I couldn't agree more and have been saying exactly the same for some considerable time. The RL group prayers past and present debate this point on a regular basis. 

Я не могу не согласиться почти со всем, о чем сказано, то же самое мы говорим в течение значительного времени. Группа игроков из РЛ в прошлом и в настоящем постоянно обсуждют этот вопрос.

I totally agree with this article but due to the fact that the hierarchy of our sport seem to regularly shoot themselves in the foot it doesn't do our great product any good at all. 
Following on from the World Cup we have stood still. The RFL seem to be happy to accept the fact that we are a regionalised sport and don't seem to do a whole lot to promote and advertise our great game. 
It is very sad to see that the NFL having games at Wembley is better advertised than our 3 game series against New Zealand we should be bombarding the media with advertisements but no they just expect loyal rl fans to turn out again. While this carries on our sport will not develop or grow. 

Я полностью согласен с этой статьей, но в связи с тем, что иерархия нашего спорта, кажется, регулярно обувает на себя кандалы, и это не позволяет нашему отличному продукту извлечь пользу для всех.
После Кубка мира мы остановились.RFL, кажется, должна быть счастлива, что признает тот факт, что мы являемся региональным спортом и, похоже, не делает ничего, чтобы продвигать и рекламировать нашу великую игру.
Это очень грустно видеть, что NFL (Американский футбол), имеющая игры на Уэмбли, лучше рекламируется, чем наши 3 игры из серии против Новой Зеландии, хотя мы должны бомбардировать СМИ рекламой, но нет, они снова просто ожидают верных поклонников RL. Пока это происходит таким образом, наш спорт не будет ни развиваться, ни расти.

With our england v new zealand test just a few weeks away you are spot on hardly anything in the media pussing the games to sell out and create a mega marketing brand the rfl as dom says like to be a small sport but we need ambitious people willing to push into the big leauge with big companies aswell.worst these companies is say no so lets ask the questions ????

The rfl have a lackluster aproach to success they did an amazing world cup and magic weekend but there is a lack of pushing our great sport into the lime light with getting tv coverage and media coverage wether it b billboards. radio. Tv or social media devices need to change from the top to bring someone with passion for successtake a leaf of the americans in advertising and union hit the mark with there media machine now its time the rfl stood up and started to be counted

I totally agree. We have sold our souls to Sky, just like many other sports, such as cricket and snooker. Sky now own our main marketing ability and can either build us or ruin us at their will.

Spot on. The RFL are short sighted and focus on the domestic game clearly thinking the way to expand RL is by initiatives like Millennium Magic. Well who but exiting RL fans are interested in that now the novelty has worn off? It's just another round of the league. Same with their "whole game approach" that tries to look after every club from the smallest semi pro outfit from a tiny pot of money due to their inept negotiations re the TV deal. The people at the top have been there too long. Fresh blood is needed as Nigel Wood and the rest of them have failed the game for far too long with their misguided domestic focus.

What a dreary, uninformed article. Rugby League is built on the club game. The RFL is trying to get fans of the club game to follow an international game with little or money. Zzzzz!

Time for Nigel Wood and co to stand down. They are doing more damage than good to our game.

Good stuff. I love RL but it will never have RU's international profile or (in England) it's affluent fan base

Great article. Ever since Wood and Rimmer became head honchos the game has retreated back to the heartlands quicker than you can shout M62 corridor.

I totally disagree with what you have said, sorry. 

“But this isn’t Rugby Union or the RFU’s fault” . Well a big part of it is do I have to go through the discrimination against the sport because I pretty sure we have heard it all before but I am not going to be left to feel guilty because I have mentioned it. It is not anti-Rugby Union sentiment it’s pro –Rugby League equality. 

Now a huge amount of people have been brought to our sport and I am more than willing to prove this so I don’t know what you are going on about when you say “The reason we fail to attract new people to our sport is because we under sell it” because we haven’t failed to attract new people into our game. 

