Will those at the top ever listen?

Super League, National Leagues and the NRL
callum_walker
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Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by callum_walker » 08 Mar 2018, 17:14

Thought I'd write a piece about RL fans being taken for granted after the story about a potential two-tier Super League hitting the news. https://uk.blastingnews.com/sport/2018/ ... 18117.html

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Squaddie86 » 08 Mar 2018, 18:22

I like the middle 8s concept.

It gives well run championship clubs a chance to prove they deserve promotion, and means that super league teams in the middle-bottom part of the table still have a lot to play for in the tail end of the season. Simple 1 up 1 down is boring in my opinion.

Thursday night games are poison. They need to be stopped... but Sky basically own the league with the TV money being many clubs largest source of income...

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by gateman » 08 Mar 2018, 18:54

Squaddie86 wrote:I like the middle 8s concept.

It gives well run championship clubs a chance to prove they deserve promotion, and means that super league teams in the middle-bottom part of the table still have a lot to play for in the tail end of the season. Simple 1 up 1 down is boring in my opinion.

Thursday night games are poison. They need to be stopped... but Sky basically own the league with the TV money being many clubs largest source of income...
well said mate there as got to be a pathway for clubs to come into super league, and as you say Sky pays the piper so we have to dance to their tune

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Spanishtiger » 08 Mar 2018, 18:57

To answer your question Callum, no they won't.

In the early 90's I was part of a RL fan's focus group that was paid for by League sponsor Stones Bitter. It was run by a leading market research company and visited towns all over Northern England asking fans various questions pertinent to the promotion of the game and also the Sponsor's product.

Fans were asked about the possibility of summer rugby and were more or less unanimous in saying no thanks citing reasons as varied as cricket, hill walking, seaside caravans and holidays abroad as reasons that would stop them from buying summer season tickets.

Three years later, Superleague started !!!

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by callum_walker » 08 Mar 2018, 19:18

Spanishtiger wrote:To answer your question Callum, no they won't.

In the early 90's I was part of a RL fan's focus group that was paid for by League sponsor Stones Bitter. It was run by a leading market research company and visited towns all over Northern England asking fans various questions pertinent to the promotion of the game and also the Sponsor's product.

Fans were asked about the possibility of summer rugby and were more or less unanimous in saying no thanks citing reasons as varied as cricket, hill walking, seaside caravans and holidays abroad as reasons that would stop them from buying summer season tickets.

Three years later, Superleague started !!!

Thanks for telling me that spanishtiger I had no idea about that fans' focus group! Just goes to show, this not listening to the fans has been around for a while then!

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Aid » 09 Mar 2018, 07:40

callum_walker wrote:
Spanishtiger wrote:To answer your question Callum, no they won't.

In the early 90's I was part of a RL fan's focus group that was paid for by League sponsor Stones Bitter. It was run by a leading market research company and visited towns all over Northern England asking fans various questions pertinent to the promotion of the game and also the Sponsor's product.

Fans were asked about the possibility of summer rugby and were more or less unanimous in saying no thanks citing reasons as varied as cricket, hill walking, seaside caravans and holidays abroad as reasons that would stop them from buying summer season tickets.

Three years later, Superleague started !!!
Thanks for telling me that spanishtiger I had no idea about that fans' focus group! Just goes to show, this not listening to the fans has been around for a while then!
BUT, were the decision makers or the "focus group" right? What would have happened to RL if it had not moved to being a summer sport? Would it have continued to be marginalised, pushed into the background by the ever growing monster that is football and the BBC/Media in general/big business love of RU?

Or would something else have popped up to save Rugby League?
cum on you Ford

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Tamworth Tiger » 09 Mar 2018, 09:09

Including international matches all we have done is gained matches in June and July and lost them in December and January
Thats2 Summer month’s for 2 winter months
I’m OK with that. I wouldn’t mind losing February too

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by gateman » 09 Mar 2018, 09:38

I must admit I was dead against the move to summer rugby , but as it is today if we moved back the crowds would tumble, in the winter months 5-6 of us from Normanton can be seen at Sharlston Lock Lane or any were else there is a game on, we have got soft like the rest and lean to Lock Lane as we can watch the match from the warmth of the club house but we still get our rugby fix

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Spanishtiger » 09 Mar 2018, 10:40

I'm not saying that the RFL were wrong to move to summer, only that they didn't listen to the fans, as per the thread title.

I agree that the move to summer was the right move, if only because 25 years ago the state of the grounds in the top division was atrocious. Much nicer to stand on the open terraces at The Boulevard or Naughton Park in June than December.

As a sport we are beholden to what our broadcast partner SKY want, as they are effectively bankrolling the game. In return for their substantial investment they get live domestic sport to show when there's nothing else on and the opportunity to sell subscriptions to RL fans.

Personally I reckon that without the SKY money and promotion the sport would be all but finished now.

