Off Topic Well done Hull FC

The total for the first 4 rounds of Super League fixtures, which adds up to quite a few televised games, was 1.7 million.

 

The viewing figures on SKY are very good for Rugby League - better than Union on the whole. Why the RFL don't use this as the basis to increase their TV deal, which will ultimately give clubs more money, increase their salary cap to attract better players from Australia or over from Union baffles me

 

Last season the highest viewing figure for the Union Premiership was 276,000 for Wasps v Leicester. Pretty good considering it was on BT which has less subscribers than SKY. The average attendance for a Union Premiership game is more than a Super League game. For internationals there is just no comparison.

 

And that's the key. League has nothing that gets close to the Six Nations or the Rugby Union World Cup. As an international sport it is all but an irrelevance. I love both sports, but it takes a lot to get me watching club rugby union (maybe the later round of the Heineken Cup). However, international games in league just seem meaningless or produce too many walkovers. The sport only really matters in three 'major' countries, and in two of them (England and New Zealand) it is so far down the pecking order as an international sport that winning a World Cup wouldn't necessarily be seen as major event compared with other team sports.

I don't really view rugby league with the disdain that many City fans do, though I know the pious attitude of league fans in Hull can be very annoying. I want the sport to do well, but until it does something about its international game I can't see that happening as it won't get the national exposure. I often ponder whether it should ditch or pare down international sport altogether and just go with a multi-country State of Origin-style tournament (Queensland, NSW, Yorkshire, Lancashire, North Island, South Island, Pacific Islands, etc...). I'd love to see those games. The Aussie State of Origin game is a must-watch.

 

I don't view rugby league with disdain. A lot of admiration for the toughness of the players. Used to go to games when I lived in Hull. That stopped after the Brentford game. It is a shame that with success being more easily obtained the local media thinks that rugby league is what identifies the city, though in reality the Hull rugby clubs have massively underachieved in comparison to some from very small towns.
Always gone along with the old adage "A good game of union is better than a good game of league but a bad game of league is better than a bad game of union". Though a lot in Hull would no doubt disagree.

 

Thanks Barchullona. An interesting and no doubt popular take on things. In the 80s, I was a double season ticket holder at the Boulevard and Boothferry Park. My dad was a massive Hull FC fan and would take me to games from a young age, I'd play in curtain raisers for my Bransholme team, etc... I was only a kid, but my first sporting heroes were Steve Norton, Sammy Lloyd, the Kiwis and later the peerless Peter Sterling. I was quite happy doing both, but as I grew up the attitude of FC fans towards Hull City in particular and football more generally really started to put me off. They seemed to have a superiority complex and an inferiority complex both running at the same time. By the late 80s I'd all but ditched going to FC and was only bothering with City.

I do find the 'Hull is a rugby town' stuff frustrating, and it's something I cover a bit in my forthcoming book. Even in the 80s, every year group in each middle or senior school in Hull had a football team, but not that many had a rugby league team. I doubt that's changed much. Hull’s Sunday League football network was for a long time - in the 80s and 90s - considered to be the largest in the UK. Five-aside football was and is much more widely played in the city’s leisure centres than touch rugby. Pubs would be much fuller for football games of national significance than their rugby counterparts.

City have bettered FC’s record home attendance of 28,798 more than 100 times and KR’s 22,282 more than 300 times. Hull City’s average league attendance since the move to the KC Stadium up to and including the 2017/18 season has been 15,600 at its lowest and 24,800 at its highest (though this season may well dent that). The respective figures for Hull FC are 10,600 and 14,600. City have spent much of this time topping FC and Rovers' combined attendances (and that doesn't take into account stuff like the RL clubs largely playing more local teams). I don't think Hull us a rugby town at all. I don't think it's a football town either. Both sports are very popular here, and it's a shame that can't just be seen as a good thing. I suppose most people in Hull have an allegiance to one of the two Hull RL teams, no matter how slight, whereas there are a lot of Man Utd, Liverpool, Leeds, etc... fans. From 2002 or so onwards we were starting to correct that. Sadly, recent events mean that we run the risk of a new generation reverting to not supporting their local team. It's one of the key reasons why the Allams can't leave quickly enough.

 

I can never and will never get my head round supporting your local RL team but supporting a football team from out of town.

 

I completely agree ..
Very strange mind set in this City .

