News: Crowe reveals his American dream

[Berkeley_Eagle]

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<div class="smallfont" style="font: normal normal normal 11px/normal verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" />SOUTHS co-owner Russell Crowe has proposed an expanded World Club Challenge competition involving the top four teams from the NRL and Super League be played in the US at the end of the season.


<a href="http://www.silvertails.net/news/5267-crowe-reveals-his-american-dream.html">Read the full article</a>

 

[WAMF]

Sorry, when exactly was the last time the bunnies finished in the top 4?
1989? bwahahaha

 

[Rusty]

Ok, well Mr Crowe, you take your connections and make it happen. Sounds like a great idea, if it can be done.

 

[eagles2win]

I get the impression he wouldn't care if Souths were there or not.

This is very doable IMO, the NRL and ESL seasons get wound back to 22 rounds (so players can't complain about burnout), each comp play's there respective final series and two weeks later the WCC starts.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Anything to expand the game is a great idea, as long as it's not at a cost to each club....so go for it Rusty!

 

[Masked Eagle]

I get the impression he wouldn't care if Souths were there or not.

This is very doable IMO, the NRL and ESL seasons get wound back to 22 rounds (so players can't complain about burnout), each comp play's there respective final series and two weeks later the WCC starts.

A pretty good idea but you are spot on that you need to wound back the premiership season for it to be successful.  I also can't see it being a long term thing either because surely you don't want to take these games away from the bread & butter fans for say 5 years or so if it takes off in the states.  Just a promotional tool for a few years where it might help you gain some interest in the local league product in the US and perhaps a few extra television sets turn it on.  Its a bit different to taking regular season game O/S, were talking about a full competition and whilst it might be OK for a year or two, if it became a staple and successful competiton as fans back here we'll be saying, what about us?

 

[G-land Express]

RL has about as much chance as taking off in the states as Baseball does here or AFL in China. If they're going to do it, then play it here, NZ or the UK. Crowe's dreaming.

 

[tookey]

The NRL cannot even get a team to suppoprt itself in an AFL mad city like Melbourne so fat chance of suceeding in the US. 

Crowe should worry about the fact that souths have lost more games that they have won in the past 8 years since they were reintroduced into the competition

 

[Frogz]

Althoough I hate Russel Crowe with a passion.....At least he is coming up with ideas and moving forward.

He can certainly help keep Souths (and their spnosors) in the media

 

[Guest]

it will just be an all aussie final  infact  i will go as far as to say the top 4 teams to finish in that tourney will all be aussie teams..

 

[eagles2win]

it will just be an all aussie final  infact  i will go as far as to say the top 4 teams to finish in that tourney will all be aussie teams..

I wouldn't say that the current standing's of WCC won is fairly lopsided toward the Super League teams.

I would say these teams would be competitive or beat NRL teams at the moment Wigan(I think they'll win there 4th WCC next year), Warrington, St Helens and Leeds.
 

 

[ayjay007]

The NRL cannot even get a team to suppoprt itself in an AFL mad city like Melbourne so fat chance of suceeding in the US. 

Crowe should worry about the fact that souths have lost more games that they have won in the past 8 years since they were reintroduced into the competition

Comparing the Yanks and Melbournians is like chalk and cheese.If you put the time and energy into it,I reckon just about anything could go well in the USA.There's so bloody many people!Melbourne,while being a nice city to visit,only knows Spring racing,AFL and Arty stuff.They are insular,and aren't willing to accept,or try change.
In the US in 08,I was wearing a Manly cap sometimes,and was constantly asked what were these Eagles,and what sport was it.
Trying to introduce League in the USA would be no harder than trying to make it popular in South England.Ask my fellow WCC tourers how many times we had to explain that Manly played Rugby LEAGUE,not UNION.It was football (or soccer if you want) and union.

 

[Guest]

[quote author=jjai link=topic=186041.msg307856#msg307856 date=1290991717]
it will just be an all aussie final  infact  i will go as far as to say the top 4 teams to finish in that tourney will all be aussie teams..

I wouldn't say that the current standing's of WCC won is fairly lopsided toward the Super League teams.

I would say these teams would be competitive or beat NRL teams at the moment Wigan(I think they'll win there 4th WCC next year), Warrington, St Helens and Leeds.
 
[/quote]Ant mate the  poms can only play on their soil,  ,  take the wcc away from england & play them in say france the poms would struggle , its because its on their home ground they are a bit more competetive,  but  over in america away from their country  they would struggle to win one game i dnt care who the teams are...  the only real good chance they would have is if they had roughly 6 aussies in each team..

 

[vidmar]

I think Rusty is ambitious but love the fact he is passionate about the game and is looking to increase the potential audience.

Australia is relatively small in population and the fact that there are several popular ball codes plus of course all manner of other sports and attractions competing for players, audience and cash will always inhibit the amount of dollars the code can earn which will impact on the ability to build and maintain teams.

Anything that can contributes to its growth is, I think, worth looking at so am glad that people like him are willing to give it a go.

How cool would a MWTS tour to vegas be?

 

[Pablo]

The yanks would have to have a team in the comp for them to really get involved and support it. As a person with strong ties to america i can tell you that they dont give a **** about anything unless there's an american in it or its about america.