Rugby union is pumping more money into the game but they are constantly having talks about participation falling. 

I really find it puzzling as well when you say “After the Rugby League World Cup there was a great sense of optimism that we could springboard ourselves into the big sports and rival Rugby Union” did you really think this was going to be done over night. It would have been nice for England to have a game but who against because playing France is not really sexy, at the moment. 

The lack of TV coverage is a problem but we can’t put a gun to TV bosses heads and force them too. We are not Rugby Union and we don’t have the Vichy on are side. The TV coverage does have to be increased and that is the RFL problem and it’s a big problem, I don’t know how to do it. 

I think this article shows a huge problem with are game too many people within it unfairly bring it down.

Sorry Billy......but whilst you carry on reminding us of how hard done by you think RL is, the Union lot have absolutely and utterly reduced us to an afterthought. 
Nigel Wood and the rest of the "management" are experts at self preservation. We don't have a serious presence south of Widnes and all of our UK based top 24 sides are based in 8 counties compared to Unions 24 clubs across 22 counties.....we aren't of interest to major sponsors, we took a sky deal when it was too early (see bit about self preservation above) and we fail miserably when ever compared to the other code. 
We have the better game.....but nobody really knows or cares....and to make that change we need change at the RFL!

Sorry gutterfax, you are clearly wrong but I did like your Ad Hominem attack trying to make out that I’m paranoid. “but whilst you carry on reminding us of how hard done by you think RL”. 

Think are you being for real. I know RL has been hard done by. Is it not a historical fact that RU banned League in France? I’m not going to stop talking about it because of fear of being label as being paranoid because I have something called a pair of balls.

But lets not stop with France. Let’s look at Britain. 
https://youtu.be/AyPFfCPAuZE

All the different pins on this map show clubs that were founded between different periods of discrimination from Rugby Union. 
The red pins represent any club founded before the formation of BARLA in 1973, which made it harder RU to thrown the amateur card at RL.
The white pins represent any club founded between the formation of BARLA and the year of 1994 when David Hinchliffe bought in the sports (discrimination) bill which force RU to drop its shamanism.
The orange pins represent any club founded between 1994 and the sandhurnst incident where sandhurnst refuse to let its cadets to play RL. This highlighted the fact that RU hadn’t stopped with the discrimination even though both sports were now openly professional. 
The Blue pins represent any club founded after 2003. 

Want we can see when looking at the map is that there are huge increases in RL after these points. It is also noticeable to see massive growth outside of RL homelands. As there are now lots of clubs in the South of England. 

After looking at this it totally disproves your point that League doesn’t have a serious presence south of Widnes unless you are talking about pro clubs, which I think you are but this is the point to that, you are not being a realist. As the map shows it has only been about 13 years where League has had the freedom to make a serious move down South. If you really think that you can build a serious presence in 13 years, you are crazy. 

Now you, and this article, are making the positive claim that the RFL incompetence is having a bigger negative effect on RL. Then what’s RU clear discrimination has had? Now the Burden of Prove is on you and the editor of this article to prove this, which is going to be hard as RL is growing.

But hear is an analogy of what you are doing. It is like someone being stabbed going to the hospital and then blaming the doctor for not saving his life. 
Where I’m putting the responsibility on the attacker.

The Game on international level is run poorly not just RFL. We have a great game somehow people in control refuse to take it to its true potential.
I remember during the last word cup I had a layover in Heathrow I didn't find not a single banner for the RLWC
A change is needed

Spot on article!

