I’ve long had concerns that the rugby union state/national unions are not putting enough emphasis on development and growth of the game beyond their traditional catchments.
Even within the NSW/QLD nurseries, it appears to me that there is not a great deal being done to get the game out to kids and adults who are not associated with a school that plays the game (a very narrow group being private schools).
Too many parents don’t know much at all about the game and they just hear about broken necks and big tackles and therefore want their kids to play a ‘safe sport’ like football and are not aware of the whole pathway of Walla rugby etc that develops kids without tackles and scrums until they get older.
I only know that these programs exist because I looked them up on the ARU website. Most parents would not bother.
So why are these things not being promoted?
Try finding out what age a kid has to be before they can start playing – I had to hunt through a competition rules document to find that out. I even emailed one of the officials from the Brisbane Junior RU a while back to advise them of website links that weren’t working and telling them the info that I was seeking and struggling to locate on their site.
Reponse? Zero.
Then in all the state primary schools, where the majority of the kids go, they are exposed to other sports who are actively pursuing new recruits.
Here in QLD, AFL with their AusKick program does this very well and I see lots of banners about for junior league clubs, football clubs etc, but nothing about rugby union clubs. And I live in Brisbane close to one of the Premier rugby clubs.
We already suffer because of a lack of free to air TV coverage, neglible coverage on the news sports segments, and the newspaper sports sections, which seem reluctant to write about anything other than the local city team and have only the briefest of mentions of any other games that happened.
This is in comparison to multiple pages on all of the matches from AFL, league, and even European football.
These other sports do a good job of promoting themselves, and good on them.
I have no wish to criticise them, but I think that rugby union could do a lot more to promote itself and get people supporting the game rather than just relying on big Test matches to publicise it. Even the one TV show we have – The Rugby Club – doesn’t have any coverage of the club competitions.
If they were to have a player and team profile each week instead of that nauseating Footy Show type Piggies and player quizzes that they have, it would give a greater familiarity with the teams, and might encourage more people to go watch the Premier clubs because they feel that they recognise the players.
It seems to me that the marketing by the various unions is all based around big games and top tier, and they are not focused on growing their base, which I believe is a mistake. Their marketing people only understand big campaigns and expensive advertising, which might be fine for promoting the Wallabies, but it requires a different mindset when it comes to growing the grassroots.
It is like a company that focuses on Enterprise size clients trying to deal with SMB’s.
They just don’t get it.
toni
Guest
Let me give you another perspective. It is all about the professional game and there is no interest in Community rugby and broadening the base. Just look at the 2009 financials in the ARU Annual Report. Last year ARU spent $3M nationally on Community rugby vs $4.3M on CEO's office, $3.3M on Corporate Services and $11.3M on HPU(around 140 players). They are totally remote from the grassroots of the game, treat them with arrogance and have no desire or indeed the capability to pursue the noble goals you outlined above.
sheek
Guest
As those of who have read my thoughts in the past would know, I am the biggest fan of a national domestic comp. But as Yikes so aptly put it - AFL generated $300m in 2008 & ARU $80m. Kind of puts a perspective on things. You can't get blood out of a stone. The ARU has no option but to work on small, modest increments each year. That's the reality of its lot. We can whine about what did or didn't happen in the past, but that won't solve the future. Let's hope the ARU has learnt from the past & is putting in place the building blocks for future development. The arrival of the Rebels will help enormously in progressing the game in Victoria, as the Force are also doing in WA. Unfortunately, the big guns of NSW & Queensland have let us down badly these past 6-7 years with stagnant development. I can see light emerging at the end of the tunnel but the ARU & all associated with rugby union will have to work bloody hard over the next 5 or more years to lift the game's profile. We have to provide incentive to players via more provincial (& national comp) teams at the top, while broadening the player participation base at the same time. It's a tricky process.....
rugbyfuture
Roar Guru
i agree, but smart management can build it, and a focus on big events can attract larger amounts of money through. no one can compete with the afl, they have such smart management structures in place, and great succession plans and rules that that won't change for a long while, however rugby does have international and industry specific backing and room for growth, and people who are driven to growth now, its not impossible. The ARU should be trying to get some assistance from the IRB to distribute to the state unions since they're all having problems
JK
Guest
Totally agree with the sentiment of your article, do I have an answer...no. FTA has got to be the major goal, rugby is not even close until that happens.
kovana
Guest
AFL is the worlds most popular...........oh wait.. its not recognized outside of OZ...
Yikes
Guest
There. Is. No. Money. You can't promote the game with money you don't have. Rugby is Australia's 4th most popular football code. In 2008 AFL's revenue was 300 million. Rugby's was 80 million. Comparing rugby's to AFL's development programs is just rude. The rugby marketing people do "get" it. They just can't "do" it.