https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/2020/04/16/coventry-rugby-launches-crowdfunding-campaign/" rel="nofollow - https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/2020/04/16/coventry-rugby-launches-crowdfunding-campaign/

https://cornish-pirates.com/general-news/update-on-the-players-contracts-going-forward/" rel="nofollow - https://cornish-pirates.com/general-news/update-on-the-players-contracts-going-forward/

Nottingham have today released a statement confirming that with an anticipated 40% reduction in their income they will be operating on a part time basis next season but matches will still be held on Friday nights.

No doubt as things unfold other championship clubs will be looking to go down this route.

I am pretty okay with Ealing's offer, as there are a couple  big hospitals nearby, and I am sure that the NHS staff could use some entertainment whenever this cools down.

I should also add that, as a part of Coventry’s current Crowdfunding scheme, the club will donate 1 ticket for every £100 raised for NHS staff workers for a Cov game, whenever that might be.  Hopefully, in a not-too-faraway future.

Btw, look after Burrows and Denman for us!!

Is this a contest !.it would be 'interesting' if any club matched Mike Gooleys Trailfinders charitable contributions . I could list several substantial contributions but will not. Every club tries  their very best to contribute to society in many ways.

Free Entry Tickets Are Always Welcome. Ealing Tend To Free Tickets To Local Schools .

Is this a contest !.it would be 'interesting' if any club matched Mike Gooleys Trailfinders charitable contributions . I could list several substantial contributions but will not. Every club tries  their very best to contribute to society in many ways.

Free Entry Tickets Are Always Welcome. Ealing Tend To Free Tickets To Local Schools .

I would think Mick Crossan at London Irish must come close or pass Mike Gooley. 

Pragmatic approach, How could a Championship team keep 30 players, replacements and coaches isolated/shielded from their opponents and families throughout a fixture list?

Just saying why just this year. It is good they both are doing something but if it is 1 year it is more a PR stunt rather than a lasting thing.

We weren’t talking about owners were we, just clubs, but yes it could be argued the amount of money Mike Gooley has pumped in to Ealing has amounted to charity with the massive squad of players being paid over inflated salaries for the division. 

In addition to the thought (as mentioned by others) that this shouldn't be a competition I would replace "richer" with "less poor". 

Your link has a trailing space  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52774133" rel="nofollow - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/52774133

But who owns the Championship - or, to give it its full name, the RFU Championship...?

So what actual commercial value could they realistically demand? Given it will be a semi pro competition going forward, that broadcasters can offer much reduced packages and the weekly cumulative crowds run to a few thousand spectators at best, where is the demand for this product?

There is none I’d suggest. 

You've beat me to it.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that out clubs would have to pay a broadcaster to take the games rather than the other way around. 

Broadcasters are wanting something that can appeal to an audience wider than the few thousands that attend games.  With the promotion gateway more or less decided before the season starts, the appeal becomes less and less. 

Saracens aside for the minute, next season can you name a Championship player that the man on the Clapham Omnibus could identify? Even with Saracens there is no guarantee that they will play the Farrells etc in any Championship game.

If ITV (etc) thought they was an audience they would try and obtain the rights. 

Sky only showed the games as they were bundled with the Autumn Internationals, not as a standalone package.

You fail to appreciate or understand that for a commercial broadcaster they has to be a target audience that is of interest to advertisers. 

What makes the Championship of interest to advertisers? No one has yet to answer that question. 

Did you mean to be quite so pompous? 

And how many are banging on the door, cheque in hand to televise the league?

Attracting advertisers is becoming harder and harder even without the current pandemic. They can pickand choose and play sports and TV companies off against each other so... 

With the worry I will be called pompous again (one to add to the fruit filter!) what is the selling point of this league?

Why isn't anyone answering the fundamental question that television companies and advertisers would be the first to ask?

We've had dual registration for a while now with this type of player (board passim) but there is no evidence it draws larger crowds, income or sponsorship.

The players no matter how good only became attractive once they are Premiership 'stars' or internationals.

Press speculation suggest that the big Saracens names will be sphazelnutly used. I agree Farrell etc will be a draw if they play or possibly if they attend and make themselves available, but even then what do you do the following season when Saracens are presumably back in the Premiership?

