Excellent post pmack17.

But no actual answers to the problem , we all know what the problem is , sorting it is the hard bit

I don't think we leverage the amateur game enough. The RFU have nailed this aspect, with amateur clubs onto a nice little earner for selling international tickets. Good for grass roots, good for the crowd.

However, our own amateur game seems to treat the pro game as the enemy - just another example of the petty parochialism that blights the sport and stops it from moving forward at the pace it deserves to.

The RFL have started doing something along those lines. Bury Broncos for example are doing a 4 Nations package with rewards for selling tickets.

last year

A great that should be supported and applauded.

I havn't heard us do anything to promote going to the game, you'd think smaller clubs would want to try and sell some tickets if there was money to be made from it? Is there anything in the pipeline from Leigh?

, it involved filling a full 50 seater coach and included match tickets , coach tickets and purchase of the new England shirt , it was declined as unworkable and unlikely to be taken up in enough numbers to work

Ah, didn't realise it wasn't for pro clubs. Cheers.

That's quite a tough sell - perhaps they should have pooled tickets for amateur clubs on a regional basis, then put on a number of coaches centrally dependent on take-up?

It was the RFL trying to get the amatuer clubs to do their job of ' selling ' Internationsl RL to the fans/amatuer /junior players

Ray Tennants idea

Bury Broncos are offering coach and ticket for Wembley, coach and ticket for the final AND an England shirt for £100.

Club first, Its my love of watching Widnes that got me interested in Rugby league, Its that which keeps me interested in rugby league and were we still in the championship after next year it would be the RFL's treatment of that league and my club that would kill my support and interest in the game.

Rightly or wrongly i view our national team as the RFL's club, they do not realy represent our nation as players can switch nations seemingly at will. A player will be Irish one year, then welsh, then when theres a big tourny come up hey presto they are English, its a bleeding joke. I have paid many times to watch england, and have in the past supported them with the same kind of passion as i do Widnes. But my dislike of a lot of what the rfl are doing, and have done has turned me away from the national team.

And dont give me any of this, its your country blah blah. I didnt support England when we won the RU world cup, they dont represent me. I dont cheer us on in hockey, i dont care about it. I Dont care if england win the ashes in cricket, i dont like the sport so im not going to pretend i do when a big game comes up. At the end of the day its just a bunch of blokes that come from the same island as me, you could say the same is true of Widnes. But it feels different.

In short, Club first, club last. there is nothing in between.

Fairly sure last year it was dearer than that



They must have a lot of shirts left over

Just checked and you're right, it's £107.

Bringing back proper tours where the tourists play the top club sides in addition to tests would make me more interested and would, I think, get the fans behind the national team more, particularly if the club sides had given the tourists a run for their money during the build up. But that would depend on clubs from the touring nation putting country first which isn't likely to happen.

That joke would only make sense if England had the same shirt this year as last year.

That's not true though, is it? We don't all know what the problem is. There isn't just one problem either. There are many issues, some of which not everyone was aware of as it doesn't affect them personally. That is the point of this thread: to highlight the problems, not necessarily provide the solution. There's no point in providing a solution to one problem if it doesn't address the others, especially if it might exacerbate them.

+1

So sorry I didn't know they had a new shirt , not

The main problem is the lack of success , that is the reason most fans that don't go , don't go , all the other reasons including mine aren't really an issue

I disagree. If that was the case how come the Aussies and Kiwis don't get huge home crowds? I think lack of success is an excuse rather than an actual reason.

An opinion you are entitled to

You have the same misinterpretation I did. There's no minimum number on the ticket deal, and no obligation to take extended deals with travel and/or accommodation.

Interesting. In which case it sounds more a case of apathy on the part of the fans than lack of trying by the RFL. If the people who regularly play and watch our game CBA heading to watch England, what hope have the RFL got?