What do you think needs to happen to make the championship an attractive comp?
There has been a stigma about the championship for years and I think RL is missing the trick. Back in 2006/10 it seemed like the championship was thriving with live Thursday night games on sky and genuine rivalries.
RL need old traditional to RL towns to buy into RL again, and the championship should be the vehicle for that.
The championship needs more exposure, similar to football.
it needs a good tv platform to show how good it can be
not sure if there still is a salary cap in the league - having said that there are not many that would get near it anyway !
Also get all clubs to get involved with local rugby - the town team knockout rounds to be played as a curtain raiser for instance
There will eventually either a breakaway from SL or we become like Australia - never to be promoted
I don’t think it should be a financial issue, RL can thrive in this country without investment.
What we need in the championship is fan experience and that is something that is deeply lacking at Widnes along with other clubs.
I came across this whilst I was looking for details on how the championship fixtures work these days.
I must think about this more than is healthy.. 🤔
For me we need to look at this top down starting with the game itself.
I saw something on Instagram where Andy Farrell was talking to Haskell(?) and they were both saying what an amazing sport Rugby League is. And that should be the starting point! The game is brilliant. It is fast, high intensity and full of drama and impact. It is also quite a quick game to pick up and understand. The product is a really good one.
I know this is going to be a difficult one with budgets being cut etc. but what is the situation with schools playing rugby league? For many this might be their first taste of the sport. Can the clubs offer a couple of young trainee coaches if schools don't have the staff to help support?
Also if you are a kid the probability of you ending up playing a decent standard of semi-pro rugby should be good. Can teams play on that more?
I suppose the BIG question is can they make the Championship a thing in its own right? It shocks me the apparent disregard that everyone outside of the competition has for this level and below. It is surely logical that this competition, along with academies, is the best way to increase the player pool and the games reach.
I don't know the answer to this although I suspect that the answer is no, but do the RFL have at least one single person concerned with looking at the championship and how to stop the rot and grow the game? Working with the clubs to form a joined up approach? The treatment and obvious afterthought definitely suggests no. But that salary would potentially easy make a return on investment.
Spend time now thinking about a league format that works and then commit to sticking with that for the next 5-7 years. Start with the aim of making it fair for all teams. Sort out the Loan and contracts situation. Make it clearer.
There has to be glamour! Patches for the team's shirt they get to wear the following year as Champions! Championship Winners 2026! One of those floor decal things as the players run out with the team name and Championship Winners 2026 on it. Spend some money on a really nice trophy and as someone else suggested organise a game against the winners of the French tournament or something.
Exposure is the next big thing... the streaming thing is good but it is only probably being used by fans of the clubs that cannot make the game. Give the person in charge of the championship and the clubs the opportunity to try and arrange their own TV deal. If it is Channel 4 or Channel 5 offer it for free and ask for one magazine show per week. Get some intelligent voices to host and do the analysis. And do not mention Superleague if you can. Make it about the Championship. I am sure this bit is maybe impractical and really hard but worth a shot. The Championship in its own right has to be in the top 20 sports in the UK... and these days I can see fishing (which I don't mind watching from time to time), netball and all sorts on TV. Like I said above Rugby League is a fantastic product.
Exposure wise there should be hand in hand marketing between both clubs and the local newspaper groups. Offer free advertising for the weekly paper/streaming at the ground and free content for coverage. Coach interviews etc. both the club and the paper can win if they help each other out.
The social media game of the clubs has to be a bit better. Hats off to the guys at Widnes for improving things but when my lad watches footy via social media he is not really watching Dan Murray and Nick Gregson trying to get out of a comical situation. That has its place sure... but he watches video compilations of players set to high tempo music. Can we have videos of Dan Murray smashing into people! Adam Lawton breaking lines and feeding players around him while defenders lay sprawled on the ground. Ryan Ince flying through the air to score tries. Tight on some of the lads but build a strategy around a handful of players and try and make them local heroes. Make the kids want to emulate them. Put them on a bit of a pedestal.
