Roar Rookie
Joined February 2014
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Sports Nut. Any sport.... except golf.
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I, like many rugby league fans, had a glance at the newly released draw for the 2015 season of the NRL and spotted a…
With the beginning of the NRL season only hours' away, I thought it would interesting to tackle the topic on everybody's lips – jerseys!…
That’s only arisen in the past 10 years. They also divide the schedule up to the Networks. That’s why CBS and FOX does the Sunday day games, NBC does Sunday night and ESPN does Monday night. They choose at the start of the season the games they want, similar to how the NRL and Channel 9/Fox Sports does here. There are just more networks bidding for them.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
QLD cup is live in QLD, and NSW cup would only be shown in NSW/ACT if it is. My Dad lives in country NSW and up until this year they only showed the Sydney Rugby Union comp during winter. I can only get WAFL on ABC here in Perth. My idea is to make is shown nationally on FTA on Saturdays.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
But it wasn’t the dominant sport in the USA until the 90s. Baseball and Basketball were way more popular in the years previously. The NFL’s dominance is only the last 20 years.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
So you mean ‘Live’ like the Friday nights we’ve been getting for the past few years? Or, up until this year, Sunday footy on delay?
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Um, Grand Final in a heartbeat. Racing is as boring as watching the grass grow under the drunks at the track.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Also with your division of time on the weekends – do you watch the 4 hours of league on Fridays this past year? followed by the 6 hours on Saturday, 4 on Sunday and 2 on Monday? You still pick and choose, right?
And if you are watching “a few hours” (what are we talking 2-6 hours?) on those days you can still do that on different days.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
But the Television interest in College football only took off after the fact. National games that is. People always followed their local college/high school and it was huge locally but the interest in national champions expanded after the fact.
Also why wouldn’t you want to watch your ‘reserve’ team? They are the up and coming players plus, some of them, are still branded as your club. The QLD cup teams also have their own history and back story. Wouldn’t this help bring out some of those fans as well? Like PNG Hunters at the moment?
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
So why do you need to split the juniors into two days? My idea is to play it the whole day so juniors can stay on the day (my junior footy was saturday mornings up until U14s then Friday nights for up to U18s then back to Saturday arvo for seniors). Why couldn’t you play the whole day with the communities at the grounds. Remember, this is about the WHOLE game – Country NSW, Country QLD, VIC, WA, SA, TAS, NT – NOT just what’s going on with the NRL and what will affect it.
There are country communities that play their whole round at home (I lived in Cowra, NSW and they had juniors all the way to seniors on the day with visiting teams).
Also, don’t give up a whole day to watch footy. The idea is to give a Saturday back to people to improve their LOCAL league competitions, which would help the interest for the NRL. So you can still pick and choose your games (There are still 3 days of league with this model.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
But college and high school increased their viewership and interest after the law came to be because they had stand alone days.
Monday night is purely for tv but the NFL Monday night games also started slowly with poor attendance and it had to grow for 40 years.
Could not the game in Toowoomba be because they only had a ‘scarce’ amount of tickets (interest was high) and therefore they were valued more than a 25,000 seater stadium that you know you could get a ticket to (interest was low)?
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Of course it’s way off course from reality – it’s an article on the roar. But you have to start somewhere with growing your game. You don’t just get great ratings straight out of the box. The NSWRL didn’t just grow by itself in the late 80s and 90s without the nationwide coverage of League games on ABC. This allowed them to grow the game outside of the heartlands, which is what the NRL needs to do. You could include it in the next broadcast agreement.
Wouldn’t the number 1 code in Australia be harder to change than the number 2 code anyway? Just look at what the AFL tried to do with their hallowed Saturday afternoon games a few years back. There was a HUGE outcry. I don’t think League fans are that attached to something that won’t get rid of any games and might actually give them more games to watch.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Why do games have to be independent of each other? Why can’t they be on at the same time? Fox Sports would have most of the games anyway and they have a multitude of channel to play it on. Channel 9 could actually use their brains and have games on two of their channels.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Plus aren’t we trying to increase attendances for games. Wouldn’t more people attend Sunday games than Saturday games? One of the things I was going for (But stupidly didn’t write well).
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
Or the NSWRL and QLD Cup could be televised on Saturday to drive their interest.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
There are some leagues that play on Saturday but they could change, right? That isn’t a huge shift in thinking of bring it forward a day. Cowboys could play on Friday nights, or Sunday at 1 or 3 (after April). That still gives plenty of travel time to people to get there and leave.
I think the problem I saw was that Saturday games (not TV ratings) aren’t being attended well and this allows for people to go to games on Sunday if they want to go to a game and still be social on Saturday night.
It also allows for a growth in interest in local league with no other distractions. I didn’t write it but you could even televise the NSWRL or QLD cup to fill the gap on the Saturday.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
But you could start televising the NSWRL or QLD Cup games to increase their level of interest outside of their states and areas. On Saturday. This way you actually get more Rugby League on the Weekend if you choose to sit in front of the box. It also means more money for those leagues and the game in general.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
That’s what I think I was trying to include as well. Sunday day games are a lot more popular than Saturday day games are usually as people are out and doing things on Saturday (it must be the excuse in Sydney as they suck at getting to any sporting event during Saturday).
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
I watch every game too. So you’re telling me during the middle of last season you watched Cronulla play the Raiders? It’s just an idea about trying to increase the GAME, not just the NRL.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
You do realise that half of the games I’ve listed above are played in the late afternoon and evening, right? Plus what temperature do you think they train in over the summer months? I’ll bet it’s a damn sight higher on certain days than in March.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
I know it will never happen. It was just to air an idea about how to increase interest in local comps and this would transition to interest in the NRL. The broadcasters would still get the same amount of games so they wouldn’t miss out.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
But you could have the NSWRL or QLD cup being televised instead to increase interest in that. Or you could y’know talk to people rather than watch the TV at the pub.
The NRL should scrap Saturday games
I’m sorry but did you call Lleyton Hewitt a “world class man” from 15 years ago? You’re kidding right? He was the archetype for petulant behaviour from a young Aussie tennis player. Calling officials ‘spastics’ among other things, complaining about the court every time he started losing, blaming everything and anything on why he lost a match rather than say he was outplayed on the day etc.
While he may have ‘played hard’ until the end of matches, unlike Kyrios and Tomic, his behaviour during trip to the top was as bad as kyrios and tomic’s. The only reason he reigned it in was that he became an ‘also-ran’. Sure he was a thorn in player’s sides but was never a big threat to win a title, let alone make a quater/semi final.
Kyrgios joins Tomic in a race to the bottom