The future of English Rugby

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ay2oh
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The future of English Rugby

Post by ay2oh »

Interesting article by Will Kelleher in the Times about things happening behind the scenes to improve the structure of the season and clubs finances.
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GB72
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by GB72 »

On the finances (particulary on a PR and TV income point of view) I am wondering what rugby can learn from Womens' Football of all places.

Having watched a couple of matches on TV, the crowds at these matches seem less than at rugby matches (maybe a few thousand at most) and they seem to have the same issue of the international team attracting the crowds; but the international team is also driving the growth of the club game and promoting it. As a result, you have womens' football at club level on prime time BBC, you have it on Sky One at prime times and you have more media attention than you can shake a stick at. Basically the level of media attention that the professional rugby teams would love.

So, how do you convert what was a small, niche sport as far as viewing interest was concerned that has a large international following but no history of high club match attendance into something that is all over the press and which is seen as something worthy of having prime time TV deals.
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by Tigerbeat »

The big difference is that Football has a larger global audience and the money available in the game far outweighs what is in rugby. The FA have substantially more revenue than the RFU and Sponsors are prepared to cough up for Football due to its popularity.
Most football teams play between 40-60 games between September and May (League, Cup, FA Cup, Europe, Internationals), far more activity than in Rugby. 20 Premiership teams which get good attendances in excess of 20K every week,

The Future of Rugby is not looking good if players are going to go over to France, Japan to earn a penny or two. Everyone needs to look after themselves now and for the future.
No easy solution to this problem.
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GB72
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by GB72 »

Tigerbeat wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:45 am The big difference is that Football has a larger global audience and the money available in the game far outweighs what is in rugby. The FA have substantially more revenue than the RFU and Sponsors are prepared to cough up for Football due to its popularity.
Most football teams play between 40-60 games between September and May (League, Cup, FA Cup, Europe, Internationals), far more activity than in Rugby. 20 Premiership teams which get good attendances in excess of 20K every week,

The Future of Rugby is not looking good if players are going to go over to France, Japan to earn a penny or two. Everyone needs to look after themselves now and for the future.
No easy solution to this problem.
But womens' football does not have that sort of audience or, indeed, the funding from the FA that the mens game has. The figures relating to womens' football are far more in keeping with those that you would associate with rugby but it is being given the main stream media platform to grow on. Actually only 22 Womens premier league matches, one cup, one european comp so all pretty comparable.

The weekedn viewing figure showed how Premiership Rugby can work on free to air TV but it is how to get it there whilst also securing a reasonable payment. The demographic of rugby fans should be attractive to advertisers to should be prime tartget ofr commercial stations but for some reason is not.
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by northerntiger »

Rugby, be it the fault of the RFU, World Rugby or the premiershipthe premiership is terrible at promoting itself. There are not even regular premiership match reports in at least one major daily paper. No highlights show at anything like prime time. Not reported by BBC/ITV unless its an international. Attitude seems very head in the sand, we can fill Twickers so why bother. The big matches at Twickenham and White Hart lane what it is possible to do. I agree with the poster regarding woman's football, look how far that has grown through getting TV exposure
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by ads »

GB72 wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:58 am
Tigerbeat wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:45 am The big difference is that Football has a larger global audience and the money available in the game far outweighs what is in rugby. The FA have substantially more revenue than the RFU and Sponsors are prepared to cough up for Football due to its popularity.
Most football teams play between 40-60 games between September and May (League, Cup, FA Cup, Europe, Internationals), far more activity than in Rugby. 20 Premiership teams which get good attendances in excess of 20K every week,

The Future of Rugby is not looking good if players are going to go over to France, Japan to earn a penny or two. Everyone needs to look after themselves now and for the future.
No easy solution to this problem.
But womens' football does not have that sort of audience or, indeed, the funding from the FA that the mens game has. The figures relating to womens' football are far more in keeping with those that you would associate with rugby but it is being given the main stream media platform to grow on. Actually only 22 Womens premier league matches, one cup, one european comp so all pretty comparable.

The weekedn viewing figure showed how Premiership Rugby can work on free to air TV but it is how to get it there whilst also securing a reasonable payment. The demographic of rugby fans should be attractive to advertisers to should be prime tartget ofr commercial stations but for some reason is not.
Football already has the media saturation though, so it's really easy to market Womens football. England ladies rugby were in the final of the world cup last year and really should have won, but it was never given the same importance as the Womens football Euro final. No other sport will ever compete with football in this country.
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by GB72 »

ads wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 11:51 am
GB72 wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:58 am
Tigerbeat wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:45 am The big difference is that Football has a larger global audience and the money available in the game far outweighs what is in rugby. The FA have substantially more revenue than the RFU and Sponsors are prepared to cough up for Football due to its popularity.
Most football teams play between 40-60 games between September and May (League, Cup, FA Cup, Europe, Internationals), far more activity than in Rugby. 20 Premiership teams which get good attendances in excess of 20K every week,

The Future of Rugby is not looking good if players are going to go over to France, Japan to earn a penny or two. Everyone needs to look after themselves now and for the future.
No easy solution to this problem.
But womens' football does not have that sort of audience or, indeed, the funding from the FA that the mens game has. The figures relating to womens' football are far more in keeping with those that you would associate with rugby but it is being given the main stream media platform to grow on. Actually only 22 Womens premier league matches, one cup, one european comp so all pretty comparable.

The weekedn viewing figure showed how Premiership Rugby can work on free to air TV but it is how to get it there whilst also securing a reasonable payment. The demographic of rugby fans should be attractive to advertisers to should be prime tartget ofr commercial stations but for some reason is not.
Football already has the media saturation though, so it's really easy to market Womens football. England ladies rugby were in the final of the world cup last year and really should have won, but it was never given the same importance as the Womens football Euro final. No other sport will ever compete with football in this country.
Looking a few years down the line though, and with all the talk of equal prize money, increased salaries etc, it will not be long before womens' football starts to price itself out of the free to air TV budgets. WIth the precedent having been set on most channels for showing live sport in prime time slots, rugby should be competing to fill any gap.

On the media saturation side though, I do not think that international womens' football had much more coverage than international mens' rugby but they have managed to convert that into promotion of the club game.

I would also not assume that football support in general translates to the womens' game. In fact, the biggoted nature of some sections of the male support have seen it actively rallied against. The attendances that I have seen for top womens' league matches are substantially lower than for premiership rugby as are attendances at WSL matches. What you have it actually a pretty low supported game at club level being promoted as something much more than it is.

I still think that the comparison between the two is valid and that rugby is showing that it has no idea how to promote the club game.
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Re: The future of English Rugby

Post by LE18 »

I think one of the biggest problems is the complexity of the Laws, most folk can understand football, its easy to play, chuck a couple of coats down in the street, everyone can have a kick about but when it comes to basic rugby, the average person who has never played the game, cannot understand the complex Laws and so they are bored with the club game. However when it comes to International level, they all want to join the craic, be seen, drinking laughing with their mates, most don't go to those games to understand what's going on in the game. I think that's why gates are low at club level, the game only appeals to those who have played it, or supported it by their wives, partners and families.
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