THEN create excitement before games by playing on the rivalries. The clash of the Titans! Dan Murray vs Whoever from Halifax.. Make the games about local pride and about our lads being better than whoever we're playing. I appreciate it might be difficult depending on the camera angles you have in games but the excitement for the games needs to be laid in advance and then put on a matchday experience to
Ticket prices - Can they not be capped at £20 per adult and £5 for any kids 10-16 or something... I don't know about club finances and whether that would bankrupt clubs but somehow they need to try and remove price being a reason for people not to attend. I am sure using some clever spreadsheets and AI that we could find a way to reduce prices somehow.
Most of that might be crap right... but I think what it needs is people thinking about what can be done and most importantly a bit of a joined up approach across the league. Take the matter into our own hands as it is obvious everything above isn't interested. I think the post is already so long most people will think INRAT!
London have signed Philbin from Wire for next season. Starting their SL recruitment early then.
We all love an optimist, but I'm afraid that unless there is some structural reform within the Sport, then it is only going to go one way - and that is backwards (at a rapid rate of knots).
I genuinely feel for the Clubs outside of Super League.
How on earth can they develop a reasoned business plan, when there is no leadership or direction from the Authorities.
Do the Authorities have any idea of where the game is going, this year, next and the ten years after that?
From what I can see, they appear hell bent on driving genuine supporters away from areas where the game is strongest and engrained within the community, and sending it to places where there is little or no support.
The sport must either be very sure of itself and its revenue streams if it can afford to jettison established clubs and their supporters, and replace them with teams who have no support.
Can't wait to see the drop off in attendances next year when Catalans, Toulouse and London are in town!!
And, by the way. The game is nowhere near as attractive and entertaining as it once was, and the Authorities would do well to take notice of that too.
Come on Rugby League. Wake up!!!
I am an optimist at times 😀 but even I can see that the sport is in the toilet bowl and someone has pressed the flush.
I was merely responding the to the hypothetical question on the first post
What do you think needs to happen to make the championship an attractive comp?
I think the big problem as you refer to is that the sport (let's say SL) has become a bit self-protective and is withdrawing into itself rather than trying to grow. They are circling the wagons rather than looking elsewhere at what is working and trying that. Even a kid knows if you take stuff away you have less... why the RFL can't see that by abandoning the game below SL you have less of a sport - less teams, less players, less supporters, less kids interested in the game.
All decisions are made by and for the benefit of SL and then the Championship isn't even given the merest of an afterthought. Like I said in my post... closing SL could be softened if they made the championship a bigger deal to win for the supporters. None of us care about the club winning an extra £25k or whatever. And the feeling of winning the league lasts for about three hours. Try and make it count for something and add a bit more prestige. Make the winners the Champions/Holders of the next season.
I do think it needs someone specifically looking at the competition outside of SL with that competitions interests as an objective. I think the return on investment is there if you pick the right person.
And as for the sport... I do still think it is one of the better sports out there. Is it as good as it was 5, 10, 15, 40 years ago? Maybe we don't think so and you could look to reverse a few decisions that have taken us down a wrong turn but it is still one of the quickest, most impactful sports out there. But enough isn't made of it.
Ultimately, we are singing from the same hymn sheet and we both share the same frustrations.
I think the game itself needs to have a good long look at itself in the mirror, face a few harsh realities and stop pretending it is something that it is not.
You have to look at the Sports strengths and build from there, not simply try and force their self-interested opinions on the rest of us.
The Sport has functioned very well in the past without these expansion teams. It lived within its means and co-existed quite happily alongside other sports.
As much as we would all like RL to be better and more well liked across a wider audience, there needs to be a sense of BALANCE, and some sensible and measured decision making from the bottom up rather than the current top down approach.
The sad thing is, that most of this, is/should be any easy fix if a few people grasp the nettle and make it happen.
What do you think needs to happen to make the championship an attractive comp?
