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Russell Crowe has a vision for the future of rugby league, but those supporting his idea for a Champions League-style competition need to curb their enthusiasm slightly. Crowe has floated the idea of a new end of season competition where the top four NRL teams and the top four teams from the English Super League would battle for supremacy.
The eight teams would be put into two groups of four with the top two advancing to the knockout stage.
Las Vegas has been touted as a potential host in the hope that the American public would fall in love with the big hits.
Crowe is hoping that the competition would be funded by a new TV deal and that a major sponsor would come on board to boost the kitty.
That is the important part, but the idea instantly has people thinking about breaking into the American market.
We’re talking about a country where the sporting landscape is more cluttered than our own athletic traffic jam.
NFL, NHL, MLB, MLS, NBA, Nascar and College sport are already fighting for attention.
Where does rugby league, a sport that the American public doesn’t even understand fit in?
The simple answer is that it doesn’t.
It’s not even the number one sport in Australia, England or New Zealand!
I’m all for big thinking, but it needs to be realistic.
Take the money that will undoubtedly be gained from the competition and spread the wealth, but America will never love rugby league.
It’s not because the game is inferior, but simply because administrators have acted too late.
It’s hardly their fault either. It would’ve taken some remarkable foresight to have pushed into America 50-years-ago.
Even then it may have been too late.
The idea has merit and will be workshopped over the next 12-months, but plans for global domination are ridiculous.
Let’s focus on getting our own backyards right first before we try to tell the neighbours what they should be doing.
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