Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hey Martin, the Reasons I wont Support the RWC



Pictured above is Martin Snedden, he is the CEO of the RWC.

He recently wrote a piece for Fairfax, saying how he would
love all New Zealanders to support the Rugby World Cup in
2011.

He went on to say, that a lot of New Zealanders despise
rugby, but he still wants to invite those people to enjoy
the RWC because it will capture the nation.

I put it to you Martin Snedden, that you have it wrong, you
have it reversed, it's not the fact that people despise rugby
in this country, it's the fact that Rugby people despise any other
sport.

This is the reason why I won't follow the RWC.

Growing up at school, it was always the Rugby Kid that made
fun of any other sport, it was always the Rugby Kid that
would get angry if someone talked about another sport, it
was always the Rugby Kid that was insecure and thinned
skinned, and it was always the Rugby Kid that would lash out.

I never once had a Field Hockey fan call me an offensive
term for liking soccer, I never once had a League fan
call me a loser for liking Basketball. I never once
had a cricket fan call me a wimp for liking American
Football.

But guess what, I have had plenty of rugby fans do this.

One guy I did a Chef course with, spent the whole time
ripping into anyone, who didn't think Rugby was the
greatest sport of them all, the Martial Arts guy we
had in our class, he would scoff at, the girl that did
Badminton he would make fun of, and I made the mistake of
bringing up the fact That I like Basketball, well he didnt
let up that day.

So you see Martin, there's a pattern of rugby fans dishing
out pure hatred to anyone who is a non rugby fan.

I remember an old school teacher, he had a class
favorite, this rather large ten year old, who
got away with murder for about six months, he
did any5thing he liked, then one day our teacher
asked him if he would try out for the school
rugby team, this kid said he couldn't because
he plays soccer for his club.

This teacher screamed at him, gave him detention,
and told him since he wants to play a girls sport,
he has to wear a dress to school the next day.

For the rest of the year this kids name was mud.

There are plenty of cases of kids being told they
are not allowed to played League or Basketball by the
schools and they have to play Rugby, these kids have
also been a victim of corporal punishment because of
the sport they choose to play.

There are plenty of other reason too, why I wont be
part of this RWC.

One of them is the Lies that you yourself have spouted,
about huge this tournament is going to be.

You give out over inflated figures on the viewing
audience. We are constantly told it's the third largest
sporting event in the world, the media does your bidding
with this, apart form a few bloggers, they repeat the
lies handed out by the NZRFU.

Other trick is to press statements on the eve of another
sports big event, to try and take away from that sport.
This practice has been happening for decades.

The RWC is NOT the Third Biggest Sport Event in the World.

So let me correct you on a few things, before I go on.

Four Billion people wont watch this tournament.

The Final in 2007 had 23 million viewers, which made it
the four watched sport event that WEEK.

98% of all viewers come from just six countries.

South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia, Wales
and Ireland.

The HUGE PROMO RUGBY BALL you sent around Europe to
promote the RWC had to close down because it had no
visitors.

Apparently you say the All Blacks are a global brand,not
according to their traffic on the web though where they are
listed in their web ranked as 132,620, while your average
professional sports team make the top 5000.

Football, Baseball, Basketball, Handball, Volleyball,
Cricket, xgames, Ice Hockey garner higher TV ratings,
more sales in Merchandise, more Press, than the RWC
could ever dream.

A study conducted by TGI Europe in 2006,
shows that in just four European Countries,
The UK, Spain, France and Germany, shows
there are 33 Million Basketball fans.

A global study, conducted by Roper Starch
Worldwide in 1997, shows that 11 percent of
the world's population plays Basketball,
and its the fastest growing sport in the Asia region.


Television ratings of International games
and the European League are second only to
Soccer thruout Europe.

AN NBA Franchise could cost you up to a
Billion Dollars.

Tv rights for the the NBA measure in
the tens of Billions in the USA alone.

The European Basketball league rights are worth
in the Hundreds of Millions Sky Sport Italy
recently payed $5.3 Million a season for the
Israeli Basketball league alone.


Also look at the sport of Handball, their world cup final
had over ten million viewers in Germany ALONE.
There are 19 million handball players
worldwide.

There are 166 member countries of the (IHF)

In France only Soccer and Basketball gets higher TV Ratings.

There are 795 thousand handball teams in the world

There are 19 Million players


Take a look at the coverage the Ice Hockey is getting at the
Olympics, the world is watching.

Ice Hockey is the National Sport of Norway, Sweden, Finland,
Canada and Russia, Czech Republic, Austria and Solvakia(IIHL)


The world baseball classic had the highest TV ratings for
any programme in Japaneses history, it also broke records
in several central American countries.

Baseball is the number one sport in Korea,
America, Japan, Cuban, Putero Rico and Venezuela, Tawain.

Baseball is the fastest growing sport in the West Indies.

It's players are the highest payed sportspeople
on earth. (Forbes Magazine)

MLB has the biggest representation of countries
than any other sports competition including football. (ESPN)

Fox recently played Billions for the rights
to air the world series upuntil 2013, plus
regular weekly matches.(Forbes)

The average salarly of new York yannkee is 6.6
Million a year, while their payroll is over
200 Million a season. (Forbes)


Have you ever wonder why BMX riders get paid more than
NewZealand rugby players?


This blog post is getting too long, but I could go on and
on about tens of dozens of sports that have comps much larger
than the RWC.

So it's the hyper inflating of Rugby by the NZRFU,
the media it's fans which is why I also wont get involved.

I may be able to forgive all that, but unfortunately there
is the negatively and lies towards other sport that is
spouted daily by our media.

Sports such as Basketball, Baseball are brushed off and
just called American Sports, whereas the truth is they
are far more global than Rugby could ever dream to be.

The media also treats these sports with poorly, reporting
inaccurately, the stories are never done in a positive light.
This is done purposely to try and make Rugby look better.

Any sport that is deemed to be in competition with Rugby
gets smashed by the Rugby Loving media.

Rugby games are now scheduled to go head to head with
other sports, all for the purpose so other sports can
die a slow death, the cricket season (a summer sport)
now has to compete with the rugby season, believe me
this was thought out by the NZRFU, they want to kill
off any other sport in this country.


Its so sad to see what Rugby Bosses and the media have
done to other sports in NewZealand. A sport that
is deemed to be in competition with Union, eg: Basketball
and League they are automatically ripped into. Take a look
at our once thriving NBL, it now lacks any media coverage at
all, the Kiwi League team can win a world cup and not
even get a Halberg Nod.

This has always happen and will continue to do so, I
wouldn't be surprised if they pass a law saying your
not allowed to wear a shirt of another code during the
duration of RWC.

This RWC is the worst thing that could happen to sport
in this country. The new laws that are being passed by
Parliament that is allowing the RWC security officers
to have unprecedented rights to private property is
shocking to say the least.


So Mr Snedden, I wont be taking part in this event,
I won't be telling friends and family overseas to
come to this event.

It's not because of the reasons that you gave, but
Like I said at the start of this blog post, just reverse
what you said.

It's the fact that Rugby people are so insecure about
their sport that they have to make up numbers and
verbally and physically abuse anyone or any sport
that rugby fan.

I would have to say that the NewZealand rugby fan, have
to be the most naive, ignorant sports fan on the face of
the planet, but they think others are that way, and that
they themselves are the most knowledgeable.

So I wish you all the best Martin with this little event
that will mean so much to rugby fans here, it may make
a lot of kiwis happy, I for one though are never happy with
lies and corruption.

Its too bad some CEO's are.

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