NRL loses fans

[bondi-boy]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1227055198724

NRL fans tell us why they are turning off the TV and failing to turn up to matches this season



The NRL has lost 3.6 million viewers in a major ratings slide and fans of the game are vocal about why they are tuning out.

In the wake of Josh Massoud’s exclusive in today’s Daily Telegraph, the fans have hit social media to express their opinion.

In today’s exclusive, Massoud also outlined how the NRL has also failed to reach its target audience of 16,500 for this season, recording a 15,900 average almost identical to last year.

Fans today gave numerous reasons for tuning out and failing to turn up at matches during the 26-round regular season.

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You don't have to be Einstein to work out why fans are not attending matches and also switching off the tv.

[Guest]

I like how they act surprised that they're losing fans and viewers.

[stephenj]

cost and refereeing are two major blunders as well as too much on cable only tv not free to air

[Guest]

David Smith needs to be shown the door ASAP. Bring back the shoulder charge and allow punching.

[Parkway_Drive]

Rugby League is a working class game for working class people. Not a bullsh*t agenda driven corporate coq sarking farce that it is starting to resemble.

I am a member and will be so for life but they need lower the cost of tickets for the non-members. Also ticket prices for marquee events such as SOO and GF's need to be lower. Parking, scheduling of matches, costs of food and drink need to be considered as well.

Less Saturday night games and more Saturday arvo and Sunday arvo games. Scrap Monday night and do not, do not contemplate Thursday nights. Prefer to see teams with less short-turn arounds. I know the teevee rights owners won't like it as they have paid their millions/billions to dictate when games are to be played but at the end of the day the product won't be worth it. I rarely watch Friday night games on teevee anymore and haven't watched a Sunday arvo one at all this year and I know a lot of people who have done the same as me. I used to watch every match having foxtel...but I canned my subscription to that as well.

Fix up the refereeing farce (one ref on the ground, 2 touchies and one vidiot only)......plus stamp out the wrestle. By that I mean the judiciary gets tough (Jim Comans style) on wrestling type tackles (eg Chicken Wings, etc)...that will stop the Bellamy/Maquire coached farrkers. I cannot watch most games apart from Roosters matches anymore, it is boring and formulated and more time is spent watching wrestle mania than football.

Fix up the nonsense that is the shoulder charge rule and bring back the biff....I cannot recall anybody in recent years ever getting seriously hurt in all-in brawls or stoushes. I don't condone Danny Williams or Bob Cooper style king hitting in anyway (players guilty of that should be banned for life and criminal charges laid).

Serious suspensions for dangerous throws.....they have backed off since the McKinnon incident despite the NRL saying they were going to crack down.

I love my league and always will but the game at the moment is very expensive to attend (especially after factoring in parking, catering, etc especially if you have kids), it is more wrestle mania and open to refs interpretations than ever before.

Rant over!

[Guest]

David Smith needs to be shown the door ASAP. Bring back the shoulder charge and allow punching.

As a RL supporter I would have to agree, the fans may think differently.

[stsae]

I refuse to believe a word that rag comes up with without seeing the actual figures at the END of the season.

Also I'd like to see the trend of ALL major codes in this country comparing TV figures.

I don't understand how one organisation hijacks the game and runs it into the ground so as to rape it of any financial windfall to line it's own pockets with cash, then exits right when ArSeADA begins, then hammers the new regime every farking day for trying to repair the massive holes left by the former carnts, NewsRL.

And people actually fall for their games. They are playing many for fools.

This game we love has never been stronger or better managed than it is now.

Despite all that's happened since SL I see NewsRLs point, it only took 18 or so years to drag the game down, and it should only take a couple of seasons to right the wrongs.

Seriously stop reading that bullshit or at least stop believing the agenda that is NewsRL.

If Bongdi Boy finds it to be true you know there's a big steamer near your nose.

Your nose is too close to your arse.

Dig.

[novice chook]

News Ltd are forever attacking the new regime at NRL headquarters because unlike the previous regime, it doesn't leak like a sieve and Dave Smith, unlike David Gallop (the ex News lawyer), isn't at their beck and call, and is quite happy to admit it.

So the journos now have to work harder to get any info, and it's obvious most of their articles are fabricated.

We are stuck with the current TV deal until it ends. The benefit at the end of it is that Channel 9 no longer get first and last chance to claim the FTA rights and I'm hoping either 7 or 10 will take them up and control is given back to the game itself. 9 are a dictatorship who have no regard for the fans at all, nor the game for that matter. I have no issue with Fox and their coverage - it's live, uninterrupted and well worth paying for.

