Ask not what rugby can do for you, ask what you can do for rugby. In these days of economic gloom, and shrinking marketing and sponsorship dollars, rugby at all levels is faced with revenues that are contracting faster than its expenses.
Cost cutting such as the Australia A Programme at national level, smaller squads at Super rugby level or Sydney grade rugby clubs not fielding representative teams at local level, has narrowed the gap financially. Clearly, there is a cost to the long term future of the game.
The rugby community is famously inactive when it comes to supporting rugby. Yet, in board rooms, and on first tees, rugby is often one of the topics of conversation.
There are many simple things that can be done for those that present themselves as a rugby supporter.
The simple things can bring significantly more money into the game and hence improve the scope, growth and performance of the game at all levels.
Rugby attracts a more upscale audience with greater spending power. It is now time for that purchasing power to be brought to bear in practical support of rugby.
Yet, how often do you walk into a bottle shop to buy some beer and choose the beer brand of a company that supports rugby? Do you even know which beer company supports rugby?
How often do you click on an internet advertisement on a rugby site?
How often do you choose to buy from a company that sponsors a rugby team or club rather than one that doesn’t?
Whether it is the Qantas Wallabies, Bundaberg Rum, HSBC, or the dry cleaner or real estate company who sponsors the local junior rugby club, now is the time to actively choose to support these sponsors.
There is both a financial and anecdotal impact. Buy the product and email the respective sponsor to tell them why you purchased their product.
I do not propose that you disadvantage yourself or your family on major purchases such as cars and airline travel.
Mazda is a major sponsor of Australian Rugby. If you are considering a vehicle category in which Mazda have an offering, visit a Mazda showroom and let it be known why you are testdriving the Mazda. Then choose the vehicle and brand that best suits your requirements.
You are simply returning the favour to a company that is already supporting rugby, and in many cases, your own childrens’ development.
Recommend this story.
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- Australian rugby, Rugby Union
June 22nd 2009 @ 10:45pm
Working Class Rugger said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:45pm | Report comment
Onside
When it comes to growing our game we are of one mind. The way we grow our game is by hooking kids on the game early. Rugby is a fanastic game to play and once you have played it and understand it you are forever a fan of the game.
June 22nd 2009 @ 11:34pm
westy said | June 22nd 2009 @ 11:34pm | Report comment
Blacktown has the largest Sudanese population in sydney. You see those lovely black faces mainly in football out here but there at the parramatta rugby league schools Knockout at Granville were those same black faces. Last week at Mt pritchard playing rugby league for their local club were several of those black faces.
With all due respect rugby cannot even provide meaningful competitions for pacific islander lads out here whose natural game is rugby let alone for newly arrived African migrants.
it is not that rugby will not do it we do not have the capacity or relevance . I grow tired of saying this but you must give people a relevant local professional team to support and build local allegiance,I am afraid it is not the Waratahs anymore.
I ask people who play rugby out west ( islanders and young lads from non rugby backgrounds ) about the Waratahs. They are surprised it is the state team. They thought it was a club team . For those that did follow super 14 ( not many mainly NRL teams surprisingly including their parents except for internatinal rugby when it was tonga / Samoa etc without hesitation.) some supported Chiefs and Crusaders! Why I ask well the Waratahs are not really us.
Western Sydney supplies over 20% of first grade players and has the potential to supply more immediate elite rugby players than Melbourne can dream of .
Many in the rugby establishment see Western Sydney as merely a source of players. That is all it is at the moment.
Answer me this what code ‘s premier clubs in Western Sydney do not field the required Youth teams : Answer Parramatta and Penrith Rugby Clubs have no first grade Colts sides.
There is not a first grade Colts side in all of Western Sydney covering close to 2 million people . A tremendous achievement in going forward . Sorry to be cynical but I tire the prism many look into . Please go to melbourne with their 20000 and tell the bloke from norths to bring back the 5 players from parramatta he picks up each week and the Rooty Hill bus takes the others Woodies way.
