Agree that he has a motive, plain and simple, but as you infer there needs to be a clear understanding by club and RFL just what yhe strings are, if any. Working with govts is not easy, and this one is notoriously slippery. Cash is paid out to resolve the emergency, then the rules are revised, without discussion. Councils get this regularly without a come back!
Just atm stability is vital for us, trying to rebuild the club's financial base and give back the economic strength that is needed if you don't have a Beaumont to splash the cash. I still hope that the powers that be will make the right decisions to revise the overseas situation. We wont get this chance again!
I think you do the Championship a disservice in the Challenge Cup. In the early rounds this year Hull KR only beat Leigh 22 -19 and Wakefield beat Bradford 17 - 14.
Last year Halifax made the semi final, losing to Saints 26 -2. A great day out for the fans at Bolton in the double header, live on BBC and that Saints side beat a lot of SL sides by more than 24 points. Also Bradford beat Leeds 24 - 22 again live on BBC, in a great derby game. Fax beat London 24 - 16 in an earlier round and Hull KR only beat Leigh 14 - 10.
Like I say, if the Championship season doesn't restart and players are on furlough you cant just throw them out of the Challenge Cup and carry on regardless with the competition.
Unless the Championship can restart without bankrupting clubs the CC or 1895 are lost to those clubs. Somehow I cant see the SL clubs paying us to play behind closed doors, just to make the cup games 'valid'.
There are clubs looking at the options and ee wil have to wait for their deliberations I guess.
I cannot see the Championship playing again this season. The costs of corona19 testing in football are £150k for each club below their championship level for 10 or so games. We have more or less 20 games left so costs for testing alone will be prohibitive. There is then the question for the championship clubs including the Vikings on whether they will reimburse season ticket holders. I doubt we could cover that loss having had no season ticket income last year. I can personally afford to lose that amount but no doubt there are many supporters that cannot so more problematic decisions to be soon made.
Beaumont is in cloud cuckoo land saying the season has to be played but it is because he has personally invested a small fortune once again with no success so he is desperate.
I expect SL to go ahead eventually as the SKY money is the incentive but some of the lower clubs there will struggle with the costs. T
I suppose we could be getting to the point where wealthy and others split. I still think that SL has put itself out on a limb with the TWP/ NY adventure which could now be in question for this season.
Maybe, if the season is abandoned, clubs could consider a cut price season ticket next season to reflect savings by not playing. That would depend on if there were savings of course!
Not owning the ground could be a big help.
The impact on clubs cannot be equal though. For instance we have virtually all our payroll paid for and presumably the stadium rent at least delayed. We must be in a much better position than a lot of other clubs.
Totally agree Rafe.
The fact that we are working on what is virtually a skeleton staff when the games are on will certainly cut our outgoings to the bone.
There is so much in the game overall that needs sorting to make the sport stable, let alone progressive! I just don't trust our game managers Rimmer and Elstone to do the job. To be even looking at some sort of inter-continental weekly game is too much.
The pandemic has shaken a few trees though and maybe some good will come out of it in the end.
Meeting this week with the RFL to discuss and hopefully confirm the blueprint of Super League's return back in August, I'm sure you've all seen the proposed three possible scenarios that has been pitched to the clubs.
If anybody thinks that Sky/BBC are going to offer much more than a mars bar and a couple of bags of crisps for T.V. rights to the Champ/Champ 1 then you're deluded.
If anybody thinks that Sky/BBC are going to offer much more than a mars bar and a couple of bags of crisps for T.V. rights to the Champ/Champ 1 then you’re deluded.
I think the Sky deal already includes Championship games, but they choose not to show any.
Have you seen the sport shown on BBC these days? I would hope that this is one potential - and I agree unlikely - income stream which the RFL have considered. They could use the offer of a mars bar and two packets of crisps as a starting point in their negotiations! I am not sure what live sport that BBC show on a Saturday afternoon (if any) and it may be a way of promoting RL outside the dizzy - and often disappointing - heights of SL.