Dave Smith will never be popular with a lot of supporters and clubs because he is determined to run the NRL as a business, and shore up its long term financial future. He is not interested in politics and power games and all the rest of it. Nor should he be.

I suspect the clubs will have to suck it up that, when push comes to shove, it is Dave's way or the highway. He doesn't appear to be the bloke to back down, which is why I suspect the Commission hired him. He may look like a nondescript banker but there is steel behind that facade.

NC

[Johnny.]

The cheeky leaky has the fire of King Arthur Pendragon flowing through his veins.

[stsae]

News Ltd are forever attacking the new regime at NRL headquarters because unlike the previous regime, it doesn't leak like a sieve and Dave Smith, unlike David Gallop (the ex News lawyer), isn't at their beck and call, and is quite happy to admit it.

So the journos now have to work harder to get any info, and it's obvious most of their articles are fabricated.

We are stuck with the current TV deal until it ends. The benefit at the end of it is that Channel 9 no longer get first and last chance to claim the FTA rights and I'm hoping either 7 or 10 will take them up and control is given back to the game itself. 9 are a dictatorship who have no regard for the fans at all, nor the game for that matter. I have no issue with Fox and their coverage - it's live, uninterrupted and well worth paying for.

Dave Smith will never be popular with a lot of supporters and clubs because he is determined to run the NRL as a business, and shore up its long term financial future. He is not interested in politics and power games and all the rest of it. Nor should he be.

I suspect the clubs will have to suck it up that, when push comes to shove, it is Dave's way or the highway. He doesn't appear to be the bloke to back down, which is why I suspect the Commission hired him. He may look like a nondescript banker but there is steel behind that facade.

NC

That's a great post IMO NC.

Fark NewsRL and their blatant agendas.

[Kingbilly]

The current Management of the NRL are an absolute disgrace.
Some of what the article says is true, but its Parkway_Drive's first sentence that hits the nail on the head.

The current management are soley focused on bleeding everyone and everything dry to maximise the $ they can get. Its a quiet process but they do not care at all about the fans and supporters of club. The want the big corporate $s.
The have changed the way kids must register (and are bringing in more changes)
They have changed the way kids get their junior passes (meaning 50% never get a card and 20% get 2 or more)

These are just 2 examples of things that the NRL are doing to collect as much marketing data as possible, without care that it will reduce the number of kids that will play RL and also the number that attend


I have no doubt that the removal of New ltd has changed the way the game is reported. News ltd did a lot of damage to RL, but equally guilty were the greedy players and play managers and Ch9

[bondi-boy]

David Smith needs to be shown the door ASAP. Bring back the shoulder charge and allow punching.

And the ARL Commission members should be despatched along with Smith.
The buck stops with them, they employ him.
They therefore preside over it all.

The shoulder charge should return...with any shoulder charge that hits the head punished.

Punching should still be banned..."one punch can kill".

[stsae]

And the ARL Commission members should be despatched along with Smith.
The buck stops with them, they employ him.
They therefore preside over it all.

The shoulder charge should return...with any shoulder charge that hits the head punished.

Punching should still be banned..."one punch can kill".

And who replaces them???

Maybe NewsRL headed by Gallop???

You know the ones who left the game in the shape it's in.

The ones who raped it of billions of $$$.

The ones who split the game originally thru SL.

The ones who had foundation clubs merge and excluded.

The ones who owned The Wankos and Melba, just luckily the two most successful sides while they also owned the game.

The ones that saw the game start with 2 Reffs and Vidiots.

The ones whose clubs they owned started the wrestling scourge.

The ones who implemented the current judiciary system.

The ones who ruled thru 2 salary cap scandals, one a club the owned, and were in charge when another club employed Dank bringing ArSeADA into our game.

The ones who now campaign against the IC thru their propaganda rag.

Etcetcetcetcetc.............I could go on but my fingers are sore.

Life was so much better for RL when NewsRL ran the game.

[bondi-boy]

I had more in mind getting new people, not a new system.
Sweep the broom...new CEO and new ARL Commission members.

[bondi-boy]

I refuse to believe a word that rag comes up with without seeing the actual figures at the END of the season.

This game we love has never been stronger or better managed than it is now.

Really?

You might just change your mind about your buddies Smith and co when their new "female and independent board members" take over our Club and arrive in the car park with Rabbits stickers on their cars.

Ch 9 announced recently that it'll be televising an NRL match live on Sunday afternoons next season, and there'll possibly be 4 quarters or 'slow setting of scrums etc' for matches...so ads can be squeezed in.

Nothing of course to do with that "3.6 million less tv viewers of NRL games this year."