And some people still wonder why the broader community see rugby as a class based game. You get the corporate dollar in melbourne and leave Western Sydney wide open to AFL investment. It is they who will pick up the black faces . For all their problems rugby league has always picked up its share of new migrants and indigenous population.
It is insulting to believe it is entirely due to the complexity of the game. Many such migrants cannot afford private schools and rugby retreated from State schools to our discredit long ago. It is this retreat that was the deathknell of Western Sydney club rugby.
just do not peddle motherhood statements without committment.
The future in western sydney is in real and unequivocal investment in state school rugby
A super team would help to,
June 23rd 2009 @ 7:25am
onside said | June 23rd 2009 @ 7:25am | Report comment
westy
I have read your observations about Western Sydney many times over the years.
I have no doubt everybody agrees.How could they not.What I do not understand
is this ,WHY.Why is the region ignored.Why wont rugby tackle the region.There
must be an answer from ARU headquarters. What have they got to say about it.
At this point in time (as in all previous points in time) one has to assume there is
another agenda(as apart from no agenda).Let me put is this way ,the ARU agenda
is to deliberately ignore Western Sydney. No action must be a deliberate decision.
And so , can anybody in carpetland at the ARU tell us WHY.
June 23rd 2009 @ 8:56am
sheek said | June 23rd 2009 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Onside,
Elsewhere in an answer to an article by Redb, I offered this thought.
“Rugby union is a good sport for social & business networking. Perhaps this is its true calling in life. A bit like horse/field polo”.
As Leftie observed, rugby folk like talking about rugby, but are notoriously moribund when it comes to actually doing anything proactive.
This may explain why Western Sydney is continually ignored. Basically, the majority of westerners aren’t “important” enough in either a social or business sense.
Okay, my comments are highly irreverent, but alas, tinged with perhaps a bit too much truth!
June 23rd 2009 @ 9:24am
onside said | June 23rd 2009 @ 9:24am | Report comment
sheek
Your remarks are by no means irreverent.What is irreverent is not discussing the matter.
Its not too much of a stretch to put it in the discrimination basket; sporting discrimination.
In some quarters there is a definite exclusive snob appeal about rugby.I cant put my finger
on it ,but its there.Not in New Zealand however where rugby is the game of the streets.
Let me offer a mirror opposite of an all inclusive attitude to sport.The AFL.It’s the lowest
common denonimator.The garbo can chat equally to the CEO about their team .Both love
the exchange.Poles apart socially ,the link is AFL.Its not in anyway patronising because
to both men ,what can be more important of a weekend than the footy.A common enemy
is momentariily shared.I reckon Rugby League has this bond amongst supporters .Its what
keeps the game strong.At its apex SOO attracks a very broad tribal audience .Even in
Melbourne it seemed the locals supported QLD more than NSW.But I’m drifting. Rugby
should no longer be denied Western Sydney,and as much as I want Melbourne to get
the next Super franchise,I cannot fault Western Sydneys compelling claim for a team.
If I was siting in the seat of Solomon and had to make a decision I dont know what I
would I do.Yes I do go in haste to Super 20 and start two teams ,one Melbourne and
the other in Western Sydney.Where will the players come from;allow more overseas
players and then in a few years time Westys mob will fill the team
June 23rd 2009 @ 10:03am
sheek said | June 23rd 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
Onside,
The snobbery is there, & it goes right back to the time around 1908. The power brokers of the day were terrified of upsetting their UK masters, & reinforced amateurism even more rigorously, just as some ‘common sense’ loosening was being applied & accepted.
The professional rugby league was the outcome, although that would probably have happened in any case. In NZ & SA, the power brokers understood the need to play ‘shamateurism’ if they wanted to keep the best players in the code. Not Australia, who were unbending in their straight jackets, at great cost to the future of rugby union.
Consequently, it was mostly the well-heeled who remained with union. Not exclusively, but mostly. I don’t really know where rugby union goes from here. As mentioned, I don’t know if enough people really care. Especially those in their ivory towers.