There has been a stigma about the championship for years and I think RL is missing the trick. Back in 2006/10 it seemed like the championship was thriving with live Thursday night games on sky and genuine rivalries.
RL need old traditional to RL towns to buy into RL again, and the championship should be the vehicle for that.
When has the Championship ever been an attractive comp, or more accurately has it been best? It had games on tele, and some rivalries, but thriving seems a bit of a push?
There are quite a few teams that have been there almost every season for the last 20 seasons and not much has changed attendance wise.
Moving grounds, format changes, kick off times, governing body making up the rules as they go, favouritism, economic struggles for fans and numerous other reasons but it hasn't flourished in decades, if ever.
That might sound ultra negative, but it is also accurate. It is the 2nd level of a sport we all wish was more popular but sadly isn't.
The average attendance across the league this calendar year is apparently 1,231 with some clubs like Widnes boosting that up considerably. Highest att; 4,380 Lowest 208 :O
Other sports averages are as follows;
Ice Hockey - 3,863
Basketball - 1,472
Netball - Approx. 1500-2100
Granted the above are for top leagues, but if they can attract more fans than Championship rugby league that is really not a good sign.
One problem is there are some clubs that are in mid ground of not good enough to go up, but bigger than most clubs in the division, some who want to invest but have no idea what the format will be year on year & others happy to simply survive.
Again I don't disagree with any of your points.
The Championship (and Championship One) continues to be devalued for more than a generation, and with little or no hope of ever breaking into the big time, there is nothing to play for and therefore of little or no interest, only habit for the speccies who are left.
As an example, Widnes charge is it £24 to watch a game at the DCBL with nothing at the end of it. I would argue that is perhaps too much, and not great value for 80 minutes. There has to be another way to re-engage.
Since the inception of Super League, Clubs have consistently had the rug pulled from beneath their feet and been denied entry into the premier competition. The consequence of which has been that fans voted with their feet and walked away. And since then, people have long since found other things to do.
There has to be at least some hope and ambition for Clubs (and the game) to succeed and there has to be a smooth pathway from one division to another. Ease back on the nonsense of minimum standards and the like and allow teams to be promoted and relegated on merit rather than by some manufactured nonsense that is IMG.
A competitive Championship with direct access into Super League is maybe the only way to try and make things better, but I fear it has already been too long and those missing fans will never come back.
@torn-sock-1 1,231 the average Championship attendance? I think we fall short of that, but.......
And I know you shouldn't have to rely on away support to boost your gates, but............
The sheer farce of this term's fixture set-up, has denied us the likes of the 'Yeds, and you mob to come and put a few quid in the till, so............
What non-glories can we expect come 2027?
Lockyer and Co are pretty much nailed-on to be in the Promised Land, so will they swap positions with (prob) Hudds, or will Davy's Darlings be given a(nother) reprieve, to create a fifteen team SL? But...........
If the latter transpires, you couldn't have a Magic Weekend with an odd number of clubs in there!
Will SL become a closed shop with 'em saying "Stuff to the rest of you!" or summat like that?
The fact that (at present) everybody doesn't play everybody in our league, makes a mockery of the comp!
Will Fev be back next year? Will there be pro football in Colwyn Bay when the next campaign commences, and if so, will they still be there at the end?
Who knows what awaits us, and do the powers-that-be give a **** about the scenario anyway? But..............
Whatever transpires, I'll still be at the Lions every week!
Spelly.
So right spelly, we all said at season start that the fixture format was an embarrassment for professional sport, only made worse by York’s behaviour.
the RFL do not care about the championship - they have made that loud and clear, but who is actually running this clowns circus ?
I sum it up this way.
Most of us could probably name at least half a dozen (if not more) Super League Club owners.
But I bet that apart from Nigel Wood, most of us would be hard pressed to name any other members of the Sports Governing Body.
Tells you everything you need to know really.
I emailed a question to the RFL over 2 weeks ago and haven’t even had the courtesy of a reply.
I made a mistake though, I didn’t put my address down as Wigan🙄