Yes games need to be taken on the road. The NRL takes games to Perth, Adelaide and Cairns and I think its crazy that no top league SL game has been taken to Bristol for instance when a world cup game is being held down there.

It would be a sell out crowd. Anything different to the norm attracts folks.

Are you that closed minded?

Agree with CDIT but .........
.....we might as well die trying than wriggling about in that dreadful M62 net.

Tbh, the game in its present state needs to put expansion ideas on the back burner for now. We've got dropping crowds and clubs skirting financial ruin to address first. Not to mention a governing body that has come up with new ideas for the league that are analogous to monkeys flinging their poop at each other.

That's. of to say I don't want to see the game expand, far from it. However, when the foundations of your house are crumbling, that is not the best time to start start building a new conservatory on the side.

Are you that dumb ???

We tried this in 1998(?), we played Warrington in Wales in front of 3 men and his dog. Right laugh

Yeah you're right. We should never try it again because it failed after being done in a cack handed way 15 years ago. How you have the nerve to call someone else dumb I'll never know.

Listing one example 15 years ago is hardly an example of why something will never work. I think the tactic they used in 1998 wasn't the best (one round of fixtures played in random locations with no reason why they were there). I think if they were looking to build up interest in an area, they should stick to one place and spread the fixtures over the year.


Just some other examples of on the road games:
2013 - 15,000 in Toulouse (Catalans vs Hull KR)
2009 - 18,000 in Barcelona (Catalans vs Warrington)
1999 - 9,000 in Leicester (London vs Bradford)
1998 - 7,000 in Edinburgh (London vs Bradford)
1998 - 9,000 in Swansea (Saints vs Wigan)

And in 1998, your game against Wire at Cardiff Arms Park attracted 4,431. Your home game against Wire that same year attracted 4,130.

I didn't all him dumb, I asked if he was HTH



FWIW - try it every 15 years from now until the year 3000, taking a game to Plymouth (eg) and thinking the public will magically love our sport forever is ridiculous.

Some people on here can't grasp the fact others don't like the same sport they do and never will.

And look at the interest in the game in all the above places now, well worth the effort.

Are we talking about Castleford or Wales?

When Cas aren’t playing in a hole in front of 5 men and his dog they can lecture other teams on playing in front of 3 men and his dog.

Quite correct, there is zero interest in RL in Castleford

There can be as much 'interest' as you want but until that translates to people in the stands and pounds in the pocket its irrelevant.

To also show that sometimes expansion doesnt work.. The CFL decided on expansion in the early 90's into American cities that didnt have NFL teams.. It was a major flop as the people in america didnt want to watch Canadian Football (Very similar game to NFL with a bigger pitch of 110 yards and only 3 down to make 10 yards instead of 4).
The point is that its all well and good saying we have teams in X and Y cities but if no-one is interested then they simply wont watch it.
The CFL eventually scrapped the American teams and kept the game in Canada (Where Canada read M62 corridoor) where even tho its not as well known around the world the people of Canada love the game and have it it their hearts.

1. When you need to compare a small town and a small country, it hardly suggests your argument is the strongest.

2. Every week, i go home and away all over the country following my club and also attend most internationals held in this country. Why does that not entitle me to an opinion ??? Are only Leeds, Wigan, Hull, Warrington etc fans allowed an opinion ??? And people say Leeds fans are arrogant.

Why? Are pounds in Wales worth less than pounds in Cas? Are the banks accepting money on the basis of population size?
You are free to hold any opinion you want, and others are free to tell you how illogical, wrong and self-serving it is. Nobody has said you shouldn’t express your opinion, just that your opinion is illogical, wrong and self-serving. And people say Cas Fans are chippy morons.

It is ridiculous, you're right. That's why NO ONE has suggested doing it.
Great strawman argument there. But can you actually argue the real points? Or are you too "dumb" to do that? (Hey, I'm not caing you dumb, just asking

)


Are you suggesting everyone outside the M62 heartlands has an opinion on our sport?
This is why you are closed minded.


What effort? One game in the road and then leaving it is not the strategy anyone is suggesting.

How do you measure interest by the way? You started with crowd figures, but now it's been pointed out to you that the figure was bigger than the Cas home figure, what's your next tactic?

It's weird that the road games seemed to have had reasonable successes in the past (crowd wise) - at least compared to the weaker clubs in the heartlands, yet have been dropped immediately. Are there any figures out there for how much these end up costing? Can't really think why we stopped testing out markets unless we couldn't afford it

the only way to see if there is a genuine interest in on the road games is to limit the tickets of the 2 clubs competing to just 500 each. that way you could then see how many neutrals from the area the game is being played actually turn up. my guess is that you would then see a crowd of about 1500 at a push.

You are right, a game held outside the heartlands between two random heartland teams, where both those teams were limited to 500 tickets each probably wouldn’t be very well attended.

In fact, if you held a game between Cas and Wakefield in Wigan and limited Cas and Wakefield to 500 tickets each it probably wouldn’t be very well attended.

People from outside the heartlands aren't going to come to us so we need to go to them. I think that the best bet is to take games to places such as Leicester, Northampton, Worcester etc. We would be more likely to attract people from RU areas as they would be more likely to appreciate the skills that RL players can show.

The point that CTID doesn't get, is that this idea isn't plonking a game in the middle of nowhere, it's stategically placing games where there is a base interest in RL already (through strong amateur/semi-pro clubs, number of schools playing etc). Places like Bristol, Nottingham, Gloucester, Oxford, Toulouse, Gillingham, Hemel & North London. Even places a little closer to home like Sheffield.

...and not just doing it once, wait 15 years and then expecting something to happen.

I'd try and hit one place three or four times in one year with one fixture each time and allow the interest to build up. A game in April, June and August for example.

But the idea would be to do it in a place where we think there is potential to build a club there, and I don't mean artificially plonking a franchise there like Gateshead. If that's one if the current CC1 clubs then go with it. But a real effort with strategy needs to be made, not hit and hope "see how it goes" one off on the road games of the past.

You got my point entirely wrong. My point is that it is better to repeatedly and methodically expose somewhere to the sport, rather than a casual occasional gesture.

The sport's problem more than anything is surely our relative lack of national exposure. If you live in places like Brum, you're not likely to take an interest in RL unless someone brings it to you, and makes an event of it.

Exactly. Excellent post. I still think some games in a large untapped urban area not too far from the heartland would be worth a go as well, though.