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The National Rugby League (NRL) is considered the best rugby league competition in the world by quite a distance. Its only challenger is the English Super League.
Both of these leagues are guilty of not spreading the game.
Why is rugby league not played in global powerhouse countries such as China, the United States Of America, or even Canada and Japan?
Yes the game is played there, but it is at a low scale, and most Australians, wouldn’t even know it is played there.
Most people in those countries probably would not know what rugby league is!
Why is that? Why is our great game only played seriously in about four countries?
The NRL is a major culprit for this, they need to help in the expanding of the game in these countries that have never heard of the sport, if they want rugby league to ever come to the popularity of sports like soccer, basketball or even swimming and athletics.
These are sports that are contested all over the world. Rugby league has the potential for this.
Let’s have a look at the English Premier League (EPL) for example.
Football is a worldwide game, with the EPL the premier competition of soccer. Teams are paid millions just to play a preseason game in another country.
This in turn brings not only untold popularity to their competition worldwide, but helps to grow football and the give these teams and the EPL a better financial position.
What I would propose for the NRL, is that they should have a competition that is taken overseas to one of the countries that rugby league is not a strong sport in.
It could incorporate both the EPL and NRL teams, and be similar to a world cup where the teams are broken into pools, play some games and then have a knockout stage.
Make sure the teams are financially supported for the competition, and that all the stars make it to whichever country the competition is being played in.
This would in turn start to bring some popularity to rugby league in the area.
Let’s face it on a global scale, rugby league is a fail at the moment.
Playing this competition, between the NRL and Super League teams, will in the long run end up being financially better for both competitions and every team involved.