The better the game gets, the lower its national media profile sinks. BBC TV’s Rugby League commentator DAVE WOODS looks for ways to reverse this damaging trend.
Rugby League is in need of a few big ideas. The sport that stirs our passions is slowly slipping out of the national conscience and we need someone or something to drag it back, quickly. And you might just have the answer.
In so many ways Rugby League is in rude health in the way it’s organised and played. At the top end of the game the Super League is an open and exciting competition with genuine uncertainty of outcome in most games.
Crowd figures at the majority of top-flight clubs compare more than favourably with the numbers that used to turn out before we switched from winter to summer.
And the amateur game is now played in towns and cities right across the country.
Apart from the odd grumble about wrestling and referees and such like, we’ve never had it so good.
Yet, for all those successes, one significant failure remains. We are becoming less and less visible in the media. And, as a result, Rugby League is losing the fight to be considered an important sport by those not already emotionally attached.
Ask the ordinary sports’ fan on the Clapham Omnibus (or the Newcastle metro or the Birmingham bus route) what they think about Rugby League and chances are they’ll know very little about it anymore and probably care less.
We’ve never been the nation’s number one sporting addiction. But we used to have a certain presence in the psyche of the public at large. That presence has gradually declined since we moved from winter to summer, and it’s happened for a number of reasons.
Perhaps most significantly, the number of people who watch the game on terrestrial TV has dropped significantly.
With the loss of the Regal Trophy we now have fewer outings on terrestrial TV. The necessary switching of the timing of the Challenge Cup to run concurrently with the Super League season means the majority of ties are now screened when TV audiences are traditionally lower, so that competition is watched by far fewer than ever before.
Newspaper coverage of Rugby League has declined significantly too. Not one national newspaper employs a staff Rugby League writer any longer, whereas 20 years ago they all had one.
Not that long ago Rugby League was almost certain to demand at least one major article in the majority of national papers on most days
Now the crumbs of information that do make your daily paper have had to be fought for by a freelancer trying to earn a living and trying to get Rugby League as much publicity as possible.
There will probably be several national newspapers that won’t even send a reporter to the Four Nations tournament in Australia and New Zealand this year. That’s how far down the pecking order Rugby League has fallen.
So what do we do? Well, we could do what we always seem to do and wail and moan about how unfair it all is. We could trot out a few chip-on-the-shoulder myths and blame the prejudicial treatment Rugby League gets from faceless media decision-makers who are quite clearly out to do our game down.
Or we could wise up to the modern age and realise we have to make our game much more interesting to the outsider, look at ways of grabbing the spotlight for ourselves and make Rugby League more of a soap-opera that every sports fan wants to know about.
This is where you could have the answer.
I want to hear your ideas of how we can best increase general awareness of Rugby League across the nation.
Should we provide central funds from the RFL for clubs to sign top ranking rugby union players? Gareth Thomas’ signing certainly gave the Crusaders a huge publicity boost.
Is it time to reintroduce a Regal Trophy style competition that can be sold to a terrestrial broadcaster to widen the game’s exposure?
Perhaps you believe that in the celebrity age in which we live we should pay top name celebs to plug Rugby League?
Maybe we need to look at ways of bringing in more expansion clubs into Super League? Perhaps subsidise Harlequins and the Crusaders so they can sign more star players to improve their chances of challenging for honours? A short-term method of producing long-term benefits for the game as a whole?
Or maybe being what we are – Northern, community-based, family-friendly – is our best marketing tool?
Whatever you believe would help give Rugby League a broader appeal, I’d like to hear about it. And let’s be positive folks, I’m looking for ideas not moans.
You can email me at dave.woods@rugbyleagueworld.net with your suggestions and I’ll be looking at your views in next month’s magazine.
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May 19 10 2:14 pm
For all the good that Sky has done for the game in terms of its professional presentation and coverage, we still get overshadowed by other sports. We need better marketing and media relations to get the game in the public eye again. Our players are hardly known outside of the sport yet are great marketable atheletes.
