Pro12, Aviva and Top14 and the European club game.

Portnoy's Complaint wrote:A curious thread this one what with rodders being dystopic and Mick once again providing unsupported evidence and generally the Irish (not unusually) hijaking the thread.

I'm feeling dyspeptic about the slow, inevitable decline into soccerisation.

The Rabo (have they got a new sponsor yet?) has suffered a terrible mauling over the past two years in which they began shoulder to shoulder in a solid front and ended with internecine squabbling.

The Jeff and the T14 have both submitted themselves to proper cheating of their own rules and seemingly there's no sign of anyone trying to enforcing their own rules.

As for attendances, nobody can really tell as ST holders are always counted in the figures even if they are dead. I'd love to see actual turnstile numbers announced but that won't ever happen.

83,000 for the Sarries world club record attendance game sort of sum it all up when the ground was strangely devoid of spectators after half time.

I'm falling out of love with the pro game.

rodders wrote:That's just conjecture sin - the Ospreys, Scarlets and Treviso - all decent teams on paper...as are Connacht have been garbage.

There's plenty of paper quality - it's on the field were there's an issue... even the interpros aren't seeing the intensity of previous seasons.

Leinster v Munster is becoming a prep game for the HEC rather than a winner takes all derby.

Until the WRU gets its house in order and Edinburgh and Treviso deliver on their potential the league will decline rather than improve. This was the least competitive season for a while in terms of the play offs.

rodders wrote:The Rabo needs to tap into the US market. That's the only way to compete.

Ulster could definitely use the game of thrones and Titanic connection... maybe sell naming rights for ravenhill to HBO and get Liam Neeson on the commentary team.

Leinster could get U2 in to play at half time.  Isn't Obama from Munster?

rodders wrote:Ulster could definitely use the game of thrones and Titanic connection... maybe sell naming rights for ravenhill to HBO and get Liam Neeson on the commentary team.

rodders wrote:Actually I've never watched game of thrones so you've spoiled the ending notch

Mickado wrote:

ME-109 wrote:Munster support base falling is down to pure economics/marketing and the lack of development of a following outside the bandwagon years....Leinster are streets ahead for the following reasons...

1. Opened up the Season tickets to all punters from an early stage and grew a loyal following...simple...

For munster the problems are as follows.
1. During the good years we stuck to the Club model (clubs get first dibs on the tickets more importantly the HC tickets for home games, second come the MSRC and third joe public. This lead to great attendances during the good years but with a narrow enough base. Once the economic downturn came the home support fell away because they had not built a good model for increased support from the non traditional rugby base (with all the talk that its the ordinary man in Munster who follows rugby the reality is the exact opposite). This has changed but Munster lost a big opportunity where Leinster didnt.
2. I am from Cork so therefore biased but the Shiny shed in Limerick which was a great development skewed things in one direction... but.....Cork city and County has a pop of 500K, Nearly 50% of the population of Munster....now am not advocating shutting up shop in Limerick but the lack of 1st class rugby in Cork has affected the supporter base. The proposed redevelopment of Musgrave park will be a start to redevelop the support base in Cork. The need for major games in Cork is a must if they want to improve attendances.

I know Musgrave has gotten some poor opposition visiting compared with TP (Edinburgh, Dragons, Zebre, Scarlets) but the attendances have been all sub 8k, whereas Thomand attendances have been all at least 14k. Is there really the appetite for rugby in Cork?

doctornickolas wrote:

wayne wrote:Can I just say when our Internationals were available P15  W11  L3  D1 without P7  W2  L5, this was for the Ospreys in the Rabo, besides the interference in the HC for the AI, the problem for us and I suspect the rest of the Welsh Regions is the finances to secure decent players when the Internationals are away, this is where our £3.5M cap is hurting us, as was illustrated by the Rabo dream team selected by reporters of the 3 Celtic Nations (why NOT Italians) and Dan Biggar selected as Player of the year by all the Captains and Ambassadors of each team in the League, individually we are as good as any other team, it's the depth that is the problem, the extra Million we will get out of the HC will help, and hopefully a reasonable settlement of the player release to Team Wales can be negotiated, we get paid aprox half back from the WRU that we pay the individual player, this is just not right, it HAS to change.  

That salary cap is self imposed though Wayne. The regional owners don't seem to be putting any funds in these days. The 4 pro clubs decided on that cap between them, partly to try and blackmail the WRU in to handing over more funds (that they do not have).