Manly v Leeds in Sydney in front of 80,000 people? It would be lucky to get 15,000 at the most



They don't take the WCC seriously in Australia and I'm guessing the only reason Manly would sooner play there is because it would save them a fortune on airfares

Oh look. It's the annual "aussie team wants to host the wcc story".

I thought they only pedalled that myth because they weren't winning it





The RfL haven't taken internationals seriously either

In regards to the topic, I hope they do. This game needs it to increase its credibility and stop the negative comments like the above.



And if they did manage a huge crowd in Aus, hopefully it would have a knock on effect when it comes back here. Playing a flagship game (and it is a flagship game no matter what some people think of it) at medium sized grounds like Galpharm and DW allows the cynical people out there to pedal it as worthless. I thought we might be going somewhere after the near 40k crowd in Leeds, bit it was back to the same old same old after that.

I think eventually the aim should be to take the WCC around the world if they an raise it's profile. Get it to Hong Kong and Dubai etc.

We have this every year. It's the same old story. When they find out that the reward for winning the Grand Final is to come to freezing cold England in February a lot of the players will kick off about it.



I don't expect for one second they'll even entertain this idea. They won't see it as a realistic challenge for Manly and they won't be confident about marketing it. I hope they do though, would be a wonderful thing to see, particularly if Leeds could rise to that challenge.

Agreed 80K is a tad optimistic!! Although I can see them getting around 40K.

A WCC at Elland Road could fetch around 33K like previous years.

Manly are only onto this for the obvious convenience to themselves.

Leeds have expressed there desire to play a WCC down under, but I really cannot see how Leeds could do it with the travelling factor plus SL starting too soon after internationals.

I think that's a bit of a pipedream in all honesty. Especially in its current one-off guise. Even if it had the biggest profile possible in this game, the fact that the game itself doesn't have a worldwide profile would make hosting it in those places ineffective.

It is only a big event when Leeds win the honour of playing, for that reason I doubt Leeds will play in Aus because the number of fans they attract to the game is unmatched in the UK and i doubt Manly could match them either

if leeds can go on pre season jollys to jacksonville, then they shouldn't have any problems wanting to face manly in OZ.



its about time our champions tested themselves in oz after years of having the upperhand in the fixture



also it seems the nrl champions are taking this comp a lot more seriously now

I'm not holding my breath

Totally agree, I think its criminal that neither the NRL or SL have taken games to Hong Kong, Japan, Dubai etc.