The Greatest Game... or is it?
"It's the greatest game of all". It's something we say a lot. And that's what those of us that love Rugby League think. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if we 'market' the game better or if we just had more competent leadership, the sport would be huge.
It's About Marketing, Stupid!
Marketing is a catch all term that you hear in Rugby League circles to blame for our ills. So let's start by what marketing is. It is the technique of promoting a product or event in an attempt to push a service or product.
Now let's look at an example of marketing. We'll start with a big one. The Hundred. You may have heard of it. A relatively new cricket tournament where each side faces just 100 balls each. Think of it as cricket but aimed at the Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok generation who we are told have a short attention span.
The Hundred is shown live on both the BBC and Sky. The English Cricket Board allocated a £40 million budget per year to make this tournament a success. Given that the first incarnation of the tournament lasted for 33 days, that's more than £1 million per day. Now that's marketing a tournament a right?! How good would it be if we had something like that in Rugby League?! The tournament made a loss of £9 million over its first two years.
The inaugural tournament was watched by 16.1 million cumulative viewers in 2021. That reduced to 14.1 million in 2022. Meanwhile, the Ashes series was watched by 17.8 million viewers across Sky and the BBC.
The theory in Rugby League is "if only we marketed it better, the sport would be so much bigger". The Hundred should act as a cautionary tale. A huge budget and push has led to a black hole in finances.
Blame the RFL!
The next comforting lie we like to tell ourselves is "if only the sport had better administrators, we would be massive". Now, don't get me wrong, I'd rather that Nigel Wood would not have held senior roles at Super League and the RFL after presiding over financial ruin at Halifax. I'd rather that Ralph Rimmer had not overtaken him after presiding over the collapse of Sheffield Eagles.
But we have had experienced administrators too. Richard Lewis has succeeded at the Lawn Tennis Association and Sport England. Sally Bolton has gone on to bigger and better things having left the sport. Roger Draper was a very experienced administrator when he joined the RFL in 2017.
So if I don't think it's marketing and incompetence, why are we stuck in a rut? This may not be popular but maybe our sport just doesn't have that wide appeal that we think it does.
I'll give an example. When I went to University, I lived with a group of people from all over the country. I was the only one from a Rugby League heartland. My new friends were, like me, sports fanatics. Unlike me, Rugby League was not on their radar. So I introduced them to 'the greatest game'.
The reaction was ambivalent. One enjoyed what they saw and occasionally watched other matches with me. Another thought it was ok but paid little attention going forward. Another just didn't get it at all.
And this surprised me. Because I too thought that our sport was the best kept secret out there and if we could just spread the word, we would boom. This real-life experience made me realise perhaps that wasn't true.
Maybe it isn't incompetent governance. Maybe it isn't poor marketing. Maybe it's not class prejudice. Maybe it's not a grand conspiracy. Maybe it's not that the world is against us. Maybe it is just that our sport isn't quite as appealing as we think it is.
Are You Not Entertained?!
You may think I'm talking nonsense. How could anyone watch the Penrith v Brisbane Grand Final last week and not immediately become a lifelong fan?
But fans of every sport would say similar. How could anyone watch Argentina v France in the 2022 World Cup Final and not fall in love with football? How could anyone watch the 2019 Cricket World Cup Final and not go back for more? How could anyone watch the conclusion of the 2021 Formula 1 season and not be engrossed? Whisper it quietly, but how could anyone watch England win the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003 over Australia and fail to be captivated?
I watched all of those events. The Cricket World Cup Final was one of the greatest sporting moments I've ever seen. Yet it didn't inspire me to go and buy a ticket to the next cricket match that I could. In fact, it hasn't really led to me engaging any more with that sport. So we shouldn't expect the same for Rugby League.
Sometimes the simple answer is the correct one. The reason that football is comfortably the biggest sport in the world is because that product appeals to the most people. And in turn, that's why it has the most resource, power and pull.
This is a Rugby League Town!
People talk of Rugby League towns in the UK. Here's another uncomfortable truth. There isn't one. Take Wigan for example. The town's football team's average home attendance in 2022 / 23 was 11,939. Wigan Warriors average attendance was 13,497 in 2023.