 

If I could be arsed, I might trawl around on some Wigan or Hudders forums to see if this sickness is also present there,

 

Love the figures which show the realities of things.
I know you are interested in local sporting stuff. The year above me at school in Brid went 6 years unbeaten, coached by a teacher who always wore an old, worn, FC shirt. Never thought about why he wore that at the time. Found out later that it was because he had played for FC, along with someone else, for a couple of trial games. The Welsh RFU found out and stripped him of his Wales B cap and he was told he couldn't coach at a RU club. In fact, such were things in the early 1960s, that he wouldn't have been allowed to coach if he had been a sports teacher. However, he was an English teacher, so used to coach the school team in his own time. And made a point of wearing his FC shirt when he did so. There was some legal precedent set in his, and the other player's, case which I once saw in a newspaper article.
This came to mind as I was talking to someone last week who was telling me that the captain of his all conquering team recently had his 70th birthday. Such was the regard they held him in they tracked him down to attend. Must be in his 80s now.
Regarding this chap, another thing, which reflects well on the FC owner of the time. I was in our local rugby club's bar in the 1980s and one of his team said he had been in. He was up here because FC had managed to find out where he was and invited him to the 1982 Challenge Cup Final. He couldn't get to Wembley but went to the replay at Elland Road and came up again, at their request, for the civic reception. Classy by the FC owner and a stark contrast to the way our owners carry on.

 

Go for it !
Does it also happen in Leeds , Leicester ,

 

A poster on here got into a confrontation in the Queens when Liverpool were playing on the lunch time when City were at home. It was packed with people supporting Liverpool. He asked why they didn't support their local team. They did he was told. Rovers. Things got heated and he was told to shut up as there was a few of them and be was on his own. Someone, who he didn't know at the time and who occasionally posts on here, heard this and walked across and said that he wasn't.
It was funny as he later introduced me to him at a game. Used to indulge in arguments on all sorts of political things on the CI site, but got on great when we met, Had a few very good sessions with him after games.

 

When Hull FC play, I want them to win. Same for Rovers. When they play each other, I don't care who wins.

Fact is, I just don't like Rugby as a game.

I've absolutely nothing against it, or anyone who enjoys it. I'm indifferent really, so I've nothing at all to be bitter about.

Well apart from the fact they made me play it at school

 

There's also plenty that support Manchester and Liverpool here but are not interested in Rugby league .
Most of the lads I played football with had no interest in it !

 

A Leeds fan told me that you do see Man Utd shirts in Leeds. Though I wouldn't have thought it was a good idea to wander about in one. My lad ran a pub in Leeds for a while a few years ago and was amazed that there was a bunch of blokes cheering on Chelsea. His remarks about glory hunters and his opinions on people led to quite a heated argument. Fortunately a customer came to his aid. Turned out he was someone none of the locals wanted to argue with so be was OK. Turned out that later that night one of them got in argument in another part of Leeds and stabbed somebody. Hope he learnt to think before you start spouting off.

 

Agree. But there is something odd about people who profess pride in their local team in one sport and support clubs from another city they have no connection with in another sport and wish their own local team do badly. Never saw that when I worked in Leeds. Don't think ig happens in Bradford. Or Leicester with the other code of rugby.
Of course there are some who support both the rugby clubs and City and fair play to them.

 

Yes this is true !!

 

I simply don't talk football at work simple as that !!
Spurs ,Arsenal , Leeds ,Man U , Liverpool fans .
Not interested in the slightest .
Always hope they lose .

 

You get antipathy to the football club from rugby fans in Wigan. Only since after years having the biggest crowds and being a rugby town Wigan Athletic reached the top flight and being on the same level then got larger crowds. There were some upset rugby fans in Wigan when before their first game in the PL against Chelsea the mayor said this game had brought the town of Wigan more publicity than anything else had. Fans of the most successful rugby league club in the world weren't amused.
I do remember we had gone up the season Wigan started in the PL. Their local paper was full of welcoming Chelsea, their fans and everyone else and what a marvellous occasion it was. The HDM featured an article from the police saying promotion and more away fans coming was a cause for concern and warning everybody about the possibility of increased trouble and how they would be increasing police numbers and cracking down on any sign of untoward behaviour.

 

In the supermarket today when one of the staff said to another that Hull City hadn't done us any favours. I said I don't like City losing but if it mucked Leeds up it softened the blow. The wife gave me one of those looks and wandered off. This bloke said everyone should hope Leeds win as we are all Yorkshire. So are Doncaster and Barnsley so why don't you support them I asked. Not to mention Hull City are of course. Unfortunately a tannoy call for one of them ended the discussion. Or fortunately as the wife was stood tapping her foot with one of those exasperated looks she is so good at.