Global Rugby Promotion

I was just thinking about the fact that the IRB wants a lot more Tier 2 Nations included on Tour schedules to help promote the game.

It got me thinking about the Saracens HC match that got moved to South Africa.

Now given we all know how poor some of the Welsh Regions attendances have been could some of these be staged elsewhere to promote the game as well as improved revenues.

For example Ospreys vs Munster at the Liberty had just over 5000 people at it. That is dire considering Munster are a World Renowned Brand in the Rugby Community.

Now given the calibre players on show and given the various Countries Unions agreed and arranged these in advance surely matches could be staged in places like the USA, China, Japan to help the profile of the game as well as drum up some outside interest in the league and club game. Now I know Ospreys fans (all 2 of them ) would be up in arms about some of the best games heading way but if you could 20000-30000 to watch a one off match like that the revenue would no doubt be substantial. Im sure the various Unions would love to see these sides in action and be right behind it.

But the real bonus is that I think Global Rugby would win as more potential fans could buy into the sport.

I also dont understand why the 4 Regions havent done something similar to the Aviva London Clubs.

I would have loved to see a derby rabbo day at the Millenium. Could work well for Dragons and Blues home games for example twice a year.

Blues vs Ospreys - Blues vs Scarlets

Dragons vs Scarlets - Dragons vs Ospreys

Play both games after each other at the MS and charge £10 a ticket to see both games. I reckon you would get 50k in there no problem for a event like that which is a hell of a lot more than they could have expected to get on their own even if the revenus where split by the Home side (Blues & Dragons - after expenses of hiring the MS are deducted ofc).

That would be £10 for 2 matches of quality derby rugby. Cant see many passing that up even if they are not fans. Would imagine this would be a big hit with the Student crowd as well.

Welshmushroom wrote:For example Ospreys vs Munster at the Liberty had just over 5000 people at it. That is dire considering Munster are a World Renowned Brand in the Rugby Community.

Firstly the Irish are good, but they are not fashionable, and the Munster game was on the weekend of the Wales V Australia December friendly, and we had 6 players injured and 19 unavailable through international call ups!
I think a lot of fans expected the worst and gave it a miss, though to be fair we did sent Stringer, Poc and RoG back over the Irish sea with tail tucked firmly between legs!

Welshmushroom wrote:Now given the calibre players on show and given the various Countries Unions agreed and arranged these in advance surely matches could be staged in places like the USA, China, Japan to help the profile of the game as well as drum up some outside interest in the league and club game. Now I know Ospreys fans (all 2 of them ) would be up in arms about some of the best games heading way but if you could 20000-30000 to watch a one off match like that the revenue would no doubt be substantial. Im sure the various Unions would love to see these sides in action and be right behind it.

Don't dis the Ospreys we have at least 2,000 hard core loyal supporters, the problem is about 1,000 of them started walking out on the team during the Glasgow game last night from as early as the 50th minute!

I'm not really sure about moving games abroad to be honest, the Southern French teams do go to Spain now and again, and Spanish football teams Real Sociad stadium has been sold out a few times when Biarittz have played games there.

Besides with the Welsh regions, it's easy to say the Ospreys have a great team, with AWJ, Ryan Jones, Adam Jones etc, but when exactly do they play for the Ospreys?
Basically at the moment you have a case of reserve players playing in the Rabo Direct each week, with the star players resting before Heinaken Cup and Wales games.

Alyn, I cant go along with that at all.

When you are still able to field the sides with top draw players like J. Thomas and probably the biggest pool of talent ever gathered by a welsh team I fail to see why the weekly line up is "weak".

Even when the star names have turned out the support has been poor.

In truth the Ospreys failed to find a running game or a style of play. I cant even count the number of games where nothing happens on the park. Now thats fine if your coaching the Dragons but you really should expect better from them. In fairness to the Dragons we are at least trying to play rugby at the moment but lack the talent.

I hope Tandy can identify the attacking strengths Ospreys should have over teams and actually give them a playing identity.

Its not all down to those factors though. In truth the Scarlets and Ospreys are going after the same catchment areas and fans since regionalism are fairly new and dont have support of a region ingrained into them. That means if things like price or entertainment are not right they are probably not going to come to watch.

