IMG have explained why they see London as a key market for Rugby League expansion, and believe the ‘right ingredients’ are in place for the sport to take off in the city.
Rugby League and the capital city have had a jaded past, but with the Broncos returning back to the top flight for the first time since 2019, things could start to blossom.
Speaking to members of the media yesterday, Matt Dwyer, Vice-President of Sports Management at IMG explained why the company view London as a key area to grow Rugby League.
“I think the basis for identifying London was, let’s call it club agnostic,” said Dwyer. “London was identified as a key area for a couple of reasons. One, obviously, from a demographic perspective, it’s the largest market we have in this country.”
He added: “The other two factors that were really important there was that both interest and participation is quite high in London, so it still has the base that should make it a core market for us going forward; nothing has changed from that perspective.”
“I think all that really has been identified as we go through the grading is the challenge that we all have in front of us to grow that London market based off the score that we’re talking about for London Broncos.”
During the press conference, Dwyer explained that London has been a tough market for the sport to crack, but says the ‘right ingredients’ are there to allow Rugby League to blossom in the capital.
“I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone. I think as I mentioned earlier on, that was just the feedback we got originally, that that’s a hard market to crack and it’s something we’ve been trying to crack as a sport for a very long time.” he said.
He later exclaimed: “I think it’s really the same as what I said 12 months ago, that it has the right ingredients to be a large market for this sport, but we need to put those ingredients together.”
“I don’t really think anything has changed and I don’t think really any of this is surprising, but there is a lot of work that has to be done for London to be the relevant market that we all want it to be.”
