How would you feel if, on the eve of the Rugby League World Cup, Ben Hunt was forced to stand on stage and repeatedly replay his 2015 grand final mea culpa as a way of guaranteeing his selection?
What would your impression be if Cameron Smith needed to run a ‘guess the number of jelly beans in the jar’ competition to raise funds for his participation?
Or what about if Sam Burgess had to submit himself to a Sunday School dunk tank so that he could don the English jersey?
That’s effectively what happened when USA player Kristian Freed held a fund-raiser in a shed on the edge of a public park to cover his expenses during the World Cup.
There were Jatz crackers, diced cheese and sliced kabana, trivia questions, raffles collected in plastic plates, and a game where you threw $2 coins at a bourbon bottle and the closest coin won the prize.
To be fair it was a great afternoon, but it was hard to walk out of the event feeling as though everything was A-OK.
That was mostly because Freed felt compelled to replay footage on a projection screen of the 2013 World Cup when the American fullback was unceremoniously steamrolled by a rampaging Jarryd Hayne.
He showed it not once, not twice, but at least half-a-dozen times.
Sure it was part of his schtick – a bloke not afraid to laugh at himself.
However there’s no doubt he rolled the video as a way of engaging the audience, coming in the same breath as he explained how a month off from work representing his country would affect him financially.
Would he have gladly stood there and humiliated himself on a wet Sunday afternoon if he knew his expenses were already covered?
Would he have spent weeks rounding up generous people to donate free massages, bottles of wine and other prizes to raffle if the money was already in the bank?
How many players would even emcee their own fund-raiser?
Again, sure it was a fun event, but there was an uneasy feeling you were watching a seal perform in captivity for its supper.
What it also did was further highlight a glaring flaw in rugby league that can be found at almost every level from local league to the international arena.
And no, I’m not solely talking about parity in pay for World Cup participants.
This is the second Cup in a row that the USA has been on the sniff for a major sponsor right up until the tournament itself.
(AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS)
The fund-raiser was held right next to Freed’s junior club where, up until recently, a cabinetmaker was in charge of handling sponsorship negotiations for one of Brisbane’s proudest clubs.
That club is a member of a competition, a division and state authority where, to the best of my knowledge, there have been dedicated, qualified sponsorship managers for a fraction of those organisations’ existence.
All across the country and around the world we let this happen in rugby league.
Instead of employing specialists who can leverage the massive databases, emotional investment and promotional potential of rugby league, we have traditionally thrown every club out to the wolves and asked them to find their way home.
In a city like Brisbane or Sydney that can mean 70 different plumbers, butchers and retirees who are going it alone; in addition to being club president or secretary, they’re expected to become experts in commercial negotiation.
Rather than land the big fish, they inevitably make do with small local businesses who sponsor out of the kindness of their hearts, many times devoting their modest means through a personal connection.
To me, decentralised sponsorship is the one thing that has held rugby league back more than anything.
Ten years ago if you walked into most regional rugby league offices you would find a couple of secretaries, a whole heap of coaching and development staff, a handful of administrators, a referees’ coordinator and maybe a few casual data entry positions.
There was nobody who would have direct experience for sourcing sponsors.
How do things pay for themselves? If you’re only putting in so much at one end, you can only take so much out of the other end.
How does a sport grow when that is the mindset? How do you not chew through volunteers regularly when you place a mountain of financial expectation over their heads?
It’s well-documented the Rugby League International Federation is run by two-and-a-half employees and on the smell of an oily rag.
And it seems incongruous that one of those should not be a sponsorship expert who can take the scattergun approach of well-meaning volunteers and direct it into something more targeted and ultimately successful.
A sponsorship manager should be the first or second person any league organisation employs.
Would Kristian Freed and others of his ilk be begging for coins if there was a coordinated, well-resourced approach to sponsorships that all developing league nations could tap into?
Or are we happy for a USA team representing the largest population of any nation at the World Cup to be winging it with sponsors on an ad-hoc basis?
The game’s potential is so much greater, but we have conditioned rugby league folk to accept an unattractive, uninspiring user-pays system from a young age, at all levels.
Sure, it makes for some quaint, oddball stories once every four years when amateurs get a shot at the big time en masse.
But we can do much better. It’s time to lift our game.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Declining attendance and ratings seems to be a bit of a universal issue at present both here and abroad. Fred, Both Tampa Bay and Central Florida were part of that development competition initiated by the Axemen before moving to the USARL to create the Southeastern conference in order to reduce overall travel costs. The USARL season only featured 11 clubs this season. If you can find more clubs and post the link I'd be happy to accept that. Additionally, my point on foreign money has more to do with interest than anything else. If it existed then more local money would be getting on board but at present all the local money is headed toward both Major League Rugby and Super 7s.
Fred
Guest
Terry, I think the 'mum not wanting little johnny to get hurt' is a serious issue for both codes of rugby, but I think that is an issue mainly in countries where both codes already exist. i.e the developed, comfortable, bubble wrap West. For both codes of rugby, or contact sport generally, that cultural issue doesn't exist in Eastern Europe, the Pacific Islands, Africa, Jamaica etc
Fred
Guest
Sorry none of the teams from that reserve grade comp are in the USARL. It was a reserve grade comp established by the Jacksonville Axemen, who are in the USARL. Do you mean the AMNRL?
