On a scale of 1 to 10....how much of a load of excrement is it? (I'm voting for 12/10)
Apparently Barrow will rank higher than us on IMG (courtesy of James on twitter) but really....wtf?
Read a piece in the Sunday papers about the demise of London and IMG was mentioned as a driver of interest and growth in the sport.
Why have we got to the point where electronic scoreboards and local authority population count more than league wins?
Hope one of the none Wakey teams (preferably us) wins the play-offs by a miracle to show these absolute cretins who run the game they are hell bent on a future which simply doesn't fit with the strengths of the game.
The IMG "Re imagining RL" recommendations which were voted for the the clubs are a terrible set of proposals. If you actually read them you can see they are set out with the intention of strengthening SL at the expense of every other level of the game.
Since it was announced and I read through the grading areas and points allocated for each area, it's only strengthened my belief that this is all about greed. Which makes it all the more unbelievable that the vast majority of lower league clubs voted for it.
I'm sorry if the above link doesn't work.
At a guess the population of the area of a club is seen by Sky as a potential viewer expansion.
From what we have seen locally very few teams in our category bring travelling support which should, if you are interested in RL as a sport be a black mark. However, Sky would rather they stay at home and watch TV!!!!
IMG will follow Sky because Sky is the paymaster!
Well there are a few Championship clubs who seem ready to spend and if SL is out of sight irrespective of performance, other options will be found because if central funding drops what have clubs got to lose?
@sandgroper IMG aren't following anyone. The RFL decide on each clubs score after the clubs have submitted all the relevant paperwork then an independent auditor, I have no idea who that would be, scrutinises the RFL rating.
@sandgroper They have increased the prize money for winning the Championship GF to 100k, I'd guess to try and keep it worthwhile.
Interesting reading - we need crowds above 3000 average, suspect we lost that this season but made up by league position, but in reality it’s like rearranged the deck chairs on the titanic
the SL clubs do not care and would love Toulouse in there as they will not get any sky money, leaving more for the others with their snout in the trough
time to break free and have a championship and championship 2 with regular promotion and relegation
but really need a tv deal of some description to give it exposure
@widnes77 Spot on, this needs looking into. Scenario one the clubs wernt fully informed what they were voting on. This would partly be the fault of the RFL/ IMG but some responsibility would fall on the clubs who should of asked for more time and detail before voting on something so important.
The second scenario would be that Championship clubs voted though the proposals in full knowledge of the criteria, I find this unbelievable as if you read through the finer detail it takes less that 10 mins to see it's weighted in favour of the sides currently in SL.
Clubs like Featherstone, Keighley and Hunslet saw it for what it is and voted against. Final question one for the podcast maybe, did the RFL tell clubs they would be voting on a 12 year contract for IMG? Again without some kind of trial period, absolutely mind boggling.
You make the assumption that many of these Clubs have sensible, hard nosed businessmen in charge who are able to make a valued judgement of the situation.
I would argue that most Clubs are (in general) run by people who are passionate about their sport, but who lack the necessary business acumen, to be able to understand the magnitude of such matters and vote accordingly.
My view is that IMG have been given a set of criteria which have been drawn up by a select few Clubs, and as such will come up with solutions likely to benefit those self same Clubs the most.
As I have said many times; when the sport has to ask an outside contractor to come up with solutions to improve RL's lot 'cos they don't know how to; then the sport really is in trouble!
So the new potential owner of cas reckons they have a good enough grading to be in super Doppler league
we have obvious candidates
pies,stains,dire,Leeds ,hull,shudders,kr,cats,Toulouse
thats 9
next Leigh,wakey ?salfraud?
that’s full then
or have I missed something?
To be honest, what business have Hudds got being in the SL? They're useless and have crap attendances. I'd sooner watch Cas over them.
Mind you, that's not to say Cas aren't crap either.
@berkeleyviking Cas were ranked at 13 under the Initial grades, less than half a point behind Leigh in 12th. Considering Leigh were in the play offs, I can't imagine how they would bridge that gap.
Even with their noses in the trough the top SL clubs are signing 'star players' with money that they don't have!!
The game is on its knees but won't admit it, and that includes SL.
Many laughed at Lewis when he was trying to organise the system and the Yorkies and others couldn't get fat Nige in his place quickly enough! He did his dirty work then ran away with a barrow load of money to fiddle Bradford into profit, but left us with even less able 'organisers'.
It will cost a fortune to get rid of IMG contract and the RFL hierarchy.