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Bad News for RL in Britain?

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    #2
    Dozen Wicked Words
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,325 ✭✭✭✭Dozen Wicked Words


    No surprise they are going to remove the Challenge Cup, since the panel is headed by the slimey David Davis former FA man. He was always a man for the populist sound bite. Sky will snap up the Cup to complete their monopoly of Rugby League in Britain.

    So we will lose the Derby and Challenge cup but its not all bad news, we still get to watch Cycling, Rowing and Sailing (surely the pinnacle of sports?) in the Olympics until the cows come home.


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    #3
    amacachi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    dooferoaks wrote: »
    No surprise they are going to remove the Challenge Cup, since the panel is headed by the slimey David Davis former FA man. He was always a man for the populist sound bite. Sky will snap up the Cup to complete their monopoly of Rugby League in Britain.

    So we will lose the Derby and Challenge cup but its not all bad news, we still get to watch Cycling, Rowing and Sailing (surely the pinnacle of sports?) in the Olympics until the cows come home.

    Can't find a link right now but I'm fairly sure it was this year a Hull MP was campaigning to get League's status upgraded to "B" as it was at "C", the same as table tennis. I thought he was having success too, which raised my hopes somewhat.


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    #4
    couerdelion
    Registered Users Posts: 2,910 ✭✭✭couerdelion


    I don't think the challenge cup is anywhere as big as it used to be.
    Once Wembley shut and it started getting moved around it lost its shine for me.

    Still, the amount of RL on terrestial TV compared to when I was younger is dissapointing but the amount on sky is huge compared to back then.

    We used to only get a programme called Scrumdown on a sunday evening in addition to cup matches.


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    #5
    toomevara
    Registered Users Posts: 5,772 ✭✭✭toomevara


    couerdelion wrote: »
    I don't think the challenge cup is anywhere as big as it used to be.
    Once Wembley shut and it started getting moved around it lost its shine for me.

    Agreed. Its a shame, but the challenge cup has become devalued currency over the last few years largely due to a lack of interest on the part of the rugby league viewing public...I attended a few games this year and attendances were sparse and interest muted. You have to say it can hardly be regarded as a national jewel in the british sporting calendar.

    Paradoxically, if Sky get the rights we'll probably see alot more coverage of the cup, especially for those teams in the C'ship and C'ship1....


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    #6
    Paul Tergat
    Registered Users Posts: 10,741 ✭✭✭✭Paul Tergat


    Have to agree with the above 2 posts, a lot of the gloss has been taken off the challenge cup.

    This is why I would be in favour of Sky taking it on and see what they will do with it.


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    #7
    WakeyTyke
    Registered Users Posts: 526 ✭✭✭WakeyTyke


    Very true. Sky are in part responsible for the steady demise of the Challenge Cup with their promotion of the Grand Final as the premier event on the RL calender.

    Equally the finger of blame can be pointed at the BBC who have merely been paying lip-service to the competition for many years.

    If Sky were to take over the franchise of televising the CC then you could be guaranteed that its importance and significance within the game would rise sharply.


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