But my overal views was in growing the game in developing rugby nations. I think Regions/Club sides could equally benefit this countries as well as National Team games.

Hi Lads, i've been pulling some basic stats on the league and i thought you might be interested in the average attendances.

There are 12 Welsh derby's per season, so far 7 have been played and the average attendance has been 9750.

Mickado - considering that 2 of those matches were in the LV= Cup its actually not a bad average attendance.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Mickado - considering that 2 of those matches were in the LV= Cup its actually not a bad average attendance.

They're all league games in my stats SSM...

06/01/2012 Dragons 21 20 Ospreys Rodney Parade 3792
01/01/2012 Ospreys 17 12 Blues Liberty Stadium 11186
30/12/2011 Dragons 6 10 Scarlets Rodney Parade 7571
26/12/2011 Scarlets 22 14 Ospreys Parc y Scarlets 14756
23/12/2011 Blues 28 9 Dragons Cardiff City Stadium 10660
25/11/2011 Scarlets 22 11 Dragons Parc y Scarlets 7950
05/11/2011 Ospreys 9 9 Scarlets Liberty Stadium 12332

I'll figure out how to do a table on here at some stage

im a big fan of a double day derby, those games are the best games to watch and billed as an all day event would attract a sizeable floating crowd, the kind of crowds that dont go week in week out to watch games but would go to watch a big game and make a day out of it...if you had one of them towards beginning and end of season when the weather is good the crowds would come....its worth a go....and a s a dragons fan id be happy to forgoe home advantage for more badly needed revenue

Mickado - Not sure where you got the Dragons v Ospreys attendance from but it was 6897 not 3792.

Personally I would love to go to a double header at the MS and I think if it was a one off event it would draw a large crowd. It would lose it's appeal if it was repeated every year IMO and there is something to be said for home advantage.

i think once a year, end of march/april maybe before the playoffs....especially if two or more regions had a chance of making them......lets take this year for example....dragons have no chance of making play offs or catching third place welsh region....but id love a nice day out in sun watching us deny kaaaaaaaaaaaardddiff or the turks a chance to get there

Welshmushroom unfortunately I couldn't see moving a Welsh region's game abroad as at all going to be successful. Possibly a friendly though.

Is there any place which has a particularly high concentration of Welsh ex pats?

Making rugby more global is a gradual process.

Every club and nation should be trying out different stuff.

From a Saracens perspective (you mentioned them after all),
Saracens' obvious connections with South Africa mean that playing games out there would not be out of the ordinary.

Saracens are I believe the most well known AP team in South Africa because they get the most coverage.

Saracens also travel a lot (Miami,South Africa, Munich Beer Festival etc. which increases awareness - . They are looking to playing a game in Hong Kong too.

Other sides need to do the same. Do other clubs have similar connections though?

It's all about demand and supply. Also money.

As already said I believe the Welsh clubs should look closer to home. Building the regions should be priority no 1.

I agree that a double header at the millennium would be good. Make it an annual thing.

I understand the idea of the MS double header, but it would have to be the Blues home game and the Dragons home game, and not the Scarlets/Ospreys home game, as getting to the MS is far easier from Newport than it is from Swansea/Llanelli (where the season ticket holders would be expecting to be going). I think it would most likely increase the attendance. And I wouldn't be suprised to see a full house, providing that it was at a time when all the internationals were available. But sadly I do think it would end up being attended, much like the internationals, by suits and 'networkers' which IMO kills off some of the atmosphere.

True. That said the finanical reward to the regions should compensate that.

Impossible Standards wrote:Mickado - Not sure where you got the Dragons v Ospreys attendance from but it was 6897 not 3792.

Personally I would love to go to a double header at the MS and I think if it was a one off event it would draw a large crowd. It would lose it's appeal if it was repeated every year IMO and there is something to be said for home advantage.

Spot on, i got my figures from the pro12 website but i guess i messed them up somewhere. Back to the drawing board!

Thanks!

What's wrong with people? Take these games to SMALLER stadiums you can blydi fill within the region!

Is there any place which has a particularly high concentration of Welsh ex pats?

We could play in Patagonia, Maybe they could be our 5th region....no shortage of decent props there