Reply With QuoteAlso playing league games in Llanelli and European games at the Liberty.Originally Posted by City123
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Not sure that is true. Blues attendance at the CCS were pretty much what they are now overall- with some games being 20k plus.
They should have stuck with it but they old timers who liked a pint in the city arms pre match had too much power.
Also playing league games in Llanelli and European games at the Liberty.
That’s the swanii way is it? Well, they do sing rugby songs at the Liberty mainly so maybe it’s a go er
The region's are a major reason why they are struggling. People support their local town. Not made up regions. Sounds like it's going to get even worse by forcing rival regions together. What a joke the WRU are.
The Ospreys and Scarlets amalgamating would spell the end to any lingering claim that rugby was the national sport of Wales surely?
Rugby is the national sport in the eyes of the media only. It's a desperate attempt to maintain the stereotype. Look around you on a weekend and compare the number of people playing rugby compared to football. I won't ever mention professional sporting attendances. Football is clearly more popular than rugby.
I'm not entirely convinced by that. I doubt the Llanelli football team would sell out a stadium however large their rugby ground is (genuinely no idea) either.
There are very few towns in the entire UK where a rugby club regularly gets higher attendances than a football one, even places like Northampton last time I checked, but I bet the majority of the towns where that is the case are in Wales
Actually looking at it in more detail, Northampton have higher rugby attendances, alongside Bath, Gloucester, Exeter, Worcester, and probably places like Penzance.
Bristol even comes pretty close.
Interesting that the majority of those are clustered very close to Wales.
Cardiff and swansea are clearly football towns, but I would imagine that there are a lot of towns in South Wales that have bigger rugby attendances.
The Swansea Llanelli rivalry is, arguably, the strongest one in Welsh rugby and the acknowledgement that there was no longer reason to justify its existence would be a huge admission of defeat.
Go back about thirty years and you had a nucleus of about twenty clubs who were capable of giving the sides from the places where the regions are based a bloody nose every now and again (actually, it was very frequently in the case of some of them). These sides would play in front of crowds that ranged from very good given the size of the place they were representing to decent and, back then, I think someone wanting to argue that rugby was our national sport would be able to make a convincing case, but not any more.
While the national team's current success suggests regional rugby has benefited us internationally, there have been many seasons since it was introduced when the picture has looked completely different and I would argue strongly that it has harmed the standing of the game in this country.
Since moving to the Rhondda, I've started watching a lot more local football than I did when I lived in Cardiff and have been surprised to find that it isn't the one man and his dog affair that I thought it may well be when I arrived up here. Locals tell me about the big crowds they used to get on Boxing Day for the Treorchy v Treherbert rugby derby, but those days are long gone now and, for me, any claim rugby has to be called our national sport today can only be based on what happens for six weeks during late winter/spring every year and when a World Cup comes around every four years.
The question is what purpose do you want your sport to hold.
Rugby in Wales quite clearly want regional rugby to support the national team, they are moving down the road where cricket currently lives, where national players are centrally contracted and the clubs themselves are supported via the strength of the national game. Whilst rugby still has a long way to go to achieve this model it seems the road they are prepared to go down.
Football however are run as independent business of various sizes. As you can see at Cardiff development of the national team is not a priority at all. The success of the club is key.
You will get the case where club rugby is then devalued, it is merely a product to produce players for the national team, and that does little to stir the public's imagination. You get the opposite in football where the club teams are supported more than the national team.
They can't sustain 4 clubs in South Wales. It isn't surprising though, rugby is an international only game for most. It's an event.
They can't sustain 4 football clubs either tbf
Basically the “regional” sides in the Super 15 (unless the name has changed again) only play for about 3 months a year, they get their league done in that time. Then the players go back to their clubs. The Super sides are still the big money earners, but the clubs still have the big name players for a large part of the season.
Also, these regional sides are controlled huh the respective unions so international players are moved around to get the best balance and give as much game time to the players as possible. E.g you shouldn’t get the best 3 outside halves in New Zealand all at the same region, they’ll be spread out to all get game time.
From a supporter’s perspective, you can get behind a region without abandoning your club and without the clubs being ruined.
The fact we get more fans than all of them put together should be enough evidence to suggest football is bigger than rugby.
FWIW, I like rugby but I don't like the pathetic nonsense than surronds it.
This seems sensible
I'm not a rugby fan either, football is definitely bigger in the cities, but in the smaller towns it seems different to me.
It's hardly surprising that football has been making inroads given the marketing behemoth of the premier League, it is probably still the case that watching Liverpool or man u on sky is the most popular form of sport in South Wales.
Just one of the reasons they continue to be the best 3 sides in the world. England/Wales/Ireland can compete with them for the odd game, but the big 3 still dominate.
NO. ONE. CARES.
Why a region in North Wales? I thought the WRU wanted crowds
Nope, the WRU want academies. If you are a decent sportsman in the valleys you will be picked up by a rugby academy.
You will be jaded and chewed up by it by age 13, but it is still producing a conveyor of talent that supports it regions. By having a North Wales region in will produce another area to produce talent.
The reason Club Eggby is so poorly supported is that the poor f uckers gotta save up their shillings to pay ridiculous sums of money for tickets to see their heroes.
Not that they can name them though, as they are total strangers to them
Premier League football is the most popular sport in Wales whether the City or Swansea are in it or not, sadly.
My mate went out there on a coaching CPD last year and spent time with the regional teams and the Super Rugby sides. Came back saying its the exact model we should have.
I don't think it should be a merger. Bin the Ospreys and call the new team the Scarlets. That way you only isolate one group of fans.
I think if they go with two super clubs (Scarlets and Blues) and use the North and Dragons as development teams they have a pool of talent that can regularly compete to knock out stages of Euro tournaments people would watch.
There was a bus of us trying to get to get tickets for the Scarlets QF last season from CF38. Sports fans can easily be bought with on field success and a free scarf.
I know, rugby isn’t popular in north wales, most just follow Liverpool, Everton or Leeds don’t they? So weird, messing up clubs with old rivalries too....
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