June 23rd 2009 @ 10:25am
JF said | June 23rd 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Sheek, I think you are right with your last comments about not knowing if enough people really care. I don’t think the rugby community really care about how well they are doing in the national context, they are happy to talk rugby and go to the odd test match, but not much else. This mentality has both positives and negatives, the negatives being the lack of enthusiasm for growing the game and taking it outside its traditional audiences. The positives being that it gives the sport a certain ‘its just a game’ persona, this appeals to those who love to see a good contest but also like to mingle with the opposition after the game, not go on a rampage, burning cars after a loss.
The key for rugby is to know its place in society, it is not the popular game in any region in Australia, it never will be, this does not mean the game cannot be successful. There is a portion of people in every city in Australia that rugby appeals to, the ARU must seek these people out and give them accessibility to the game.
June 23rd 2009 @ 6:16pm
LeftArmSpinner said | June 23rd 2009 @ 6:16pm | Report comment
Retired rucker, answer is to support either but not any other airline. Again support the one of the national or local beers that tastes best but definitely not any other beer!
Bob, this is not altruistic. This is pragmatic capitalism. It just needs to become second nature. Just as saving water is now part of the collective mindset, so too should be the support of our sponsors.
It is a small price to pay for the sponsors generosity and the benefits we all receive directly or indirectly. It has a huge effect in the decision of the sponsors future contributions.
Your eldest son has it right. The balance I mean, not the choice of car.
Matta, with you all the way. The Tahs are unnecessarily and illogically dull. The Koalas are just weak!!!
Onside, could you be my accountant, what with dividing equally 60% each!!! BTW, your observation about Melbourne and the 20k is a very good analysis. Until this week, I wasn’t bothering to go to see the full strength Wallabies against an impressive Froggie outfit.
Sheek, mentally paralysed???
Westy, taking a leaf out of the Leader of the Federation Opposition and conspiracy theories, lets use the West Sydney area as a trap for AFL. Encourage them to commit for 30 years to a team there and then watch the blood and cash drain away in the process. Resources are finite!!!!
There is another reason rugby still has a class element to it. The private schools play the best rugby at the school boy level. This level is only exceeded by the higher rep teams, at say Sydney level for the other kids.
June 23rd 2009 @ 6:47pm
retired rucker said | June 23rd 2009 @ 6:47pm | Report comment
Onside, Spot on but how do you get non rugby dad’s to get there kids into rugby. Mine have got no chance to escape but I come form the old school tie culture which my sons will follown in(or be chucked on the street).
For new talent rugby must expand beyond its traditional base and Westy is spot on that the ARU could do amazing things in west sydney. When was the last time ARU had clinic out there with a couple wallas attending?
In Wa tha base is growing in some schools and at club jr level but inevitably the participants are sons of rugby expats ect. We are not seeing any significant non rugby based expansion.
What is great is seeing the little ausy maoris,islanders and yappies running around with ausy accents- future wallabies in the making. I’m sure mom and dad have mixed feelings!
June 23rd 2009 @ 7:40pm
Working Class Rugger said | June 23rd 2009 @ 7:40pm | Report comment
The key to growing Rugby in Western Sydney is establishing real School Rugby across all schools in the region be they Private, Independent or Public. No more BS Knockout Comps. Actual real Rugby. Most importantly establishing regular Rugby at the Primary Schools level. If Rugby can get in at this level then the game will grow. Forget the ‘class’ ideals. As Onside has mentioned the only truly effective way of growing Rugby or any game for that matter is at the very base of the pyramid and the base of Australia’s sporting landscape are children. And the only way to really ensure you reach the absolute maximum number of children is through our various School systems. The more girls and boys playing the game at school the more that will flow on to Clubland and the more that will watch the game on TV and Live.
Retired Rucker
The game is slowly growing outside the traditional stronghold’s. The recent WA Schoolboys team had a reseaonable spread from various schools. But I agree especially about getting the game to more I gues you can say ‘ established Australians’ in WA. And I believe the local clubs should be a proactive stakeholder in this.