In Rugby Union there has become a recent trend of taking fixtures to large stadia with cheap tickets. The results seem to be great.



It started with Stade Francais going to Stade de France. They are going to Brussels next week and now Toulon have gone to Stade Velodrome, Saracens to Wembley and Cardiff to Millenium stadium. Rarely does it seem to flop.



Maybe its possible with fees being underwritten I dont know.



But is this an idea that might be worth doing? Catalans at Barcelona went well



Harlequins RL v Leeds at Wembley?

Salford v St Helens at Old Trafford?

St Helens v Wigan at Anfield?





I know some of this has happened but at £5-10 tickets, is it a gamble worth trying?

Cracking idea , lets do it

I'd agree with that except for the quinns one. RU has massive appeal in the south hence filling stadia I don't think quins even Leeds would fill wembley. However a slightly smaller stadium say the Reading fc Or something similar better to have a 80+% full small stadium than a very empty looking big one look at murryfield this year

No No NO , the Quins/Leeds is the best of the bunch , just do it

It is an idea, but some of the examples you have quoted for league would be disasterous.



Salford and Harlequins can barely draw at home. Taking them to a 75/90k stadium will still not provide a big enough crowd for them to even fill their original home ground most likely.



Saints vs Wigan at Anfield I reckon could go down well. If Widnes ever got a license, I'd go with Saints vs Widnes (as they both apparently have fan bases traditionally in Liverpool).



Unfortunately for us, the heartlands don't really have many big grounds in them. The biggest ground in West Yorkshire is Elland Road and it's a dump. East Yorkshire already has a big game at the KC.



The only two places I could see us drawing decent crowds at is Anfield and Elland Road. If Leeds took a game against Saints or Bradford to Elland Road they'd easily get 30k IMO.



Wigan are the biggest club that could probably draw a good crowd in Manchester. But I doubt they could get hold of Old Trafford or Eastlands. I think it would devalue the GF slightly as well if they played a game at OT.

The initial idea of Stade v Toulouse in at the stade de france was ridiculed initially too. Stade were getting 5-6000 at Stade Jen Bouin but they sold 80 000 tickets at 5 Euros each.



The huge event philosophy is the whole point so a medium sized stadium such as Reading would not have that kind of appeal. Saracens at Wembley recently got 44000, 7 or 8 times their normal gate.

Saracens made a big loss on their game at Wembley - it's over £400k if you want the whole stadium open - and that's before you start on the cost of promoting it. 50 000 tickets at £10/£5 doesn't even pay to hire the ground. Maybe it's worth it for the publicity and to increase the fanbase - not sure it's improved their crowds at Watford any?

I suspected that might be the case, but they have made a statement that they would like to do it 3-4 times per year. There has to be a reason they would want to do that?

If Saints took a game to Anfield and sold 30,000 tickets at a fiver each and say, £1 for kids, would it cover expenses?

I spoke about this on here a while back, it's tough for quins as they have no fans anyway, quins RU do so they can take big games to Twickers. I would give it a go though. Personally I would go with this.



Leeds v Bradford - Elland Road



Saints v Wigan - Anfield



Quins v Wigan/Leeds - Twickers



Catalans v Wigan/Warrington - Barcelona



Crusaders challenge cup game - Millenium



Toulouse v Widnes - Don't really know, just a game on the road.



I think every team should take on board the 'big one' idea from the Wigan Marketing team.

=#8000FFWhich most/all SL teams have done before at one point or another, it wasn't a Wigan original they just advertised it far more - and on a game that really didn't need that much advertisement either.



As for the big stadium idea, it would work if marketed properly, and cheaply Saints/Wigan at Anfield has the potential to sell out if the tickets are £10 & £5.

Wigan did it properly and marketed it correctly, this is what I am wanting all teams to take on board.