Rugby News from unexpected places

[Omar Comin']

I actually heard something about the ratings last night and was coming to this thread to post them before I read your comment. Apparently it's averaging 75k on CBS and around the same on ESPN +. No word on the AT & T regional broadcasts. While that doesn't look like much in such a large market it actually compares fairly favourably to other relatively recent (in terms of 'major' professional competition) start ups in the form of Major League Lacrosse and Major League Soccer.

MLL has been around since 2001 and barely beats MLR on ratings now. While MLS was founded in 1993 and only rates in the mid 200k.

Well to be averaging about a third of MLS in the first season is pretty encouraging. Especially when it's been a bit of a soft launch.

Just looked up the current MLS broadcast deal - they make $90 million per season. Obviously that's not just from 3 times the average ratings - they play a lot more games too. But it gives an indication of the potential.

Hopefully Austin stick it out. They desperately need to change their name for starters. Who wants to support a team called the Elite. The guys running the franchise should be able to build bridges with the local clubs - a successful MLR team in Austin would surely benefit the clubs. They need to all work together to make it work.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Well to be averaging about a third of MLS in the first season is pretty encouraging. Especially when it's been a bit of a soft launch.

Just looked up the current MLS broadcast deal - they make $90 million per season. Obviously that's not just from 3 times the average ratings - they play a lot more games too. But it gives an indication of the potential.

Hopefully Austin stick it out. They desperately need to change their name for starters. Who wants to support a team called the Elite. The guys running the franchise should be able to build bridges with the local clubs - a successful MLR team in Austin would surely benefit the clubs. They need to all work together to make it work.

The number of games will jump quite a bit next season. Depending on numbers but we can expect a full home and away season next year. From the current 30 odd to between 64 to 90 next year. Not including the final series. Around 144 by 2022 if all goes to plan.

As for sticking it out. I'm not sure. Austin seem to have gone into this the least prepared overall to be part of a professional competition. Which is amazing as they were one of the leads in establishing it. I get the impression much of their admin assumed it would be like D1 Rugby and prepared in that manner. Turns out. Not so much. We'll see but there's a lot of hinting that many of these players could be finding themselves a few hours north next season.

 

[Omar Comin']

As for sticking it out. I'm not sure. Austin seem to have gone into this the least prepared overall to be part of a professional competition. Which is amazing as they were one of the leads in establishing it. I get the impression much of their admin assumed it would be like D1 Rugby and prepared in that manner. Turns out. Not so much. We'll see but there's a lot of hinting that many of these players could be finding themselves a few hours north next season.

Seems an unlikely amount of money to put in if they expected it to be like D1 Rugby. Maybe they just thought this season would be like that. I think it would be a shame to give up after just 1 year, especially when it seems they haven't really given it a proper go. But I guess you have to expect some teams in this comp will fail over time.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Seems an unlikely amount of money to put in if they expected it to be like D1 Rugby. Maybe they just thought this season would be like that. I think it would be a shame to give up after just 1 year, especially when it seems they haven't really given it a proper go. But I guess you have to expect some teams in this comp will fail over time.

What I should have said was that last year they reached a certain level of production that was ahead of everyone else with the exception of Glendale which was far and away superior to anything else in the country. And I think they assumed that for season one that was a far as they needed to go as that's how far they thought everyone else would get.

However, that's not the reality that occurred. The overall level of production is well above that of last year and they appear to have been caught off guard and are from reports a little too slow and somewhat stubborn to be adaptive enough to respond.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Mexico and Peru are looking to get in on the LSR now. WR (World Rugby) is backing this concept are are likely to cover the travel side of the equation.

Something else that's underway is coming out of Russia and Georgia. Planning is underway to launch a Rugby version of the Kontinental Hockey League. I'm calling it the KRL. It plans to feature teams from Russia, Romania, Georgia and Germany. They apparently will have a major sponsor that will cover the costs of travel and accommodation for teams participating as well as other operating expenses for the league. There will also be prize money.

In Spain the Liga Heineken clubs are set to form their own assoc. One of their primary goals is to transition the league into a fully professional structure over the next 3-5 years. There has already been a lot of movement in this direction with player budget creeping up year on year for the last several years.

 

[Harv]

The Australian commentators for the Major League Rugby game between Houston and Seattle are making the thing unwatchable. They refer to each other by name in every sentence. It’s kind of comical. They are trying to be positive, but “Dan” and “Luke” are doing the game an enormous disservice. It’s not just amateur hour it’s cringeworthy. Seriously. Someone stop them.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

The Australian commentators for the Major League Rugby game between Houston and Seattle are making the thing unwatchable. They refer to each other by name in every sentence. It’s kind of comical. They are trying to be positive, but “Dan” and “Luke” are doing the game an enormous disservice. It’s not just amateur hour it’s cringeworthy. Seriously. Someone stop them.

Maybe we could send them Phil Kearns to commentate MLR games....

 

[brokendown]

along with murray Mexted

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

The USA Eagles handed the Russians a 63-13 beating in Denver earlier today.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Apparently this is from the sales department of CBS. According to the source MLR is the most popular weekly program on CBSSN. People are trying to find out if they are real. If they are. Holy Crap. https://imgur.com/7UIumVB


Also, it's been confirmed that next season will feature at least 10 teams and as many as 12 if Rugby Canada sanctions Canadian involvement. The season will run from Jan through June.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Apparently this is from the sales department of CBS. According to the source MLR is the most popular weekly program on CBSSN. People are trying to find out if they are real. If they are. Holy Crap. https://imgur.com/7UIumVB


Also, it's been confirmed that next season will feature at least 10 teams and as many as 12 if Rugby Canada sanctions Canadian involvement. The season will run from Jan through June.

