Warrington Wolves • Nigel Wood - No confidence petition
The decline of player participation is the massive problem that needs addressing by the RFL.
I looked at some data from Sport England for 2016 - RL is ranked 27th for participation. It's down 39% over 10 years, and down 9% vs 2015.
Here are the sports that are ahead of us for participation (some I'd regard as pastimes, but the point still stands):
Sailing, Shooting, Gymnastics, Rowing, Weightlifting, Hockey, Skiing, Angling, Table tennis, Mountaineering, Basketball, Cricket, Boxing, Netball, Rugby Union, Squash, Bowls, Equestrian, Tennis, Badminton, Exercise movement & dance, Golf, Football, Cycling, Athletics, Swimming.
The next 5 sports behind us on the list are all growing in participation. We're sliding backwards and it's not going to stop anytime soon.
This is particularly pertinent when considering some of the other threads at the moment discussing the quality of Superleague, and the perceived overall drop in the quality.
Most things in the list are linked in a symbiotic relationship.
Watching a sport and being inspired to play it (see the Olympics) is a massive part of getting people to play at grass roots. The more people that play a sport, the more funding available, the greater the talent pool, the better the overall quality of the players in the professional tiers (over time), etc etc...
Sports die when people stop playing them.
I looked at some data from Sport England for 2016 - RL is ranked 27th for participation. It's down 39% over 10 years, and down 9% vs 2015.
Here are the sports that are ahead of us for participation (some I'd regard as pastimes, but the point still stands):
Sailing, Shooting, Gymnastics, Rowing, Weightlifting, Hockey, Skiing, Angling, Table tennis, Mountaineering, Basketball, Cricket, Boxing, Netball, Rugby Union, Squash, Bowls, Equestrian, Tennis, Badminton, Exercise movement & dance, Golf, Football, Cycling, Athletics, Swimming.
The next 5 sports behind us on the list are all growing in participation. We're sliding backwards and it's not going to stop anytime soon.
This is particularly pertinent when considering some of the other threads at the moment discussing the quality of Superleague, and the perceived overall drop in the quality.
Most things in the list are linked in a symbiotic relationship.
Watching a sport and being inspired to play it (see the Olympics) is a massive part of getting people to play at grass roots. The more people that play a sport, the more funding available, the greater the talent pool, the better the overall quality of the players in the professional tiers (over time), etc etc...
Sports die when people stop playing them.
Statistics: Posted by Jimathay — Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:29 pm — Replies 5 — Views 314