Originally Posted by
Gray77
Something that the NRL clubs do has always struck me as an idea we should have taken on board. Most if not all the Sydney clubs will play a home game outside of Sydney, whether it be in Darwin, Perth or a small town in rural NSW. But they don't just do it once, they do it over and over again every year. If you live in Perth you know the Roosters will play a home game there the next two years, if you live in Darwin you know you'll get a game or two every year, etc.
Now there are worthwhile financial reasons for the Roosters to play in Perth or teams taking games to Darwin, and it would be difficult to expect our clubs to give up a home game in similar fashion and miss out financially, but if we were to pick 6 towns or areas that we felt deserved or would benefit from having a Super League game every year why not play a round of games 'on the road' as opposed to Magic Weekend, which has ended up just being a weekend away for fans and isn't really serving it's initial purpose of expanding the game. Commit to those six areas for 3 years initially, take a game there every year and do some work around those fixtures to boost interest. Make tickets affordable, do deals for 3 year tickets to encourage people to come back in year 2, give away 500 tickets to local school kids etc, stick big screens up around the six venues so that people could watch other games before their chosen one, set up places to eat and drink around the venues, just get people in the area interested.
Wouldn't Sky support a round of fixtures that they could hype up and give some stupid tag line to whilst going to new places, whilst as a game we attempt to broaden interest in a more authentic way, or even improve interest in places were the game has suffered. For example, have two of the six games in Cumbria (Workington, Barrow or Whitehaven), one at Kingston Park in Newcastle, one in Wales, one in the Midlands and one in London. But go back year after year and see if interest grows. If it doesn't, replace one or some of the venues with new 3-year deals elsewhere.
Year One
Sat
1pm - Saints v Castleford at Barrow
3:30pm - Wigan v Hull at Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli
6pm - Catalans v Huddersfield at Twickenham Stoop
Sun
12pm - Leeds v Hull KR at Kingston Park, Newcastle
2:30pm - Salford v Warrington at Workington
5pm - Wakefield v Leigh at Bescott Stadium, Walsall