Union and League are separate entities and as such it is self defeating to look at Union and want this or that because they have it and League doesn't.
League fails to grow quite simply because it is fundamentally a regional game, and big club wise, an M62 corridor game. You can't market to a country something without national appeal.
I agree though, and I am an ex League fan, that the running of League has historically varied between poor and farcical. 
The running of Super League undermines the credibility of the game to a wider audience, from the switching of the season, to the farcical refusal to relegate and promoteand the ridiculously complicated end of season play offs. 
To an onlooker the Magic Weekend just looks like an attempt to drum up some money, and offer a weekends entertainment for stag do's. The lack of its own decent figurehead stadium also doesn't fit well with a country that loves its icon venues, Wembley, Lords and Twickenham all mean something to the sport, where is that reference point for League.
It has sold its soul, it's a manufactured sport, which struggles to define even what a legal tackle is, that lies with the people who have run the sport, but also those followers who look at big brother and want what he has. League has a level of popularity in this country, it's probably at it. Make the best of that instead of over reaching the clubs and the sport.

With the Sky Sports Xtra games that were broadcast, were these included in the 93?

The article expresses my feeling that I've for years. I would go as far as to say it's time for Super League to break away from Red Hall, we have done in the past. The first I then would do would be to put the name Rugby League back into game instead of Super League

Well put.
As a journalist I've advocated a root and branch restructuring at Red Hall ever since the much promised RLWC2013 legacy failed to appear.
We have a national manager who is only good enough to command an assistant job in the NRL, has never won anything at club level and yet appears to be bulletproof in the eyes of Red Hall.
The fact that Brian Barwick very nearly oversaw the demise of football when he was involved with ITV digital really won't fill anyone with confidence.
Was he really the best choice?
We are far too scared of union.
What we need is younger, more forward thinking leadership.

Totally agree. The RFL are a weak governing body. The product and values of rugby league are second to non. The business marketing department must be held to account. I also think they are scared of looking for other broadcasters other than sky. The tail wagging the dog?

i agree with most of the comments stated in what I think is a Brilliant article the Big problem is however in the 100 odd years since R L was formed they have never 'spread the game nation wide' it still is only really played down the M62 corridor, Cumbria clubs apart,No desrespect to the 3 rd tier clubs but they are Never going to be competitive or finaceally viable because no one is really interested in going to watch them,you just have to look at the crowds over the last few years,over the years when the likes of Fulham ,Cardiff and some good teams and were fairly well supported what happened,? The powers that be just sat back instead of Really getting 'stuck in' and marketing the game in these new areas,and still they never learn,I really fear for the future of the game unless Somthing Radical is done,if England don't beat what I think is a Understregth Kiwi side this year it could be the Final Nail as far as International games go,finally as far as Spreading the game just seen where London Irish will play Saracens in New York as their 'Home Game' next year, now that's 'spreading the game

Great post

It's a myth that the Union Premiership attracts more fans than superleague. A good crowd is 9-10,000 with some matches attracting around the 3,000 mark. Attending Union internationals is an excuse to drive into London in the Rover (a main sponsor) in your barber jacket and matching scarf and have a prawn sandwich washed down with a guinness.
I went to LSV on the bus and took some butties.
As for London Irish spreading the game playing Saracens in New York, they are currently bottom of the Premiership with no points, more about taking money from homesick expat irish than expanding the game.
Is there anywhere abroad where Miners moved away and set up large colonies where we could do the same?
Oh yes, Australia

Stew.
2014-15 Aviva Premiership
132 Regular season games watched by 1,760,059 spectators averaging 13,334 per game.
Now, this total figure includes the 66,164 that would have been counted twice as it was both the regular home season game of London Irish and of Saracens, so I'll remove it for you.
This gives us 1,693,895 fans over 132 regular season games, or 12,833.
As for International Rugby Union. The 6 Nations in 2015 attracted over 1 million fans to 15 games averaging over 69,000 per match. That's a hell of a lot of prawn sarnies and Land Rovers buddy and I'm not sure the Italians, who had 190,000+ at their 3 home games even like Prawn sarnies or know what a Land Rover looks like!
Then you rant about home-sick ex-pat Irish, as if we'd all just moved out their last week. The Diaspora as it is known has 36,000,000 Americans who claim to have Irish heritage...so taking a game to the USA would seem like a good idea.

