Ultimately super league has under performed as a spectacle in the last four of five years with poor leadership under Elstone and total narcissism by club owners like Ken Davy, Adam pearson, eamon mcmanus and Ian leneghan etc.. With zero focus on the international game our sport is club driven and that is not the way to offer the outcomes we need. The sky partnership has also been weak and many clubs have simply failed to deliver alternative revenue streams and instead have danced to sky sports tune. Championship clubs on the other hand have grown and developed and this deal should not be just about 12 super league clubs, it is about the whole of our sport
What you are talking about is effects and not causes.
The state of the game has declined step by step over a period of about 40 years. The long term effects of about five major though, not appreciated at the time, issues have had a gradually increasing negative impact over the years:
1. The decline and cessation of support for the junior game - schools, local clubs etc
2. The removal of the relationship with the amateur game (BARLA anyone). BARLA used to send tours to Australia, now Great Britain can’t muster the finances to tour
3. The absolutely unplanned dive into a professional game, lead by Lindsay and his beloved Wigan and the selling off of the game to Sky for a few shines buttons
4. The onset of the delusional attempts at expansion. To expand the game could have been an excellent idea but to set up a First Division and later SL team without any support framework - junior teams with a pathway into the senior teams, fan base or financial planning other than a ‘wealthy owner’ in a remote geographical area is ridiculous
5. The emergence of the World Wide Web and social media as a massive source of entertainment - computer games, streaming, access to any sport, anywhere in the world without having to get off your bottom to watch ….
The real killer was the first one because nobody really noticed. Killing the game at schools and for junior teams and the forcing out of the amateur game has meant that the gene pool for players in the senior game has all but gone. The last generation, more so this generation and even more so the next generation don’t play the game and aren’t interested or encouraged to watch it so participation in and attendance of games are both in terminal decline, which won’t be effected at all by tinkering with the number of players or format of the game. Well for a short time there may be a bump in people watching but that will be short lived (like expansion teams) as people have no genuine interest in 5he game when push comes to shove.
In my honest opinion the boat has sailed on items 1, 2, 3 and 5/and, as per Primrose’s comments you can only try and address the effects but it is too late for the game in its current guise to address the causes. Item 4 is now an irrelevance as without fixing the other stuff expansion is just a huge waste of money and the limited playing resources we have.
The only solution I can see is to get everyone who wants to save the game to meet in the George and declare a breakaway amateur / semi professional set up with grass roots re-introduction of the game into local schools and junior clubs. To save the game we don’t need to look at the game as it is now, we need sensible people to look at we’re the game needs to be I 5 or 10 years time and to prioritise the steps we need to take to get there. Like
I referred to - it’s been done before, it can be done again.
Well said RV. Depressing reading, but all true. As you say, the RFL has allowed the game to decline over the last 40 years and the advent of SL in 1996 only served to accelerate the decline outside SL.
I would suggest that the points be put directly to Rimmer, who is supposed to be representing the interests of the game below SL, and ask him to outline his vision for the future of the game.
The start of the rot was Wigan's contract system, out pricing most other clubs and seeking to build a team to boss the game because they could. Sadly others trued to follow, without the financial nous of the Wigan Board, resulting in most top clubs on the verge of bankruptcy. Sky offered them cash to buy them out of their hole and they took it.
The big boys were quite happy then for the smaller clubs to die and merge, making it pretty obvious that the heads of those clubs had no understanding of what 'club loyalty' meant. To them the game was a product to be sold on the entertainment market. The lack of mergers simply proves that they were wrong in their view.
Overseas players were imported to add interest to the UK game but at often at massive cost. The game had welcomed overseas players for years (Bevan, Clues, Mossop, Bath etc) and it had added interest but was quite low in numbers which maintained interest in tour teams etc. Of course TV has enabled UK viewers to see the NRL game and it is no longer a secret!
The UK clubs have been struggling financially for years, and maintained only by private charity from wealthy supporters. The shrinking funds has not stopped clubs signing expensive 'stars' from down under however, which seems to indicate that lessons are not being learned. Even the top clubs were seeing dropping attendance, even pre-Covid.
This point has been made by Leneghan(sic?) of Wigan, still in quite serious financial trouble. Wigan at least seem to be acting by promoting from within for their next Coach.
What clubs, used to a 'free' handout from Sky, do not seem to realise is that they need to trim their club expenses to cope with the situation.