Robert Burgin
Expert
I'll make sure not to keep you in suspense my polite friend. Nowhere above have I said I'm a sponsorship expert and indeed, that's kind of the crux of the story. People like me need help from experts who have worked in the sponsorship industry for years, have the requisite contacts, know the accepted levels of service provision and the range and trends in what can be offered to potential commercial partners. I've been in environments where people try to shoehorn other employees into a sponsorship role and it doesn't work. It's a job for a specialist. As per the mention above about people working for commission, that's a far point - base + commission is more akin to what I had in my mind. All those people who are scoffing off at the suggestions above no doubt have a bevy of other solutions they can offer. Or maybe they think it's cool the way sponsorship is being handled at present and there is no room for improvement?
Jeff Morris
Guest
I took it as a portmanteau of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which is rather clever.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The teams from the Southeastern league have since joined the USARL. They are counted in the 14 teams I mentioned. Look it up.
Your kidding
Guest
Why would someone sponsor the USA? It's a tough sell. Some of the NRL clubs find it hard to get sponsors. The main interest in the World Cup will be mostly from two Australian states. The big corporate sponsorship dollars are mostly generated out of Sydney. But Sydney only gets two games. Go figure!
Mat
Guest
All sounds good in principle Robert. So you've been involved in administering sports organisations for the best part of two decades - well done. You might then enlighten us as to what exactly you have done in the sponsorship field over those two decades for these organisations. With your decades of experience it will no doubt empower us to get more people and money involved in teams like the USA. Don't keep us in suspense. How did you do it Robert?
Fred
Guest
Not that I'm a grammar nazi, but there seems to be a close correlation between league-bashers making jokes about league's international reach, and an inability to spell the places they're talking about. Yesterday it was 'Leads', today it's 'Los' Vegas.
Fred
Guest
Since when has New York had a problem with foreign money? And when was the last time we saw a sporting match of any kind between New York and 'old' York? :) A trans-Atlantic Super League is the most exciting thing I can remember happening in the sport.
Fred
Guest
They are competitive on the pitch against other tier 2 nations. They had a tough qualification path for the World Cup with hard games against Canada and Jamaica. The fact that they haven't felt the need to rely on heritage players at this World Cup shows a faith in the USARL. Don't get me wrong, PNG and Fiji will beat them comfortably. But league in America is doing as well as can be expected.
Fred
Guest
Like I said, that's just the teams in the national comp. There are numerous other smaller amateur teams. The Southeastern rugby league championship is but one example of a feeder comp for the USARL. Not saying it's massive in the US, but it is much bigger than 14 teams.
Fred
Guest
Super Rugby crowds were pretty bad this year, so Union has as much to worry as anyone. But just read an article today about A League crowds and TV figures being awful too. Sport in general seems to have had a tough year with crowds this year. Not really sure why, maybe people are tightening their belts to pay down their ridiculous mortgages.
Terry Tavita
Guest
I'm a union man and an international league fan (don't care much for the nrl) but I reckon the in-your-face physicality of league makes it very hard to supplant it anywhere where there is no league culture or a small base..parents would also be very wary of little jonny getting roughed-up in a sport they are not familiar with..union on the other hand is more technical but simple and can be picked up at park games and school yards and uni campuses by just passing a rugby ball around and playing touch rugby..there is also sevens which is easy to pick up.. if i was a league betting man i'd prop up teams like ireland and scotland and get them to play the tomahawks in the US to get some fan familiarity..that is what WR is doing in the US..by taking the big tests and tapping into irish nationalism there..the US mkt atm is ripe for the picking with the NFL in a bit of trouble..the recent deal between the home unions and nbc to broadcast 6 nations matches on prime tv means the opportunity is not lost on the big broadcasters..and you don't get any bigger than NBC in the US..
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Their competitiveness on the pitch will be the testament to the level of development in the US. Domestic players are great but most of these teams could do that and still be largely noncompetitive. Being able to go with the bigger guns for long periods is the real litmus test. As for Gridiron Australia. They run a completely different structure to the USARL. State leagues first then a national rep championship. Gridiron actually runs deeper here than League does in the US.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Rugby League will never get anywhere in the US without a willingness to invest time and money in building a base and facilities within the country itself. And even then, we're talking decades of work and millions upon millions of dollars. There's been talk of late about a New York bid looking at the English system looking emulate the Wolfpack in Toronto. The problem with that (as with the Wolfpack) is that the money behind it is foreign. Not saying someone cannot invest their money in such a venture but considering the costs of running such a squad the likelihood of any development occurring outside of that is minimal. As opposed to that. The group behind the second attempt to launch professional Rugby in the US is with the exception of San Diego which is 50% foreign backed, is entirely local money. All of these clubs have existing bases and have either previously engaged in development or have initialised such initiatives to do so.
Terry Tavita
Guest
reading some of the articles on here you'd be forgiven thinking league is on the verge of taking over north america..
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Nope. Just the 12. There's a team up in Chicago called the Stockyarders who play sporadically and there was a guy trying to get something going in Iowa but outside of that. There's not much else. Not hating on it. Just pointing out the facts. Edit: There's 14 teams apparently.
Cathar Treize
Roar Guru
I'd go sa far to say the USARL run a better comp than Gridiron Australia. The Hawks also play Jamaica & Canada, they played France recently by memory? & are participating in their 2nd world cup, so they deserve their spot in this RLWC & the number of domestic players in the squad is a real testament to the development of the game there.
Terry Tavita
Guest
those 70 clubs might be spread out in the 50 states..making it a lot more difficult to secure sponsorship