Boxing day Derby would be great!
Would it be at Saints though ? Seeing as it was our turn to host the Good Friday Derby this year.
I just remember being ages 10-16 being a bit gutted as Xmas day was coming to a end had my presents, dinner and buffet on the night BUT then the realisation it was Saints and Wigan the day after, I was buzzing.
Whilst we may have had good attendances Boxing Days gone by, times have changed in terms of how people consume sport, not least due to the growth in technology so what may have worked 30+ years ago, may no longer work.
My worry, for want of a better phrase, is that clubs see pound signs over that Christmas period but we’re still in a time where crowds aren’t allowed to attend games or only a select amount are allowed to attend.
I also don’t really get why we’d extend this season into next year just to have to play significantly fewer games next year, due to the World Cup.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
It's a valid point, and we would be competing with wall to wall PL football on Amazon all day on Boxing Day. But, this would be a one off (unfortunately IMO) and the premise is that we would have fans back by then, and if we did I think people would treat these games as special and come out for them, especially as they would be the last two games of the season with play-off places possibly on the line. If fans aren't back by then, it makes no real difference other than we shorten the 2021 season. But I can live with that, and in theory if we want our players to be primed for the World Cup it would be beneficial if they were only playing 20-22 league games instead of nearly 30.
On a yearly basis, you could be right about lack of massive crowds over the Xmas bank holiday, but I doubt there is any support in the game or from broadcasters for RL to go back to being a sport played over the winter months anyway. As it is, Good Friday isn't much different to Boxing Day, and we get near sell-outs for the Wigan game when we only get 14k or so at other times of the year. I still think playing regular traditional derbies on bank holidays would attract big crowds, and I don't think Boxing Day would be any different really. But you may be right. We'll never have any chance to prove or disprove it though beyond this year.
I can only speak from experience, Boxing Days were great when RL was on now they're absolutely crap. The players may not agree so I'm talking purely from a selfish point of view but I preferred it to Good Friday. Viewing habits have only changed amongst RL fans because meaningful RL games on Boxing day have gone.
I probably say it every year and I know I'm in the minority but if you're talking about maximising revenue I'd start the season on Boxing Day every year.
I was thinking the same last Xmas , Sky were advertising all the big football games that were on over the holidays I thought it would be great if we were starting the season with a Wigan on Boxing day.
It would be an explosive start to the season instead of just a random weekend in January.
If memory serves it was often the New Years day game that fell foul of the weather. Although I do recall on bitterly cold Boxing day when the ref abandoned the game about half time, it was a packed ground as well. Think it was 1970
I know it would be hard on the players but I do recall we used to play Xmas day as well back in th'old days
I think we may be on to something with this idea of Boxing Day. I think we all agree the game has gone a bit stale and been lacking for some time now and maybe this would be the kick up the backside it needs. Yes, it would compete with football but Boxing day is traditionally a big sporting day and as long as the games were local I'm fairly certain there'd be some big crowds. So we could play one of W***n, Wire or Salford on BD and then another one on NYD plus have all SL teams entering the cup earlier and bin off the bloody loop fixtures. It's all pie in the Sky and I can't see it happening but we can dream.
The only problem I can see is Toronto but that could easily be fixed.
Plan according to League Express for option 3 is to play the rest of the matches in current season (minus magic weekend) i.e. 28 matches, which might prove problems with clubs that share grounds. CCF 28/11/20 and GF 16/1/21. Wigan would play Saints on Boxing Day at the DW and Wire away on NYD as the last two regular season matches if they don't mess about with the fixtures.
FWIW I would go with Option1; 22 fixtures instead of 28 with CCF 25/10/20 and GF 28/11/20. This allows fixtures to be completed this year, allows decent pre-season for the players and would have less impact on the 2021 season when we also have the RL World Cup staged over here.
Apparently now down to two options, both resulting in only a top four play off and a later finish to the season, I see that about half of the Premiership football games shown by Sky are going to be free to view together with four on the BBC (including Merseyside Derby) I still reckon that quite a few of the behind closed door Super league games will also be free, as it's increased viewing figures on free channels which will attract more advertising revenue, record viewing figures in Australia have proved that is the way to go for the moment.at least
It will be interesting to see what will happen with season ticket renewals. The usual date could well be 60% through the current season.
With the announcement in the Uk that Sport can continue from 1/6, has there been any update on what is happening with RL?
It says in the League Express clubs will receive there full money from sky for the rest of this year providing the game starts again in August
Next year clubs are looking at a short fall of around 140 grand per club and they say theve heard of a number of high profile players who are out of contract this year who have been offered significantly reduced new contracts by clubs
All of the plans for resuming the season meant it couldn’t really happen, but confirmation that the Ashes series has been cancelled is disappointing, as I was really looking forward to it when it was decided to bring it back.
Rugby Union Premiership to restart on the 15th August, presumably we also fit the same criteria to restart, let's hope the clubs have now come to an agreement as to how the season pans out, or have I missed the announcement, together with any news from Saints for Season Ticket holders
TotalRL were reporting yesterday that the season will end in November.
St Helens Rugby League Football Club