Twenty years ago, John Major was the Prime Minister but surely not for long as Neil Kinnock was mounting a serious charge for no.10, 'Dizzy' by Vic Reeves and the Wonder Stuff was at the top of the charts and the world of sport was a different place. The Football League was about to enter a brave new world, as 22 clubs decided to breakaway in the pursuit for more money and to create a 'global brand', Leeds United and Manchester United were battling it out for the title, three non UK and Irish players between them (Cantona, Kanchelskis and Schmeichel); Rugby Union was still largely amateur, with the league system in its infancy played at small grounds with small crowds.
Rugby League was a winter sport. Wigan had won their second title in a row, dominating domestic honours with Widnes over the last few years. Most of the players in the league weren't fully professional. Fulham and a struggling Nottingham team were the only teams from outside of the main Rugby League counties. Promotion and relegation existed with three up and three down between the two divisions that operated in 1990/91.
- International rugby league still had full tours and the Great Britain v Australia series in 1990 attracted 54,000 to Wembley and capacity crowds at Elland Road and Old Trafford. International tours are a thing of the past now, but competitions like the 4 Nations have seen the international game develop elsewhere.
- The crowds twenty years ago were on their way back up after the slump of the '70s and '80s - but crowds have doubled at Warrington, Hull and Bradford, stayed broadly similar at Wigan, improved slightly at Leeds and reduced dramatically at Oldham.
- Clubs like Huddersfield have moved to new stadia and had a huge upsurge in off and on field performance.
- Twenty years ago, rugby league was banned in the armed forces and was not played widely played at Universities - this of course has now changed. The loss of amateurism from rugby union has helped the rugby league conference add new teams all over the country.
- Development of the game at grass roots has seen the earning coaching and refereeing qualifications across the country
- The RFL has moved to more upmarket headquarters and now doesn't lose lots of money
- Promotion and relegation no longer exists between the top and second division, but the top division is now fully professional with a salary cap in place.
- Twenty years ago, Great Britain / England couldn't even beat Australia in a decid... (oh wait)
So, on the whole, rugby league seems to be in much better shape than twenty years ago. But what about in twenty years time? Although the RFL usually get slated, the game seems to have been run a lot more professionally in the last few years, and hopefully the RFL can see things the licensing regime and the salary cap into the long term.
The grass-roots level expansion of the game seen in the last decade could really start to bare fruit with the second generation of players coming through a system of long established coaching and player pathways. Hopefully this will mean more domestic players coming into more semi-professional and professional clubs.
Other sports could be both a danger and a blessing to rugby league, if rugby union continues to have a financial advantage then top players could be tempted away and league could struggle to get a foothold in union strongholds. On the other hand, professional football ticket prices may spiral even more out of control and this might attract more followers from football heartlands into rugby league. The expansion of rugby league into the universities and more secondary schools, as well as nationally, would hopefully mean a rather different 'old boys network' at the top. Though this would probably take decades to break.
Things can change a lot in twenty years, as the above shows, but are these changes things that could be planned for? Planning for land, like I do in my job, needs to be done because land is a finite resource and we need to balance competing interests for the best way to use the land. The RFL should have a positive,bold, well-resourced plan which they will seldom deviate from to build on the good work that has gone into the development of rugby league over the last decade.
To the future!