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Tamworth Tiger » 09 Mar 2018, 11:04

You might be right but having lived outside the heartlands for over 40 years, I have seen a real drop in awareness of Rugby Leaguecsince club rugby league disappeared off mainstream TV
Everyone had at least heard of Cas when the Regal and Floodlit Trophies were on BBC as well as Cup and League games. The only time last season people at work came up to me about Cas was when we thrashed Saints in the Cup on BBC
Sky have done a lot for the game but didn’t help us expand because so many people don’t have Sky

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by cogito ergo sum » 09 Mar 2018, 11:30

Fans focus groups are like all public consultations, they tick a box to prove all stakeholders have had a say, but in the end the money talks. We had a planning consultation/ public meeting in our village about two proposed housing developments. The outcome was 68 against, 1 for and 2 abstentions. Guess what's happening now?

Sky will get what they want whatever fans think.

I noticed last night, a little thing, but... KO 7.45. Leeds and Hull came out of the sheds at 7.50, KO at 7.53. Fans want 7.45. It can't be that hard.

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by tigerfeat » 09 Mar 2018, 12:47

anybody watching the game last night for the first time i doubt would ever bother watching another game ...if you have a televised game at least employ officials who have half a idea how to control a game to make it the best spectacle it can be if you cant employ officials of good enough standard then scrap the video ref and let them get on with it no doubt they will still get it wrong but at least you wont have to wait five minutes to get the wrong decision
The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have
Vince Lombardi

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Squaddie86 » 09 Mar 2018, 13:09

cogito ergo sum wrote:Fans focus groups are like all public consultations, they tick a box to prove all stakeholders have had a say, but in the end the money talks. We had a planning consultation/ public meeting in our village about two proposed housing developments. The outcome was 68 against, 1 for and 2 abstentions. Guess what's happening now?.
Houses are being built the country sorely needs?


Focus groups are good and well, but sometimes change is necessary and often the people resistant to change need to be ignored for progress to happen.

Its a cruel truth, but there it is.

The winter/summer thing is a good example- i probably still wouldn't have watched a game of about Rugby League if it was a winter sport when i moved to Yorkshire in 1999.

RL has a reputation as a parochial backwards looking sport that isn't always helped by some fans complaints (i often hear "the RFL should look after the heartlands first" in relation to Toronto - which is not funded by the RFL and who have larger home crowds than most other championship teams, and a couple of SL teams).

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Rogues Gallery » 09 Mar 2018, 13:19

Are they asking the right people though. Take the League Express survey, it's highly likely that those who replied are regular attendees at games. If we want to grow the game then it would make more sense to canvas the opinion of fans who no longer attend games?

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by cogito ergo sum » 09 Mar 2018, 13:30

Squaddie86 wrote:
cogito ergo sum wrote:Fans focus groups are like all public consultations, they tick a box to prove all stakeholders have had a say, but in the end the money talks. We had a planning consultation/ public meeting in our village about two proposed housing developments. The outcome was 68 against, 1 for and 2 abstentions. Guess what's happening now?.
Houses are being built the country sorely needs?


Focus groups are good and well, but sometimes change is necessary and often the people resistant to change need to be ignored for progress to happen.

Its a cruel truth, but there it is.

The winter/summer thing is a good example- i probably still wouldn't have watched a game of about Rugby League if it was a winter sport when i moved to Yorkshire in 1999.

RL has a reputation as a parochial backwards looking sport that isn't always helped by some fans complaints (i often hear "the RFL should look after the heartlands first" in relation to Toronto - which is not funded by the RFL and who have larger home crowds than most other championship teams, and a couple of SL teams).
I don't disagree. All I'm saying is why ask the question just to disregard the answer. I think the powers that be ask just to be seen to be asking.

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by gateman » 09 Mar 2018, 17:52

I don't know if any of you like me hate to see the players getting into the faces of the REFS arguing when a decision as gone against them, I think in days gone by they would have been warming their back sides on the bench or at least have given a penalty away, HO for a sergeant major Clay type REF

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by cogito ergo sum » 09 Mar 2018, 18:08

gateman wrote:I don't know if any of you like me hate to see the players getting into the faces of the REFS arguing when a decision as gone against them, I think in days gone by they would have been warming their back sides on the bench or at least have given a penalty away, HO for a sergeant major Clay type REF
I think he did penalise Brad Fash, but I agree. But it mirrors life. Try teaching, policing, etc etc. Nobody likes being told what to do. Confrontation has become the norm.

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Spanishtiger » 09 Mar 2018, 21:00

Tbf when Clay and Thompson were running the show everyone moaned. Same with Lindop. When Whitfield and Holdsworth were in charge nobody was happy. Ditto the Connolly double act, Cummins etc.all the way to Thaler. Part of the game.

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by gateman » 10 Mar 2018, 13:50

Yes over the years all REFS have taken some stick but rugby league prided its self on discipline what the REF said goes, today players dispute the REFS losing the thing that our game prided its self on

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Re: Will those at the top ever listen?

Post by Lofthouse Tiger » 10 Mar 2018, 14:16

Referees are scared to make a decision these days because of the big screen and constant scrutiny. Add to this the general poor state of the refs then it will only continue as it is or get worse.

Referees can and do influence the outcome of games and this all good and well when they get things right but as we know they dont always do this. Even with technology they still get it wrong. The only problem I have is when they get a blatant decision wrong. That is just poor.

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