Let's launch the season with a big event

Friday 5th February 2010

There seems to be a growing concern these days among Rugby League fans in the U.K. about the game's ever decreasing presence in the mainstream media. At local level where the game is played, it is doing very nicely, but on a national stage it is - to borrow a well known catchphrase - "a whole different ball game."

Plenty of those fans have conspiracy theories about why many national media outlets give so much coverage to Rugby Union, but so little to Rugby League, but I really think they should take a reality check. It is my belief that almost all Rugby League's problems are self created and, until it starts facing up to the reasons why so many areas of the media and the wider public might find it unappealing, it is never going to fix those problems.

The national media will still give decent coverage to Rugby League if the game gives it something significant to report on - and we see that every autumn when we stage our big international games. That's when national newspapers will include more features and will want give more extensive space to match reports, but it isn't easy for them when matches kick off at 8 pm on a Friday night or 6 pm on a Saturday.

Meaningful international events will always be the key to building a more widespread profile in the national media, and this is something I have been banging on about since I produced my very first edition of "Open Rugby" way back in 1976. Now, I believe, Rugby League is only reaping what it has sown over the past 14 years, since the switch to a summer season caused so much upheaval to international football as we knew it.

I feel sorry for the younger fans today who desperately want to see Rugby League have a bigger international profile and more widespread recognition, only to find themselves disappointed so often. They weren't around in the late 1980s and early '90s when we staged Test matches at mega venues like Wembley and Old Trafford and drew 50,000-plus crowds to them. Those games did give Rugby League the national profile it had always craved, as they were broadcast live on BBC terrestrial television to viewing figures which reached into the millions and were followed, the next day, by front-page lead coverage in the sports sections of all the broadsheet Sunday newspapers. What would we give for that size of coverage now?

I thought about those times as the brand new 2010 season began to stutter into life at the end of January and cast my mind back to all the initial Super League promises about big events and high profile presentation.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why Super League cannot launch its new season with a bang instead of a whimper. If we accept it is now going to be the usual practice for the Champions to kick off a week early so they can accommodate a subsequent weekend for the World Club Challenge match, then surely it is not too much to ask that we use this opportunity to present a big event?

To start with, the new Champions should have the honour of selling out their own ground - if such a season-launching event is not to be staged at a bigger "neutral" stadium for the whole game to support - rather than sending them away to play the previous season's bottom club (and I'm not going to get into any debate right now about the reasons why the former Celtic Crusaders found themselves kicking off in Wrexham rather than in Bridgend.)

This season-launching extravaganza could be any one of several suggested fixtures, for example: the Champions versus the Challenge Cup winners; or the Champions versus the previous year's runners-up in a Grand Final rematch; or even the Champions versus their closest and most fierce derby rivals. Any of these fixtures would, surely, launch the season with a real bang and a capacity crowd, be that at Headingley or even Elland Road.

Believe me, Rugby League needs all the big events it can create if it wants to increase its media profile.

I felt particularly sorry for the clubs outside the Super League as they tried to launch their new seasons and found, for the second year in a row, most of them having to postpone their opening fixtures due to bad weather. For many clubs who have gone since last August without any home game income, it is a ridiculous scenario trying to launch your new season at the end of January, especially when you know you will be left with numerous blank weekends on your fixture lists in mid-season and after your players have already had to do all their pre-season training through the middle of winter. Why the game puts itself through this, I don't know.

As well as a big season-launching event for the Super League, what about the Championship? I notice that the first Sky tv Thursday night Championship game for 2010 is going to be Leigh versus Barrow. Obviously, the Ian Millward/Robbie Paul effect is already being felt.

But hang on a minute, Barrow are the reigning Champions, not Leigh. Remember Leigh actually got relegated and were only reprieved by the forfeit of Gateshead. Surely the new Champions should be granted the prestige, to say nothing of the commercial rewards, of being able to host the opening match of the season televised by Sky on their own home ground. Maybe they could enjoy a symbolic gesture of being able to hoist the Champions flag, to be flown over their ground for the rest of the season

There are many such ideas that could be debated, all with the aim of increasing the profile of the game and garnering the enthusiasm and interest of a wider public. And, at the same time, isn't it only right, that some added prestige be given to the teams who win the Championship.

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