Great news for rugby in that part of the world WCR.

Potentially, not so great for us, cause if that continues we are going to have another large comp able to be competing for our best players on price.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Omar Comin']

I'm pretty sceptical of those reported figures. 1.1-1.4 million average viewers is 4 times the average for Major League Soccer. Seems very unlikely in the first year of the competition. If the numbers were that high I think you'd see far greater growth in followers on social media for MLR and the teams. Yet the growth has been slow since the start of the season. Social media followers is not a perfect measure of interest, but I'd be pretty confident that it's highly correlated.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

I'm pretty sceptical of those reported figures. 1.1-1.4 million average viewers is 4 times the average for Major League Soccer. Seems very unlikely in the first year of the competition. If the numbers were that high I think you'd see far greater growth in followers on social media for MLR and the teams. Yet the growth has been slow since the start of the season. Social media followers is not a perfect measure of interest, but I'd be pretty confident that it's highly correlated.

No one is taking them as gospel until they see something official to confirm whether they are true or not. The regional viewership numbers being between 75-100,000 have been confirmed though. If they are then they would be roughly twice that of the combined viewership of MLS across three stations.

On the other side of the argument. There are definitely enough Rugby fans in the US to pull those numbers and MLR doesn't suffer from the same issues as MLS does with being seen as inherently inferior to the European leagues with no chance on closing the gap. While MLR has a real chance of becoming one of the premier competitions in Rugby.

Overall, it would be amazing if those numbers were true. The league definitely would as it would mean a major pay day in the future but until I see something more official I'll take the 75-100k instead.

 

[Derpus]

I'm pretty sceptical of those reported figures. 1.1-1.4 million average viewers is 4 times the average for Major League Soccer. Seems very unlikely in the first year of the competition. If the numbers were that high I think you'd see far greater growth in followers on social media for MLR and the teams. Yet the growth has been slow since the start of the season. Social media followers is not a perfect measure of interest, but I'd be pretty confident that it's highly correlated.

Good way to make something popular is to tell everyone that everyone else already likes it. You can pay dodgy Chinese and Russian blokes to flood your social media with fake 'followers' for that purpose.

I read some stupid statistic somewhere about how a very large proportion of all people on those social media sites are fake, though i think it's since been cracked down on to an extent.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Good way to make something popular is to tell everyone that everyone else already likes it. You can pay dodgy Chinese and Russian blokes to flood your social media with fake 'followers' for that purpose.

I read some stupid statistic somewhere about how a very large proportion of all people on those social media sites are fake, though i think it's since been cracked down on to an extent.

It was Twitter. Some of the accounts had more than 60% fake or bots as 'followers'. They've cracked down on the bots pretty hard recently.

 

[Omar Comin']

Good way to make something popular is to tell everyone that everyone else already likes it. You can pay dodgy Chinese and Russian blokes to flood your social media with fake 'followers' for that purpose.

I read some stupid statistic somewhere about how a very large proportion of all people on those social media sites are fake, though i think it's since been cracked down on to an extent.

Paying for fake followers is actually a really bad idea, people that do it end up destroying their ability to reach actual followers and potential followers with content. I think a lot of people who try to game these systems often don't realise that the people at facebook and google etc who work on the algorithms are smarter than they are.

It's certainly not a perfect measure of popularity, but if you ever compare the number of followers that teams or players or sporting bodies have, it's hardly ever surprising. It tends to reflect relative popularity.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Belgium and the Netherland have announced the establishment of the BeNeCup. A four week cross-border competition featuring the top four clubs from each nation. Nothing further on this front yet but some of the Dutch and Belgian posters over on the T2 site are speculating that it could be the first tentative steps toward a full time cross border league in the near-ish future.

 

[Omar Comin']

USA Eagles beat Scotland 30-29 in Houston. Could be a very significant result to look back on in a few years. They now enter the league of tier 2 teams capable of upsetting tier 1 sides. How long til they are a genuine tier 1 nation?

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

USA Eagles beat Scotland 30-29 in Houston. Could be a very significant result to look back on in a few years. They now enter the league of tier 2 teams capable of upsetting tier 1 sides. How long til they are a genuine tier 1 nation?

And Russia beat Canada reasonably comfortably. Which doesn't bode well for the Canadians as they host the Eagles in Halifax next week. Considering the Eagles beat the Russians by 50 last week it could be a bloodbath.

 

[Harv]

USA Eagles beat Scotland 30-29 in Houston. Could be a very significant result to look back on in a few years. They now enter the league of tier 2 teams capable of upsetting tier 1 sides. How long til they are a genuine tier 1 nation?

I think it's fair to predict that they'd now be genuinely competitive against most international teams. They've got a Georgia-Italy (on a good day) feel to them with a bit of Pacific Island flair. Reckon the biggest difference to the last few years is they now boast a solid set piece. They make use of some big bodies right across the park and look to be well-coached. McGinty was a gem at 10 last night -- best game I've seen him play for anyone. They've won seven straight now--and are on another level to their traditional rivals Canada, who sadly are collapsing in a bit of heap. The Eagles have structure and hold their form deep into games, no doubt a product of the professional environment they've enjoyed for the last few years. They lack a bit of depth and seem vulnerable to the counter (hmm, just like the Wallabies), but they are not going to be overwhelmed against most opposition. I'd put lunch money on them being the up there with the best Tier 2 side going around. Great to witness their development.