WIgan Warriors finished top of Super League. Wigan Athletic were relegated from the second division. Also, in Wigan, the vast majority of the townspeople who follow Rugby League follow the Warriors. By contrast, in addition to the Latics following, many in Wigan follow Liverpool, Manchester United and increasingly, Manchester City.
I'd wager that even in what we think of as an archetypal "Rugby League Town", such as Wigan, there are still more people who engage with football.
We may tell ourselves that the reason we are small is because of the lack of visibility of Rugby League. Yet even where it gets a fair crack, even where the town and the sport are interwoven, football is still king.
In Rugby League, we obsess about growth. Maybe it's time we stop. I'm not saying we shouldn't be ambitious. We should. That needs to be laced with realism though. We aren't the biggest sport. We may never be a major player in the UK or global sporting market.
Instead, let's appreciate what we've got. When you get growth and more money, you lose some endearing qualities. You lose the fact that the players are down to earth, you lose that connection between club and community. You may lose some of things that make this sport what it is.
We call it the greatest game of all. And to us it is. To the majority, it's not. We might feel a bit better about our sport if we made peace with that fact.
Some interesting points. Although, coming from Leigh, I'd never have counted Wigan as a “Rugby League” town in the same way as I count Leigh, Castleford, Warrington, St Helens, Feathertstone, Batley, Dewsbury etc etc. Fully admit I have my Leigh tinted spectacles on here haha
ReplyDeleteThere's a few elements to this. Just throwing money at ad campaigns won't do it all, that's correct. For the ECB one of the big yardsticks with The Hundred is boosting youth interest (which not surprisingly has dropped since Sky took most of the rights). The Hundred appears to have succeeded in that regard, and if the format does prove to be sustainable financially over the coming years they will have a gateway to the sport that pays for itself. Does the RFL have a similar strategy beyond clubs running the odd school session?
ReplyDeleteThe product isn't just what's on the field - look at the quality of the TV broadcast in terms of commentary, analysis, visual elements, even the atmosphere at the stadium itself. If I get wind Huddersfield are hosting a game on Sky I tend to swerve it because it's generally lifeless, a really stale watch - if the locals don't care, why should I? By the same token, what is Super League's USP for a young person compared to the variety of streaming services, never mind sport? There doesn't appear to be any touchpoint which would bring in a new audience (unlike F1 with Drive to Survive or NFL UK with their digital presence).
The fact the RFL now seem to be recruiting a social media officer specifically suggests they know they need to up their game on that front, but even that seems to be underpaid for the market.
Matketing certainly isn't the only thing at play, but even aside the RFL could be doing more on a few fronts.
Nice written piece and a lot of great points but I think you miss one factor that kills RL and any marketing attempts - its simply confidence. I’m in Sydney and RL is king I love the game and find all other sports mediocre but when I read about and talk to RL fans in the UK it’s as if they are embarrassed to be a supporter. If we look back to the early 90’s, players like Hanley and Offiah were household names across the RL world, English players were signed into the Sydney Comp and they were seen as giants before they even played a game - I even remember Paul Sculthorpe was the face of Gillette (correct me if I am wrong). This isn’t the case anymore. The marketing only works if the organisation believes in itself and I feel the UK RL world has lost self belief, there is few, if any, “rockstar” players, teams only exist who are happy to be part time and not reach SL and a structure that doesn’t know where it belongs. It’s like the old saying “clothes make the the man” RL should look to buy a tailor made suit, then the people around will take notice and then the marketing will win over the casual fan or the new fan who will fall in love with the greatest game of all. I will leave you with the experience of Basketball in Sydney in the 90’s it hired a few American Players, got the American marketing gurus involved and exploded in Australia- I would often see more basketball jerseys then RL jerseys, everyone was running to be part of the league - granted they cooked themselves and it fell apart however for nearly 10 years it was one of the biggest comps in all Australian sports! The lesson is be proud be confident that will reflect in how others will see you !!
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