Solly wants more games in London and South East

Correspondent

Blake Solly is targeting more rugby league games to be played in London and the South East of England.

During 2015, Wigan Warriors‘ Super 8 tie with Catalans Dragons was held at Millwall’s The Den, the Challenge Cup final between Leeds and Hull KR took place in front of a record crowd at Wembley, and an International test match involving England and New Zealand was staged at the Olympic Park. 

Super League‘s general manager has taken note of the success that rugby league has had in the capital and wants to broaden it in the coming years. 

“We’ve realised that we’ve got some great showpieces to take to London,” Solly told BBC Radio Merseyside. 

“We know theres a market in London and the south east for big rugby league events but we’ve got to serve them up. We’ve targeted taking three good rugby league events to London and the south east every year for the next three years.”

Solly has already revealed that one of the Four Nations matches in 2016 will be staged in the South, and has already offered his support for clubs to be doing similar things. 

“Wigan taking their domestic game against Catalans was a big move so we want to support them if they go there again next year,” he said.

Super League and the championship are in great shape and everyone is already looking forward to the Four Nations. We’re going to have the Challenge Cup at Wembley and hopefully two Super League games and convince another two Super League teams it’s worth going to London, both financially and from a growth point of view.”

Solly is also very optimistic as to the state of the sport at the minute, and believes that 2016 can improve the strides that were made in the previous year. 

“We had a wonderful year where every week there was a game that mattered and was extremely exciting, Leeds winning the treble was a great story,” he said.

“We had a good year – most rugby league fans are back supporting their sport and supporting their clubs. It sets us up for a great platform in 2016 to get more and more people interest in rugby league.”