What the NRL needs to do to improve (Part 2)

Having discussed player transfers, the salary cap, a five-minute sin bin and introducing a 20/40 kick in Part 1, today we’ll analyse a few more areas where the NRL can improve their performance as administrators of the greatest game of all.

Improvement 5: Pre-game entertainment
The entertainment at NRL fixtures does not extend anything past the game itself.

Yes, you have an MC trying in vain to get the crowd to yell the loudest, but it’s a poor excuse for entertainment, as are a few cheerleaders dancing in one corner of the stadium to the hit song of that week.

It’s not enough to encourage people to get out to the game instead of sitting and watching on their 48-inch TV? It is no wonder that the AFL crowd figures leave the NRL for dead.

At the few AFL games I’ve been to, there are people screaming their lungs out to their team’s song, singing chants and yelling quality banter at the opposition, whereas at an NRL match you count yourself lucky if there is a guy 43 rows back swearing at the opposition players, because at least someone is making noise.

I am embarrassed to be an NRL fan when attending AFL games and I can only imagine that their fans laugh at our feeble entertainment (“Now can I get everyone making noise from the North End,” yells the MC).

To improve this, why not bring in some of Australia’s up-and-coming music acts? I bet there are hundreds of talented bands out there begging for the exposure an NRL crowd would bring them. Or put the lyrics to the team song on a screen for all people in the crowd to sing along to when the teams run out.

Please just make the game experience just that little bit better than staying at home and watching it on TV!

Improvement 6: Ticket prices
$30 a ticket does not in any way reflect value for money. You might get public transport included, but other than that you get the privilege of sitting on a plastic seat, paying for overpriced food and drink, and getting abused by the guy behind you for wearing the wrong team’s colours.

I make it out to a lot of games for a team I don’t even support (one of the perks of living in a one-team city) and I love it, but I understand why a lot of people don’t make the effort.

Teams have bill to pay and money needs to be made, but I would prefer to be in a stadium that’s full to capacity because the ticket prices are $15 and $5 for kids, as opposed to a crowd that is lucky to pass the 10,000 mark. It’s downright embarrassing for the game to have small crowds, and when 6,000 people come to a game it is proof that ticket prices are too high.

Surely if a stadium was near capacity every week at $15 a ticket, the club would still be making enough money to stay afloat and if not, maybe there are other revenues that need to be investigated, as fans should not be treated like cash cows.

We just need to look at the success of the Asian Cup in football, held early 2015, as to how ticket prices affect people’s decisions to attend games. Minnow teams were attracting crazy numbers at stadiums that the NRL struggle to half fill. This needs to be seriously looked in to.

Improvement 7: Player burnout/representative weekends
The NRL season lasts for a whole lot longer than the 26 rounds – players can be starting in early February and playing until nearly the end of the year when taking into account the NRL nines, trial games, World Club Series, State of Origin, international duty and the finals.

Players have stated that it is all too much for them. These are professional players and they should be tired by the end of the season, but they aren’t stock animals and deserve extended breaks to get their bodies right for next year.

I propose the regular season be shortened by four games, so that each team has 20 regular season games. The NFL have fewer to make sure every game is met with excitement and ensures a larger crowd. The NRL season however drags on, and there are definite lulls in excitement during the Origin period.

On that, Origin is the NRL’s biggest cash cow and should be treated as such. No teams should be disadvantaged for having representative players, which is why I propose that four rounds of regular season should be replaced with four weekends of representative football.

The first weekend already exists, with the Anzac Test and recent additions of Tonga versus Samoa and Fiji versus Papua New Guinea. The other weekends should each hold Origin games between U20 sides, as well as men and women, a game between countries such as New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and possibly a game between developing rugby league nations such as USA and Canada, held outside Australia so as to expand the game.

This, in addition to two bye rounds throughout the season, will keep the season the same length but minimise the stress on players. It will also reduce the need for so many international matches to be played after the finals have finished, extending the amount of time players have to recover.