Those citing Sarries involvement are looking at a very short term arrangement. To be clear, after the end of the 20/21 season the ring fence will come into play.

There will be no full time rugby outside of the top 13 (at most Top 14 if Ealing wanted to go down the legal route). Clubs are already planning for this new environment. A huge document is coming out from those clubs explaining how this new approach will work. There are already a surfeit of released “pros” not getting clubs or seeing their already small “pro” deals being reworked.

What the game has to wake up to is that outside of the Pro 13/14, what is the game going to look like? More regional rugby should actually mean a lower salary cap than we already see in the National leagues. The union are skint, clubs are skint and mostly burnt out of trying to play at being pros. There is no commercial value being missed that will suddenly make the game viable to clubs outside the Pro 13/14 to maintain the operations they are currently. The clubs themselves see this, the appetite within the RFU is to be more radical in its proposals. Change is coming and not before time having burnt its way through hundreds of millions of pounds over the last 20 years to have effectively gone nowhere.

Aside from Soccer -which other sports have a FTA TV package for their second tier?

Fishing ??

No International Rugby has a large following; numbers elsewhere are chicken feed, whether it be attendances (unless it is a contrived club fixture at Wembley, Twickenham etc) or TV viewing. 

The fourth tier of English football is about where most Rugby Premiership attendances are at. 

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-two/attendances;jsessionid=08E526AC50921AC503FEF22997792EC0" rel="nofollow - https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/league-two/attendances;jsessionid=08E526AC50921AC503FEF22997792EC0  v 

http://rd.premiershiprugby.com/stats/attendance.php" rel="nofollow - http://rd.premiershiprugby.com/stats/attendance.php  (strangely not given as averages.)

You are now comparing apples to cardboard boxes.  

The sporting structure of the USA is totally different to that of England. You can not equate the two. 

College Sport is attractive because it basically functions as the second tier of the US sporting pyramid below the Proleagues and is heavily financed by the Universities and engrained into the local community or past students.  

The US also has five times the population of England, so 9000 fans per week reduced to English sizes is equalivent to 1,800 fans and how many Championship Clubs get that number each game?

Averaged out and excluding the 'one-off special games - tickets for a £10 etc' they are not. Saracens and Bath's  ground capacity are 10,000 and are rarely full. 

Firstly American Football has no club / town equivalent.

Secondly I have to agree with Hopper, what product is for sale here ? The average attendance in the Championship was 1606, the average attendance in the Rugby League Championship was 2489 and I don't see ITV, Sky, BT or even CVC investing or televising Leigh Centurions v Featherstone Rovers.

Its too small a pond for big fish.

Wasps have 20000-odd seats going spare too (even with the massive amount of freebies given out like confetti in Coventry  and Warwickshire pubs, clubs, and businesses each week).

Read the above again, if offered, they wouldn't pay for it! No Broadcaster would pay for anything if cost money to produce with very little in the way of revenue coming in. Its only "Free" because they get the footage for nothing or next to nothing. It takes about 11 people minimum to provide a Match-Day outside Broadcast they all need paying plus the equipment which in some cases they have to hire in. Sadly the product isn't worth it. 

Bath's ground is 15,000 and even get good crowds for Bath Uni and Bath "A" games.

Wasps average for last season was around 14,000, the lowest they got was 10,300 and their highest 31,000.

Quins is normally full likewise Saracens. Leicester even in their current form get around 20,000.

League 2s top attendance was Bradford with 14,000. The rest were about 4-7,000.

I'd say the Prem would have crowds similar to that of lower end Championship and League One football, with wages similar to that also.

As for level 2, 1,600 would put them about equal to the average in  level 5 english football. A league with about 70% pro and 30% semi-pro teams. Probably an equal representation of the champ teams.

I'd say there are different types of supporters for both codes.

League - Clubs are normally based around the town, most fans don't live too far from the ground and the clubs are normally quite close together, so there will be a larger amount of away fans.

Union - Clubs further spread apart - less away fans, clubs normally represent larger areas/different groups so fans don't always live local to the ground. This potentially could mean that TV games for the RU Championship are more commercially viable than that of RL, as there are less supporters able to get to games and such more will watch at home - A club like scottish who have a very spread out supporter base across the world are a prime example of this.

