The National Rugby League Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The National Rugby League - Case Study Example Rugby league was one of the three major sporting codes played in the winter, between March to September. The other two were Australian Football League (AFL) and the Rugby Union. The other two had made much progress in the previous years. The AFL had successfully included the girl’s competition in the league in order to broaden its junior ranks. Rugby Union on the other hand, had become very strong and successful considering the fact that in October to November 2003, it had organized and hosted a successful and high profile rugby world cup, which generated a huge profit of $40 Million. The Union has reinvested the money into the game, to improve its league at all levels. The National Rugby League wanted to grow and to do this, it had to first deal with the issues that had arose. It had to increase or maintain the crowds in order advance. It was necessary to increase the merchandise and win sponsorship. To expand the fan base, there was a plan to target the women. There was a plan to produce a 30 seconds lead commercial that would target the women audience. To do so, the commercial would feature the muscle star athletes and the well-recognized thumping background music â€Å"It’s my game† song of the voodoo gurus. There was also a need of increasing the multi-cultural fan base, which is very important for the league’s growth and marketing of the league. This was attributed by the fact that Canterbury Bulldogs, a famous Sydney-based NRL club, had a large multi-cultural fan base from different nationalities in Sydney. ... as attributed by the fact that Canterbury Bulldogs, a famous Sydney-based NRL club, had a large multi-cultural fan base from different nationalities in Sydney. In fact, one of their top players in 2003 was a Lebanese from Triploi Lebanon, by the name Hazem El Masri. He was such an inspiration and a great role model for junior players playing amateur rugby and aspiring to join the National league. This attraction of multi-cultural fan base in turn promoted the Canterbury Bulldogs, helping them to register more sells in merchandise than other clubs in the league. Case Problems The National Rugby league faced major problems that threatened to reduce the fan base, reduce sponsorship and popularity of the league. Canterbury Bulldogs one of the top clubs was rocked with a major scandal and this threatened to cause all the named problems. National Rugby League faced a huge responsibility, of ensuring that it took proper measures to prevent future incidences of such kind. One of the scandals that rocked the league was that its top club, Canterbury Bulldogs faced a sex scandal and potential loss of sponsors. In the pre-season of 2004, the Canterbury Bulldogs visited the country town of Coffs Harbour to play Canberra raiders. The Bulldogs team spent a night at the Novotel Pacific Bay resort, and one of the clubs policy never allowed women in to the hotel rooms where players spent. After the game on Saturday February 21, some of the players sneaked and went to party in the town and returned to the resort later that night. It was three days later on February 24 that reports of a sex scandal surfaced. The media alleged that on the night of 21st, six players had sexually attacked a 20-year-old woman. The players refuted that it was an attack. Some unnamed players said that the woman