I just don't think a league game will attract enough interest, both in terms of fans of the clubs involved making the trip and in getting Londoners interested.



Especially without London in SL it would make more sense to me to concentrate on the Cup Final and Internationals in London if we're trying to increase interest/support there. You don't need to be affiliated with a club or know much about the game to go and support England v Australia/NZ. Especially as we don't have club sides that have much resonance outside the heartlands bar maybe Wigan, although that is fading.



I think we should hold at least 1 international in London plus the Cup Final, I'd be tempted by potentially moving the Grand Final from Manchester to London if it can be guaranteed every year. Then concentrate on Manchester & Wales as our potential expansion areas. Have the Magic Weekend every year at Man City alongside really trying to attract Man City fans. I don't know if they have been doing but we should be offering very cheap deals to Man City fans for the Magic Weekend plus say a couple of free tickets to go and watch Salford.



London will only respond to big events like internationals and finals in my opinion.

As a West Ham fan, I like the idea of having some international matches at our new ground

Club RU has failed in London despite a history and access to blue chip sponsors. Why do people think RL can make it pay?

Best decision union ever made was to built HQ in London

The RFL cocked up the on the road games last time they attempted them.



As an exiled Wiganer living in Hartlepool at the time I was looking forward to going to watch Gateshead's home match vs Wigan. Gateshead had what was potentially their highest profile match of the year moved to Edinburgh as part of the on the road series. Absolute stupidity!

People in non-traditional RL areas are going to want to go to "events".



An ordinary regular season game taken on the road isn't an event. An international game is.

they obviously failed today with quins only managing the 80k for a club game - broncos would be over the moon with a crowd a 10th of that

Saracens will hold a weekly round game at Wembley in a few weeks with 60 + K present. Failure hmmm

These are events, not the grind of a weekly competition. Bit like saying well the CC gets 60k+ so RL must be really popular in London.

Every game is an event. We seem to have forgotten that but it is.



RL's big problem, and how we have managed to invent the worst league structure in professional sport, is that we try and find a silver bullet for everything, especially crowds. So we have and are trying to sell the entire season instead of just trying to sell the games. Which is dumb because it is a hell of a lot easier to sell one game than an entire season of them.



So what we should be doing is selling one event, then the next one, then the next one and the next one and the next and do that for the 30+ games a club plays per year

Except every game isn't an event. It's only an event if you make it one. To make it one you need to spend some money but also you need an underlying interest and, crucially, a market of people willing to attend that event who don't normally see those teams play.



We don't have that in RL. The only RL team that even comes close to that is Wigan, due to their past. But even with significant publicity Wigan v (for instance) Saints isn't going to get much more than it would at Wigan. Because any extra people you pick up in London is going to be affected by regular fans who don't make the trip down to London.

The reason it works in Union is that there is an underlying, low level interest in Union and a willingness to attend big events at big stadiums. Plus it's a (relatively) local club involved, so you get both the regular and irregular "fans" turning up.



The only way we can get a big crowd in London is for a final or international, because the regular fans will travel for it and the irregular fans can relate to it.



The only game, in my opinion, that might do ok (approx 20k+) is Wigan v Saints or Leeds.

But that's about what you'd get anyway at Wigan and probably less than what you'd get if you put the same amount of publicity into it as you'd have to do in London.



We just don't have the clubs to generate interest in London.

Spot on, the other thing to note is that Union does well promoting these events at Xmas time, a time of year when people act a bit odd! A combination of nostalgia, boredom or just wanting to do something different makes people go to sporting events, walks in the country, visit their local pub for the first time since last Xmas etc. You cant create that same atmosphere at any other time of year.



I bet thousands of the crowd at Twickers yesterday have no intention of seeing another game all season, the World Cup wi probably be the next rugby ground they enter. I'm not knocking Union for that, other sports have the same thing, as would RL of we still played this time of year.