Rugby fans must acknowledge problems

If Sevens is to grow then of course it will be through pay TV. It's only a bubble like Australia where FTA is the major player. Have you even watched a Sevens tournament before? You don't seem to have much clue how it's broadcast. There is plenty of dead time between games and who says you can't have a minute of ads between halves? Besides, what makes you think that they can't make changes to the format for TV? The reality is that Australian FTA channels broadcast live sports where there is a demand for it and even then it tests the limits of what they're prepared to show in primetime because the over run on your "ideal" format makes it nowhere near as ideal as you make out. It is league's popularity in Australia that drives its success as a TV product not the format of the game. If the NRL was as TV oriented as you claim it would have time outs like American sports.

Thanks for the figures Rob. If my calculations are correct, then the average attendance for the French Top 14 -- based on the figures provided by lnr.fr -- is less than 13,000. Not even close to the NRL.

Yes they do ask Dave and his mates, been doing it for 10 years now.

"Not what I said Realist, I said ‘outside QL and Aus’" Which is even more embarrassing!

"There’s nothing about NRL that makes it inherently more marketable than Sevens, it’s simply a case of Rugby League being vastly more popular than Sevens in Australia. There are plenty of marketable sports in the world that don’t follow a 80-90 minute model — golf, tennis, cricket, etc. If Sevens grows in profile, it’s *possible* that the Australia leg of the tour could grow along the lines of the Australian Tennis Open or Melbourne Grand Prix. Will it ever challenge the NRL in Australia? Probably not. Could it be bigger than league worldwide? Possibly, but it’s not a major professional sport at present." You just don't get it, do you? A rugby league match is beneficial to the commercial television networks because its structure allows time for advertisements to be shown. A rugby sevens match has very little to offer the commercial television networks because it doesn't offer them enough time to screen advertisements: the halves are only 7 minutes long and the half-time break lasts for no more than 1 minute. It's why rugby sevens matches are bundled together and and played/screened consecutively. The only way a network could screen a heap of advertisements during a rugby sevens match is if they show it on delay. The problem with doing this is it'll lead to less people viewing it, as it's well known to the networks that people are more likely to watch sport when it is aired live. Rugby league can be aired live because its structure allows for many advertisements to be screened during a) stoppages of play and b) half-time. The other sports you mentioned are beneficial to the commercial television networks because they allow time for advertisements to be screened. Rugby sevens might appeal to the pay television sector and, could be taken up by the free-to-air networks as a filler program, but that's it. The revenue that's available from these outlets is limited.

"They are directed at you and your tag team partner pal Rod. But you chose to be a sloth and ignore them, then what can I do? Sloopy and unprofessional eh? I’m a city corporate lawyer. Not been struck off yet." Let me get this straight, you failed to cite the source of the information you gave me, yet you're accusing me of being slothful? Ha! You can deny it all you like if it makes you feel better, but the fact remains that your responses to me contained a list of unsubstantiated figures. The figures you provided might be correct, but their worth is dependent upon their source. How can a person who hasn't come across the figures before supposed to know that they are legitimate? The answer is they cannot know for sure that your figures are legitimate, at least not until they see the source.Being a lawyer, you should be well aware of this.

Pajovic wrote: Rod, whay are you leaving out the HC attendances? Did you not see my article earlier, proving that the SdeF was sold out? Inconvenient, so ignored? Stades home attendances include all league and HC games. Your benighted arguements are tiring me. HC is the most important tourny, yet you omit it from the stats. I’m beginning to think that the furthest you and Realist ever made it from where you call home was an exotic school tour to Toowomba. Nobody knows who the Bronco’s are outside of QL and Aus, I do, because I used to live in Brisbane and I love league, but to anyone else, they sound like a College gridiorn team from Montana. Time for a new thread. ........................................................................ I had no idea you were going on about the Magners League. I really couldn't care less about that comp actually as we were talking about the T14 involving French clubs. That'd be like me adding the Challenge cup games to the SL sides and saying Huddersfield played in front of 80k last year so it happens all the time, it's rubbish. Oh and as for nobody knowing who the Broncos are outside QLD and Australia, give yourself a triple uppercut, I watch RL online every week and thousands of people from all over watch the NRL at those sites. You are def not a RL fan, you are a RU fan, so stop the BS please as there's nothing worse than a person who says, I'm a fan of this blah blah blah" then spends all their time running that thing they supposedly support down. I'm different and I'm straight to the point, if I don't like something, I'll come out and say it.

