The original idea of switching to smaller stadiums was to allow international rugby league to regain some credibility by playing in front of full houses and making profits from tournaments.



That was about five years ago and the plan was to eventually move to larger stadiums however that hasn't happened.



The empty seats at the DW Stadium don't suggest that we are ready to start playing games at the Reebok or Elland Road let alone Wembley.



The ticketing strategy for our international game needs to be far more structured than it is. Merely advertising a ticket hotline and expecting fans to dig deep isn't good enough any more.



We need to mirror what the rugby union do and offer clubs of all sizes, professional and amateur a profit share which is dependent upon the number of tickets they can sell via their club.



In this day and age when amateur clubs are fighting for every penny they can get I'm sure that many of them would sell enough tickets to fill two or three coaches. That's around 200 fans if you times that by 50 amateur clubs thats an extra 10,000 fans. Factor in the championship and super league clubs and the fans who would buy a ticket anyway and you begin to build a decent match day attendance.



If you then incentivise fans to attend more than one game you can sustain that crowd throughout the tournament.

Those are super ticket selling ideas that would get everyone across the game to the internationals. As Dico said someone should really talk to the RFL. If they can't sell tickets themselves then i think the tickets for all idea would.

like i said why have a central hub selling tickets when by sending them out to all the clubs (amateur included) at the start of the year you get hundreds of agents doing the job for you, thus cutting back on marketing costs, promotion costs etc (not that youd want to aquiese in it mind)



Like catalancs said training equipment is a great idea for amateur clubs, on a points scheme whereby the more they flog the more points they get and more training equipment is provided by the RFL. This could even be built into the ticket price to cost the RFL nothing if the RFL are worried about costs....ie/ if your a member/sponser/ players family etc. at say wigan st pats are you really going to be bothered say handing over an extra £5 for your international ticket to your club rep next year than you did to the RFL for the same ticket last year knowing the extra £5 is going to your amateur club? and by giving them to the amatuer clubs even if you are, theres going to be dozens more involved with your club eager to snap your ticket up anyway as they will be pushed and promoted all year within the club by each club rep.



Has anyone got an email for the RFL?.....should just really email them a link to this page.

The RFL already do a cashback incentive for amateur clubs. It was launched in earnest this year but the main balls up was them wanting £100pp Mid June for 2 end of season internationals as the package included a Puma match shirt and they take 12 weeks to be delivered apparently. However, they are already pushing the scheme for Wembley weekend next year which gives clubs a lot more notice to put something on. They have a couple of fellas working full time at the RFL on it, including going round visiting clubs, one of whom is ex-referee Ray Tennant.

:did anybody notice that all barla fixtures went ahead on saturday most of them while england were playing the kangaroos, can anybody explain that one

That's a bit odd, especially if they sell international tickets to the amateur clubs. What about this weekend, are BARLA fixtures going ahead.

No. It is merely still regaining lost ground from the super league war.



Which part of that is a struggle???

It does seem bizarre, but i suppose barla can't afford 4 weeks off

Can they afford to play the games on the Friday night or Sunday?

Quote andyed-wiganrl="andyed-wiganrl"what they need to do rather than doing desperate last minute things like this.... viewtopic.php?t=435671 (which even if successful in selling out will be a false economy and lose money) is to send tickets out like RU do at the start of the season to all the clubs in the league and all amateur clubs, who then sell the tickets and keep a proportion for club funds (thus having an incentive to sell the tickets themselves as agents of the RFL) Just googled barla and found that as at 1999 there were 1,500 amateur RL clubs in the country (I would expect that to be somewhere between 2000-2,500 now if not more).......now if each of them cant sell 20-30 on average, each NL1 and NL2 side 200 - 300, each SL side 1,000 then its a bad job!! Do that and before you even look at central RL sales youve got sales of somewhere in the region of 60k....how else do you think RU sells out Twickenham each week. Until the RL do this we will forever look small time in international events as the games are only in the 'supporters eye' for one week of the year and sales cant be built up. If we sold tickets like this we could play 4 nations group games at places like Anfield, Old Trafford, C of M etc and make our game look credible as RU do. Instead the RL are apathetic, do no marketing and take the game to somewhere like doncaster, where no one can be bothered going, we get circa 6-7k pre game sales the week before, by which the RL then brick themselves at the disgrace and how it will make the sport look, and start practically giving tickets away thus further devaluing the international game!! Planning is key....if the games are planned for the season start and tickets are rolled out to all clubs for sale those figures i have quoted are easily achievable IMO....added to that each club can have blocks of seats, so you'd get amatur clubs sitting together, fans of NL and SL clubs together etc which would only add to the carnaval and general atmosphere.'" There should be competition for which club can sell the most tickets! We don't need to lower prices too much just to get people in the gate, lets just try new things. Our marketing team at Wigan is the best in the league easily, the RFL should take notice.

Quote andyed-wiganrl="andyed-wiganrl"what they need to do rather than doing desperate last minute things like this.... viewtopic.php?t=435671 (which even if successful in selling out will be a false economy and lose money) is to send tickets out like RU do at the start of the season to all the clubs in the league and all amateur clubs, who then sell the tickets and keep a proportion for club funds (thus having an incentive to sell the tickets themselves as agents of the RFL) Just googled barla and found that as at 1999 there were 1,500 amateur RL clubs in the country (I would expect that to be somewhere between 2000-2,500 now if not more).......now if each of them cant sell 20-30 on average, each NL1 and NL2 side 200 - 300, each SL side 1,000 then its a bad job!! Do that and before you even look at central RL sales youve got sales of somewhere in the region of 60k....how else do you think RU sells out Twickenham each week. Until the RL do this we will forever look small time in international events as the games are only in the 'supporters eye' for one week of the year and sales cant be built up. If we sold tickets like this we could play 4 nations group games at places like Anfield, Old Trafford, C of M etc and make our game look credible as RU do. Instead the RL are apathetic, do no marketing and take the game to somewhere like doncaster, where no one can be bothered going, we get circa 6-7k pre game sales the week before, by which the RL then brick themselves at the disgrace and how it will make the sport look, and start practically giving tickets away thus further devaluing the international game!! Planning is key....if the games are planned for the season start and tickets are rolled out to all clubs for sale those figures i have quoted are easily achievable IMO....added to that each club can have blocks of seats, so you'd get amatur clubs sitting together, fans of NL and SL clubs together etc which would only add to the carnaval and general atmosphere.'" There should be competition for which club can sell the most tickets! We don't need to lower prices too much just to get people in the gate, lets just try new things. Our marketing team at Wigan is the best in the league easily, the RFL should take notice.

The marketing team at Wigan must have the easiest job in the world.



RL fans in Wigan will always come and watch them.





Wigan could sack all their current squad and hire the entire Celtic Crusaders side and the fans would still come and watch

Not really true, you obviously don't know anything about late 70s and early 80s at Wigan.



They have an easy job at the moment in getting decent crowds and to be honest they don't need bigger ones, we already dwarf other clubs other than Leeds with the crowds we get, but you would expect leeds to be higher as they have won 3 championships on the run. The Wigan marketing team are the only ones going the extra mile to get bigger crowds, we got over 20,000 for a game that normally gets 14-16,000 and 14,000 against harlequins at home, and they have done research and found out that we have an old fan base overall and have made season tickets £30 for kids.



Don't post about a topic you know nothing about.