We need to get more games shown live on BBC for starters especially in the summer months when there is no Soccer Also we need to get the SL Show covered nationally and more help from Sky in including stories on Sky Sports News which is dominated by Soccer.
The planning of the season doesn’t do us any favours either. We need a big start to the season to kick off SL (how about a big double header somewhere?), a magic weekend is a must to keep as well but move it to summer when it is warmer and the Challenge Cup back to May. Then have a slot for internationals with France and an other nationalities team and show it live on terrestrial tv. Then build up to the pinnacle of the season with the Grand Final, World Club Challenge and finally the Four Nations International Series.
Feb – Double Header (start of season blockbuster at COM Stadium)
May – Challenge Cup Final
June – Magic Weekend
July – International Window
Oct – SL GF, World Club Challenege
Nov – 4 Nations Series
May 25 10 1:37 pm
Dave, I think you summed it up when you said rugby league is northern-based, family friendly, community-based. therefore its a minority sport which few people outside the M62 Coridor actually care about, I like RL but watching programmes like Boots and All is an absolute embarassment to the game, Barrie Mac and Terry O’Conor are cringeworthy and make a mockery of the game and RL in general ‘thick northeners’ arent we all!
Jun 5 10 4:41 pm
Here’s a thought why don’t we do what they do in Australia where they show Friday night games via free to air channel The Nine Network. Why don’t we do the same with Super League on either BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5. That way loads more people will be able to see the rising talents of the game such as: Kyle Eastmond and Sam Tomkins.
Jun 16 10 10:37 am
While I can see why some people would want more super league games on Terrestrial TV I don’t really see how that is fair on Sky. Sky have done lots of good for Rugby League and pay a good money for Super league so why should they have to give up a game every weekend.
Also there is no guarantee people would watch a super league game on terrestrial TV. If ratings for the challenge cup are down then why would people tune into a super league game.
I wanna see this great sport grow in the UK/Europe but it is unfair to make comparisons with Australia and the NRL. I do believe Sky need to do more, Boots n All needs a revamp and more southern pundits should be employed. Sky Sports News needs to promote Super League more, Super League does better ratings then the Guinness Premiership but Sky’s promotion for Union is far greater than Rugby League.
Jul 12 10 9:49 am
Im a Southern rugby league football evangelist who loves the game. I regularly attend Quins games and used to play football for the Skolars in their first pro season. My first recollection of league was when the famous GB tests in the 80′s I think it was the 86 test where Mal Meningas Roos nicked the series off Ellery Hanleys with a last minute try. A lot of people in my school were talking about it and that series and players involved generated a lot of buzz. I cant see that same sort of buzz in this region with the current setup and flaling media interest. What is needed in the sport is a renaiscence. I would rip up whatever has gone in the past and look to embrace technology.
Look at at what WWE and wrestling did to draw crowds, even something as apparently innocuous as 20/20 cricket has taken the bull by the horns and promoted itself through its style of game and technology.
Im going to send you a full email Woody detailing what I would do to A/. increase crowds at somewhere like Quins and B/. Increase public appreciation and awareness. We need to look at the examples of US sports that have reinvented themselves. American football only needs to mention a possible game at Wembley and they sell out within minutes. Why you ask yourselves? Because the package they offer at the game is something else. Half the people who watch it don’t understand whats going on.
In brief for the game to survive, I would
a/. Change name of body and game to something that encompasses football and disregard rugby connotations altogether. ‘Open League Football’.'New League Football’. ‘Rage League Football’ even. The name change would get people sitting up in the first instance.
b/. Change the game to quarters so there is more entertainment in the interim periods and food and drink can be served down the aisles.
c/.Advertise the new Renaiscence on terristial with some celebrity figures.
d/. Drop the regional names altogether – monikers only.
e/.Create a gimmick somewhere – Create an association with another sport like WWE with a wrestler trying the game and even promoting it.