Realist: “Nobody knows who the Bronco’s are outside of QL” Not what I said Realist, I said 'outside QL and Aus' But why let the truth get in he way of a good yarn either? Benighted in the extreme. Oikish in the extreme.

They are directed at you and your tag team partner pal Rod. But you chose to be a sloth and ignore them, then what can I do? Sloopy and unprofessional eh? I'm a city corporate lawyer. Not been struck off yet.

Rod, You're an asset to our sport.

"Nobody knows who the Bronco’s are outside of QL" LOL I guess that's why the Broncos are hated by so many New South Welshman!

The onus is not on me to read through all of the posts you've addressed to other people -- it's a long topic and I'm not going to read through it all -- it's on you to cite the source in the posts you've addressed to me. Whether you listed the source of the figures when you responded to some one else is irrelevant because I'm not obligated to read the discussions you've had with other rpeople Your initial responses to me included a few figures for French and Irish clubs. You failed to cite the source for most of the figures you listed. Failing to cite your source(s) is sloppy and unprofessional.

Check out the Wikipedia page for the 2009 Currie Cup season. It cites the South African Rugby Union's official match reports for the Currie Cup. The match reports from the SARU's website include attendance records. There's nothing on here to suggest that any of the clubs' attendances are as strong as the Brisbane Broncos'. Nor does it appear as if the league's average attendances are anywhere as strong as the NRL's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Currie_Cup_Premier_Division

Realist. I have provided stats for everything. Read this thread. My stats are also for the 2009 2010 year. I'm not wasting my time on this thread anymore. Read the threads, carefully. I'm not repeating myself, stats have been provided, you are just to disorganised to read them. I wish to reiterate that I am a league fan, a Cowboys fan and a Maroons fan.

correlation implies causation*

"Putting up a site that is 6 years out of date isn’t a mistake realist, its just careless. Did you not even notice?" The reason I cited that site is because it compares all football leagues. I don't know of any other site that does anything of the sort. "This totally undermines everything you say and devalues your opinions. Make a bigger effort in the future." If that's the case then everyone on TheRoar.com.au better not trust anything that comes out of your mouth. Afterall, you gave out a heap of figures without citing your source and, went as far as to pass off your uncited figures as "facts". Very sloppy and unprofessional. "If people disagree with you, that doesn’t make them my co-conspirators. It just makes them rational." What makes you think they're right and I'm wrong? They haven't provided any evidence to validate their position. This is an example of your insular mind thinking that you and your opinions are "right", and that anyone else is "wrong". There's nothing rational about assuming that a heap of equal-but-unsubstantiated opinions on a subject -- which explains the union fans' position on this debate -- makes those people rational. Thinking that popular opinion equates to being rational is as silly as saying that correlation implies correlation.

Rodney, 358916 is Stade's average gate so far this year, divided by 11 home games gives me a figure of 32,627 so far for the average home game attendance. These stats are from your LNR link.

Rod, whay are you leaving out the HC attendances? Did you not see my article earlier, proving that the SdeF was sold out? Inconvenient, so ignored? Stades home attendances include all league and HC games. Your benighted arguements are tiring me. HC is the most important tourny, yet you omit it from the stats. I'm beginning to think that the furthest you and Realist ever made it from where you call home was an exotic school tour to Toowomba. Nobody knows who the Bronco's are outside of QL and Aus, I do, because I used to live in Brisbane and I love league, but to anyone else, they sound like a College gridiorn team from Montana. Time for a new thread.

Realist, they won't look at my links as it'll show up their lies and misinformation :) This is from the official site called, the "Ligue Nationale de Rugby" which covers all RU in France and has records going back to when the game was supposedly amateur. http://lnr.fr/

Realist - I'd genuinely have to ask who are the Broncos? I've never heard of them, where they're from, what sport they play (American football it sounds like from their name), or any of their players. They may be popular in one part of Australia, but there are a number of rugby clubs that are spoken about in countries I've visited - e.g. eastern US, Russia, South Africa, most countries in Europe, Singapore, parts of Middle East, but the Broncos haven't been one of them. Clearly they are strong where you live, but I think you're deluding yourself assuming that travels outside those borders.