Maroons legend Chris Close says ARL Commission is 'arrogant', alienating NRL fans
Maroons legend Chris Close says ARL Commission is 'arrogant', alienating NRL fans
Todd Balym
The Courier-Mail
September 22, 201312:00AM
http://m.couriermail.com.au/sport/nr...-1226724386070
MAROONS legend Chris “Choppy” Close believes the ARL Commission has become arrogant due to the game’s fat wallet and have “their head up their ****” when it comes to the NRL’s fall from grace.
Citing the NRL’s massive drop in attendances (down 2.9 per cent) and TV ratings (down 3.8 per cent on Channel Nine and 8.5 per cent with Fox Sports) in 2013, Close believes the ARL Commission is getting punished for changing the face of rugby league on a whim and forgetting about the fans.
Sudden rule changes combined with sub-standard refereeing, such as last week’s North Queensland seventh tackle blunder, are driving fans away from the game.
“I believe since they got their biggest ever pay deal they’ve become more arrogant about the future,” Close said.
“You think you have a wallet full of money that you’re bulletproof and can’t be hurt. You know what, that ain’t the truth.
“The game has been over-sanitised. You can say what you like about it, but they’ve changed the face of rugby league. It’s not the game that the fans fell in love with.
“You will still get your core support, don’t get me wrong, but I can tell you of a dozen people that have stopped watching rugby league because of the changes they’ve made.
“People can call me a dinosaur, they can tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about, they can call me pro-violence, nothing could be further from the truth.
“I don’t condone violence, never have and never will. But I can tell you this that people are turning their TVs off, they’re not talking about rugby league at dinner tables.
“The NRL seem to have their head up their ****. They don’t care what the people think, that is the sad part. They don’t care what the fans of the game think.”
Close believes the ARLC have simply made changes due to media pressure. He believes fans have become as disconnected to the game as back when the ARL and Super League war started.
Just as it was almost 20 years ago, fans don’t talk about the game anymore and hardcore supporters are turning off.
“When those people start to walk away in that sort of number, then you know what, you’re losing the battle and you’ve got to ask yourself why are you losing the battle?” he said.
“(During Super League war) you’d go to work and at lunch everyone would talk about everything but rugby league and it’s no different now.
“They’re not interested in the game, they don’t like the game as it is, they don’t like the sub-standard refereeing, they don’t like the fact the NRL just changes it at will without consultation and without consideration to all people involved in this game.
“Let’s face it, the people that have the largest stakehold in this game are the fans and they get constantly ignored.
“I think it’s about time the fans got a bit of ownership back in the game and a little bit of input.
“You can blame the housewives of Australia if you want, but I can tell you it’s media driven, it’s sensationalism, it’s a dead set a kowtow from the people that run our game.
“If I’m proven wrong there will be nobody happier about that than me.
“I don’t want to see the game go down the tube but I’m telling you, there’s fractures in the skin of it.”