Why are there fewer away fans in Union.

What steps are the clubs taking, jointly and severally, to increase the number of their fans following them to away games?

Preston Grasshoppers 1869 Club have been running coaches for their supporters to away games since the late 1960's. Probably averaging about 10 trips a season.

I have met Moseley and Rotherham fans as well as Redruth when they came to Cambridge. Not had the pleasure of entertaiing Preston yet - and if National One gets regionalisd may never do so.

But none of those clubs are Championship clubs.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40019387.html" rel="nofollow - https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40019387.html

Rugby League is based on 125 years of local rivalry, where past history plays a prominent part in the next fixture. It is a selling point the game constantly fails to grasp when it goes on its regular expansion trips.  With rare exceptions most teams are within a max 90 minutes journey of each other encouraging fans to travel, and not wasting 'half a weekend' to do so.

That same shared rivalry, history and community once was the bedrock of Welsh rugby, and Scottish Borders Rugby.  

(Internationally Rugby League in Sydney and Brisbane, and Aussie Rules in Melbourne shared many of these traits, but both have managed to expand better than the Rugby League in England, but travelling to away games (outside of the city) is a rarity.)

English rugby union with rare exceptions has none of these traits at club level. For many years it was a game for the player not the supporter and its structure didn't merit travelling away support outside of the hardcore/sad geeks. You knew you could stay at your home ground and watch your seconds and still enjoy a few drinks in the clubhouse.

Where local rivalry* still exists crowds, both home and travelling are larger than many 'newer' fixtures which haven't created a 'grudge' feeling.

* Bath v Bristol, Leicester v Northampton, London Scottish v Richmond, etc. 

But its not television coverage. 

I don't think anyone would argue live streaming via a website or local newspaper isn't an option but it's not television coverage which is the discussion point in this thread. 

But is it about TV these days?  Everything the younger generation watch is through online channels whether it is Youtube, Netflix or whatever.  The subscriber model is able to target specific areas of interest and advertisers will target more focussed audiences.  A subscriber model with targeted advertising is where many niche sports are going and it's not just about being UK based it could be easily be Global.

Play Sports Network through GCN (Global Cycling Network) for example have just launched their 'Race Pass' which allows access to a whole host of Cycling events not previously accessible for an annual cost of GBP39.00 which gets you unlimited viewing of events.  That will be supplemented by advertising revenue and will cover the costs of either buying existing events rights for those already televised or funding the costs of televising those events not currently covered.  This will be available via Apple TV in due course so you will watch it in the same way as TV today just not through proprietary channels (BBC, Sky or BT).

http://https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/gcn-apps-new-premium-race-pass-service-unveiled/" rel="nofollow - http://https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/gcn-apps-new-premium-race-pass-service-unveiled/

I know some clubs broadcast games via the Web, are they profitable or loss leaders to attract new fans or advertisers. If the latter how long can clubs already under heavy financial pressure keep propping up the losses? 

If the former why isn't everyone doing it? 

Is it desperation or has the Championship befuddled those who’ve watched/played in it to think it is really something that has a huge untapped audience out there that has been desperate to find a way to watch it?

Seeing crowds of four figures is still the exception for many and it gets even more stark in National One.

We are talking two of the top three leagues in the country that are drawing a cumulative average crowd most weekends of the season of less than 20,000 (being generous).The worst supported club in level 4 or 5 in the football pyramid would have crowds that would be significantly more than the majority of clubs in current level 2/3 can command.

So it’s time to drop the delusions of grandeur. As a commercial entity the current structure has failed and the ability of the union to make up the continual shortfall has run out. 

There may be ways to increase the audience, but they involve a lot of hard work, and there are no fairy god mother who will take this on. Each and ever club needs to do this for themselves.

The idea that the public know who Ampthill and Doncaster are and have an untapped desire to come watch is laughable. 

Club rugby's profile is low and for the last 20 years the focus has been restricted to the Premiership.

The way to increase crowds is to get your current fans to bring a friend. And to get your DoR interviewed in the local paper or on local radio. 

