Good post. Agree with all of it. Just wanted to touch on the celebrity issue and mention that no one works harder in promoting RL (especially PDRL) than Adam Hills. An outstanding ambassador for the game.Good thread. I sympathise with those that say we should try and make games more like 'events' but in theory we already have quite a lot during the season with Magic Weekend, Challenge Cup Final, Grand Final etc. If we wish to market the game properly and attract big 'celebrity' names to our game then these are the three weekends to do it. I don't see any evidence that we even bother trying to make any of these ready made events that special to be honest, which is a shame as Newcastle is full of students and also full of RU types who latch on to things especially outside of the football season. Maybe try not to play MW on the same day as the FA Cup Final for a start. The Aussies now have their MW, and I bet more effort went into marketing their first one last year than we've out into ours in the 14 years it's existed here.
The Cup Final being moved forward should give us an opportunity for it to become one of the big Summer events if we market it right. It's in London, it's on free TV, and it's not going head to head with the 3rd or 4th weekend of the new football season for a change. If marketed well it could become a bigger event, and with proper BBC input it could be hyped up as one of the 'events of the BBC Summer'. When they do those promo videos hyping up their summer of live sport we should see the Challenge Cup Final on there alongside Wimbledon, Euro 2020, Olympics, The Hundred etc.
These are the weekends when we should be doing more, because it wouldn't actually take that much effort to improve the image and stature of them. In the new TV deal we need to get at least one game per day from Magic Weekend live on free TV to showcase club RL being played infront of 40,000. With the Cup Final only a couple of months later on we could then have two weekends in the football off season when RL is on free TV being played in front of big crowds. But it needs to be marketed, and it needs to be showcased.
The rest of the season should not be used to attract whoppers and fly-by-night Z list celebrities. RL has something unique in modern sport, namely authenticity and clubs that have real connections to their roots. I agree with the comments above about the Darts and certain big club RU showpiece events where it is quite obvious that half the crowd couldn't care less about what is going on. Watching a darts player lining up for a match winning double at Ally Pally whilst 1,000 beered up 'fans' in fancy dress are chanting 'Yaya Toure' whilst ignoring the pivotal thing that they've paid loads of money to witness is not something I would wish on any serious competition that I was passionate about. Imagine seeing thousands of RL 'fans' in fancy dress chanting 'stand up if you love the League' with their backs turned to the pitch whilst someone is lining up a match winning conversion, etc. No thanks.
Whilst we may decry the lack of atmosphere and the sanitised new grounds compared to ones some of us grew up with (and I do that all the time) at least when you turn up for a game you know everyone is there for the right reasons. Magic Weekend and to some extent the Cup Final are ideal events to attract new people, celebrities, non RL media in to the game. Use them, promote them and prioritise them as the big marketing weekends for the club game, and of course the Ashes Series and the 2021 RLWC are massive as well for the game. Do those things right and we don't need to worry about the rest.
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