ABSTRACT
In the bitter struggle between two Australian media moguls for the exclusive television rights for rugby league in the southern hemisphere in the 1990s, the impact was not to be confined to Australia (Rowe and Lawrence, 1996). In an increasingly interdependent and globalised sport system, developments in Australian rugby league were to cause significant upheavals in the British version of the sport, which had remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1895. This chapter is concerned with the initial launch and development of the northern hemisphere’s European Super League, and the consequences that this attempt to globalise a traditionally parochial sport has had for local British identities. We focus on the decisive phases of the early 1990s; more recent developments lie outside the scope of this chapter. Here, we conduct a review of national broadsheet coverage of rugby league in order to trace the turbulent development of Super League. Local responses to these broader processes are explored through regional press coverage. In so doing, we seek to contribute to the debate regarding local/global issues surrounding transformations of sport (see Andrews, 1997; Maguire, 1999; Maguire et al., 2002; Miller et al., 2001, 2003).