Stew. As a RL fan it really pains me to say this, but so called "fans" like you who make sweeping and factually incorrect statements in regards to the bigger and more popular code of Rugby Union do nothing other than reinforce the stereotype of chippy bitter northerners. 
100,000+ people will watch the 3 test series over the coming weeks and they will be entertained with skilful Rugby League, but because RL will then retreat as a professional sport to the M62, hidden away on SKY TV, the sponsors and investors looking for a sport to promote their products nationally will again ignore us...and as the article says, that's the fault of those running the game, not Saracens filling Wembley!
Cheers
Gutters!

What do you means so called "fans" if he enjoys the sport then he is a fan. Is this a no true Scotsman card being played here. 

I still think that the figures of 1,693,895 fans over 132 regular season games, or 12,833 are a bit fallacious. As it's not really fair to use a mean average because RU put on massive events, where the crowds are just turning up for a day out. So let's take these out and is if what Stew said is fair and lets also take out the finals because its always fallacious to put these it because it depends what teams make the grade. 

1802769-((66164*2)+82000+84068+13362+13349+80589)=1397073

So this is 1397073 over 125 matches. 

Which has a mean average of 11176.584.

Now when you take in that London Wasps have moved to Coventry. You will see that they are getting abnormal crowds due to the novelty. 

When taking this into account what Stew said "A good crowd is 9-10,000 with some matches attracting around the 3,000 mark" seems quite a fair thing to say. 

Don't know why you started to bring International into the equation because Stew didn't say anything about Internationals.

Cheers 
Billy

And in Stews response you have the problem with League that probably means it gets the leadership it deserves. Gross crowds are higher for Union than League, International crowds are higher because the national demand is higher. 
As for visiting games, the RWC was in Leeds, and I worked at the stadium for the week, the mix and manner of all who attended was a positive experience for all associated with Leeds Utd, and there was hardly a barber jacket in sight.
The promotion of the game abroad is twofold, one for the club, and the other linked to capitalising in the growing interest in the game abroad.
Union looks to the future, controls its own destiny, sinks money into grassroots and developing rugby areas, and also has a wide spectrum of fan base. Visit a Union club, particularly round here to get an idea of the broad spectrum of people Union has attracted if you are that bothered, but for Gods sake, if you want to expand, take the chip off your shoulder and do something positive and focussed with the game.

Hi Billy,
First up, I repeatedly said "regular season games" so no need to pull the final or the 2 semi-finals to suit your agenda. Then there's the matter of the "event" games that Saracens and Harlequins run as stand alone games. Both clubs run these single regular season events and both are entitled to count the fans......just because wigan can't get any more than 8k in London for their "event" doesn't mean sarries or Quins should not be applauded for their efforts.

Then there's the comment about internationals......read Stews original post .....this bit in particular:

"Attending Union internationals is an excuse to drive into London in the Rover (a main sponsor) in your barber jacket and matching scarf and have a prawn sandwich washed down with a guinness."

.....and I'll save you the trouble by accepting your apology already.

The trick is Billy.....if you don't want to sound chippy, then don't try to poke fun at the better run sport that has more fans both domestically in the UK and Internationally globally.......and if you must, don't tell lies to back up your stance, or try to remove attending fans because you don't like the way other sports market themselves!

You're welcome by the way and if you need any more pointers, you know where to come!
Cheers
Gutters!

It amazes me that the author makes such a sweeping statement that Union players have an inferior skill set- however I would respect an opinion.

This is just an observation (and an opinion) I enjoy watching both codes but when the RL World Cup landed on English soil in 2013, I was expected to pay for a premium satellite channel in order to be able to watch and support my national team. The Rugby World cup is on terrestrial telly and able to be accessed by millions. 

Which genius though it would be a good idea to put Rugby league coverage on a pay per view channel?

The rugby league community the same as the union community must remember that this is OUR game and the people entrusted to govern and manage our game are there to work for us.

If you want change then the work has to begin somewhere, I would start with sorting the RLEF as all they seem to do is threaten sanctions over people in developing nations if they don't like what they are doing!