Super League - What's in a name?

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This week, I saw an advertisement on Sky Sports News. It was pushing 'Summer on Sky Sports'. Super League was mentioned. But that was the Netball Super League. There was no such mention of the Rugby League equivalent.

The mention of 'Super League' pricked up my ears. But the same is true for other sports. In football, the elite women's competition is called Super League. A set of European (men's) football giants proposed a 'Super League' just last year. Netball's elite competition bears the same name. According to Wikipedia (yes, I know), there are 56 'Super League's' worldwide.

Whilst in 1995, when our Super League was proposed, the name was less common. When you said 'Super League', people thought of Rugby League, in the UK. If you were to say 'Super League' today, the average sports fan in this country would draw a parallel with women's football.

The Women's Super League (football) have even designed a new logo this week. You may feel like you have seen it somewhere before.

Ditching the Rugby

When the Super League begun in 1996, we made a conscious decision to stop referring to ourselves as 'Rugby League'. Our sport became 'Super League'. The term 'Rugby' became almost exclusive to the 15-man code.

It may have seen a sensible idea at the time, but with the rise of so many other Super League competitions, it now feels as though our sport has lost part of its identity. We are now lost in a sea of Super Leagues, swimming against the tide.

Let's take a look at our branding of the top flight since 1996:
  

We have had brief flirtations with the word 'rugby', including it in our logo at times. But, since 2014, that word hasn't been seen near any of our branding for the top flight competition. There is an argument that it isn't needed. For example, you would never here the word 'football' in describing the Premier League. There is a distinction to be drawn though. The Premier League is the richest league within the richest sport in the world. It is a behemoth. Our brand simply isn't that strong.

If we do believe that the increasingly generic nature of 'Super League' is a problem, it would still be foolish to lay our problems all at its door. If we rebranded the name of the competition, it would not lead to a flood of greater interest or spectators. Although I do think greater brand recognition would be attractive to sponsors.

To simply include the phrase 'Rugby League' within the name of our elite competition would give a stronger brand identity. Super League is now generic. It gives no indication of the actual sport played. There is a disconnect between 'Super League' and 'Rugby League'.

Will we see change? Well, IMG are now heavily involved in the sport, so they may look at it, but they (rightfully) may see greater priorities. But, as a minimum, I think its about time that we stop treating the name of our sport - Rugby League - as a dirty word.

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