I would love it if the next contract to broadcast International rugby had a requirement to read the classified rugby scores. But that would mean less gin. 

 

Building crowds at Championship and NCA level is hard work and relies on constant local promotion. Winning also helps, Esher got bigger gates at the top of National 1 than we did in the Championship, largely down to results. 

We all have to manage our Clubs within their own constraints. We shouldn’t expect to rely on handouts from the RFU to pay players. Those players have to be paid from what we can generate within our club structures, through sponsorship and donations, clubhouse lettings and gate takings.

So instead of all the negative tilts at the attempts to date come up with some constructive suggestions. It is our sport that is likely to suffer irrespective of the level that your team is playing in currently.

Who says it has to be live television, we could go with a highlights programme - that way the audience gets all the tasty exciting bits which may just lure further attention and audiences.

I love your "Field of Dreams" approach. If you build it they will come......... no they won't!

You (Championship Clubs) haven't got a product anyone wants and that's why you have no TV companies wanting to commit resources to it. Furthermore how would you're Highlights programme work? Get Speccies to send clips in?

The Pirates have been trying to build a stadium for ten years. We tried a season in the Truro area in a temporary ground and the crowds were much bigger (usually over two thousand) and for one game it was sold out (5,000). The club are very confident that crowds will be at least at that level, probably higher, when we get the stadium built. The RFU have done nothing to market the Championship and seem to see it as is simply a way to feed Prem clubs and nothing more. I take it you don't support a championship club, and your post is actually inverted snobbery. I support, as do many, my local club as well as The Pirates and there is no conflict. Your defeatist attitude is what is holding the game back.

Reality is what is holding the game back. It's not defeatism - we're in a reset year for the whole sport, if not sport as a whole, and frankly, as one of the younger poster on here (still in my 30s) I'm not interested in the ambitions of 2-3 clubs to join the top 12 when there's the whole of the rest of the sport to worry about.

Basic maths says that a 12 club premiership and a 12 club championship gives you 12 games. 16 teams at NL1 gives you 8. So the top three divisions account for a whole 20 matches every week. Except obviously the premiership and championship don't have league fixtures every week. 

The premiership is off and away in the land of milk and honey (although pulling its horns in and cutting player salaries at a rate of knots). 

Anything below the premiership, and certainly arguments between fans of level 2 and level 3 clubs is, literally bald men fighting over combs.

Add into that the structurally bizarre position rugby has got itself into where, as a supporter of a team that has gone down, I was astonished to discover that the drop that I'd feared for so long was actually a move to a more fun matchday experience (no mickey mouse cups, home and away games every Saturday at 2 or 3pm for a start).

Rugby doesn't know what it wants to do with the Championship, but, to the astonishment of my own ears, I did find myself in agreement with Mr Sweeney that when it comes down to it the Championship has more in common with the "community game" (i.e. as far as Twickenham is concerned, *every* game outside the top twelve fixtures that happens in the entire country) than it does with the top six fixtures. That's a whole sport problem, not a level 2 problem. There are ambitious clubs in the championship (as there are at every level) but there're also sides which are basically NCA set-ups separated from the NCA clubs pretty much by central funding and not a lot else. For a long time, we were probably one of them... (the sad thing for Mose is that after years of playing with a distinct lack of facilities we opened them as we finally went down...).

I agree with some of the posters above, without being defeatist, that the music has basically stopped now and we are where we are. I'm sure clubs will make it into the Premiership in the future, but they'll have to get there through a Championship which is going to be a defunded league which looks very little different to National 1 (as in level 3, not the old level 2), and a million miles off professional sport.

I shall now put down my crystal ball and have a stiff drink.

For the unintended snobbery, I apologise, it was not the intent, the message was if something is not done, supported, whatever you will - the reality is it just won't be the demise of the Championship Clubs but rugby in general. As it is I fear you can all recognise that there is a difficulty in recruiting into this wonderful sport and if there isn't the exposure to new blood we are all in it up to our necks (not just the 12 but the thousands of players / teams and clubs)

Re: Highlights programme initially if recordings are centrally pooled and edited for a highlight programme featuring all the matches in the league it may start something. Perhaps it is field of dreams, but if we don't try we may as well pack in now all of us not just the 12.