Cutting overseas signings, for instance, would be a start, but trimming overmanned organisations, as would happen in any entertainment industry in a similar situation could regularise things. The future Sky funding should be applied in assisting those clubs struggling to survive, promoting the game more widely in the RL playing areas.
The terminal decline has to be halted for the sake of the game as a whole, both large and small clubs. I just hope that Rimmer and the big noises have the brain to see the size of the whole problem rather than simply that of their chosen club's.
The start of the rot was Wigan’s contract system, out pricing most other clubs and seeking to build a team to boss the game because they could. Sadly others trued to follow, without the financial nous of the Wigan Board, resulting in most top clubs on the verge of bankruptcy. Sky offered them cash to buy them out of their hole and they took it. The big boys were quite happy then for the smaller clubs to die and merge, making it pretty obvious that the heads of those clubs had no understanding of what ‘club loyalty’ meant. To them the game was a product to be sold on the entertainment market. The lack of mergers simply proves that they were wrong in their view. Overseas players were imported to add interest to the UK game but at often at massive cost. The game had welcomed overseas players for years (Bevan, Clues, Mossop, Bath etc) and it had added interest but was quite low in numbers which maintained interest in tour teams etc. Of course TV has enabled UK viewers to see the NRL game and it is no longer a secret! The UK clubs have been struggling financially for years, and maintained only by private charity from wealthy supporters. The shrinking funds has not stopped clubs signing expensive ‘stars’ from down under however, which seems to indicate that lessons are not being learned. Even the top clubs were seeing dropping attendance, even pre-Covid. This point has been made by Leneghan(sic?) of Wigan, still in quite serious financial trouble. Wigan at least seem to be acting by promoting from within for their next Coach. What clubs, used to a ‘free’ handout from Sky, do not seem to realise is that they need to trim their club expenses to cope with the situation. Cutting overseas signings, for instance, would be a start, but trimming overmanned organisations, as would happen in any entertainment industry in a similar situation could regularise things. The future Sky funding should be applied in assisting those clubs struggling to survive, promoting the game more widely in the RL playing areas. The terminal decline has to be halted for the sake of the game as a whole, both large and small clubs. I just hope that Rimmer and the big noises have the brain to see the size of the whole problem rather than simply that of their chosen club’s.
Wigan (probably like most other Super League clubs) are in denial of their problems.
Case in point. Their attendances.
They've been fudging the figures for years, so they get the biggest piece of the Central Funding.
Friday's home game against Catalans Dragons should be well attended, but not because people want to go, but more to do with the fact that the entire workforce of the local Heinz Factory ( which is almost 1,000 strong) are getting 2 FREE tickets to the game EACH! 😳😳😳
Have you read Lenehan 's article? He isn't in denial.
Have you read Lenehan ‘s article? He isn’t in denial.
Yeah, I had a bloody good chuckle reading that 🤣
He may not be in denial now, but it's taken a very, very long time for the penny to finally drop.
Anyway, reading between the lines, he won't be at Wigan much longer.
He's already started sounding out a replacement ...despite the fact he has a ready made billionaire replacement on the board already (Mike Danson).
It seems Danson doesn't fancy the financial commitment, given nobody knows what the sport will be like in 2/3 years time.
Have you read Lenehan ‘s article? He isn’t in denial.
Yeah, I had a bloody good chuckle reading that
He may not be in denial now, but it’s taken a very, very long time for the penny to finally drop. Anyway, reading between the lines, he won’t be at Wigan much longer. He’s already started sounding out a replacement …despite the fact he has a ready made billionaire replacement on the board already (Mike Danson). It seems Danson doesn’t fancy the financial commitment, given nobody knows what the sport will be like in 2/3 years time.
You may well be right - but he will leave a mess for everyone else!
He won't give a damn.
Have you read Lenehan ‘s article? He isn’t in denial.
Yeah, I had a bloody good chuckle reading that
You may well be right – but he will leave a mess for everyone else!
It's the Wigan Way, isn't it?
Since the days of Maurice Lindsay, they've coerced every other club down a dead end alleyway, in the belief that what's good for Wigan, is good for the game.
They maybe the biggest name in the sport, but they don't speak or act for every other Club.
It's time club's got their own homes in order, and start to prepare for a return to part time Rugby.
Wigan will survive & prosper, they always do.
Figuratively speaking, they could jump into a vat of festering fecal matter, and still come out smelling of Roses.