory business opportunity is stupid - first things first, get people to enjoy the game through participation. That then becomes the platform for later pro growth. If the US guys had spent more time since 1994 focused on that, and less on grandiose schemes and bizarre press releases, who knows we might have a bridgehead now to kick on from. As it is, we've got vapourware. A great job indeed!
I haven't seen or heard any 'grandiose schemes', and the article you plucked out from 1997 was from the same time that we had the 'World Club Challenge', PSG in Super League, clubs being encouraged to merge, two competitions in Australia and a heck of a lot of other backwards ideas - it's not relevant at all, and you could easily have picked out an old article and derided the efforts of Super League or the NRL in a similar way. The AMNRL competition has been running for 12 years, and has expanded in that time. I'm not suggesting that a pro comp will be an automatic success, or that it will even happen, but Americans are far more open-minded than the British and there is nowhere near the same level of upper class corruption in the media. America also has roughly 240,000,000 more people than the UK, so there is a lot more room for other sports and there are also a lot more wealthy businessmen looking to get involved in pro sport. There are 4 new professional American Football leagues set to start in the next 2 years. An insignificant, by American standards, RL comp could be massive in comparison with the rest of the RL world. Even if it wasn't in the big cities, there are thousands of towns bigger than Castleford with no sport at all and 84 cities in California alone that are bigger than Wigan. An RL comp could be set up for relatively peanuts and still be bigger than the Super League.
King Street Cat wrote:Some might look at this as being harsh but I think it's fair. When are the Rugby League going to stop persisting with this fantasy expansion. If it hasn't worked by now, it never will! I'm all for reaching out to a wider audience with our game but not at the expense of historical clubs in the homelands.
Wellsy13 wrote:Does anyone think it's a bit confusing the whole two NRLs? Will that help or hinder this in America?
It is no more confusing than the National Football League being the top flight of Gaelic football, or even Super League being the top flight of rugby union in the US. The Australian NRL has not got any profile with the general public to have any impact at all, which those knowledgeable enough who already follow the game will be able to tell the difference.
bowes wrote:You would be right if it weren't for the fact that every single RL club in the USA plays in the AMNRL
The Universities of North Florida and South Florida do not, and they have teams. Apparently.
Wellsy13 wrote:Does anyone think it's a bit confusing the whole two NRLs? Will that help or hinder this in America?
It is no more confusing than the National Football League being the top flight of Gaelic football, or even Super League being the top flight of rugby union in the US. The Australian NRL has not got any profile with the general public to have any impact at all, which those knowledgeable enough who already follow the game will be able to tell the difference.
bowes wrote:You would be right if it weren't for the fact that every single RL club in the USA plays in the AMNRL
The Universities of North Florida and South Florida do not, and they have teams. Apparently.
King Street Cat wrote:Some might look at this as being harsh but I think it's fair. When are the Rugby League going to stop persisting with this fantasy expansion. If it hasn't worked by now, it never will! I'm all for reaching out to a wider audience with our game but not at the expense of historical clubs in the homelands.
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