If anybody thinks that Sky/BBC are going to offer much more than a mars bar and a couple of bags of crisps for T.V. rights to the Champ/Champ 1 then you’re deluded.
I think the Sky deal already includes Championship games, but they choose not to show any. Have you seen the sport shown on BBC these days? I would hope that this is one potential – and I agree unlikely – income stream which the RFL have considered. They could use the offer of a mars bar and two packets of crisps as a starting point in their negotiations! I am not sure what live sport that BBC show on a Saturday afternoon (if any) and it may be a way of promoting RL outside the dizzy – and often disappointing – heights of SL.
That't the point though Frank. If a company with about 10 sports channels to fill, plus red button options deems it unworthy to show any games (Bar the big bash unless I'm mistaken?) then doesn't that show how much it's valued?
BBC are awful, as shown by the fact they reverted to re-running commentaries during sporting events rather than any archive footage during lockdown!
BBC would probably show Tiddlywinks, but I would argue that Champ/Champ 1 rugby is as much a niche market as that unfortunately. Would love that not to be the case, but it is. How many people would watch it? There is no money in rugby league and they're not going to send loads of crew and production staff to cover this. Absolute pie in the sky, especially when most of the matches are played in stadiums that are about a quarter full at absolute best for even a big game.
I can see Our League doing subscription fees for Live Games and maybe a highlights/magazine show on a lesser freeview/sky channel.
The Play Offs/Grand Final and 1895 semis/final could be broadcast live somewhere: they have more value than a regular Championship game.
I think the OurLeague app in principle is excellent and has in small parts fill a gap for particularly Championship rugby. It was ramped up this year with the 6.15pm games on a Sunday would have been very enjoyable to watch.
There's no plans for this to be subscription, numbers for the international pay per views were low so the demand isn't big enough.
That’t the point though Frank. If a company with about 10 sports channels to fill, plus red button options deems it unworthy to show any games (Bar the big bash unless I’m mistaken?) then doesn’t that show how much it’s valued? BBC are awful, as shown by the fact they reverted to re-running commentaries during sporting events rather than any archive footage during lockdown! BBC would probably show Tiddlywinks, but I would argue that Champ/Champ 1 rugby is as much a niche market as that unfortunately. Would love that not to be the case, but it is. How many people would watch it? There is no money in rugby league and they’re not going to send loads of crew and production staff to cover this. Absolute pie in the sky, especially when most of the matches are played in stadiums that are about a quarter full at absolute best for even a big game.[/quote
I don't think it is about the quality of the games in the Championship, compared to the SL. I have enjoyed watching more Widnes games since we were relegated than the last two years in SL; and the SL games are not the exciting spectacle that Sky commentators like to promote. They are often ponderous and predictable games, with little to get excited about.
I think that SL is only interested in promoting SL itself, with no interest in the wider game. It has attached itself like a leech to the traditional game of RL and is sucking the lifeblood out of the game. It has become a business,which attracts people like Rule, who see it as an opportunity to make money.
With Sky, it is as if the game does not exist outside SL. Any part of the game below SL hardly gets a mention. It is as though the aim is to kill off the game at local level - and that will eventually include the likes of Warrington, Wigan and St Helens - to move towards the misguided dream of a big city international game. Perhaps they hope that in the future Swinton and Salford fans will gravitate to a "Manchester " team based in Wigan.
I don't know what the viewing figures are for SL on Sky or what viewing figures the BBC would need to justify televising Championship/League 1 games - they actually televised amateur games in the past. The RFL have obtained support for the game of RL based entirely on it being a community based sport, the opposite of what SL is promoting. I still believe that using this goodwill to promoting local communities, there is an opportunity for the game to be promoted below the fanatsy world of SL. It annoys me when comments are made on the signing of Inglis being good for SL - why not good for RL.
I would hope that the RFL see a future for the game below the pretentiously titled SL and start promoting the wider game and not just the interests of 12 clubs. I am sure we could offer a better attraction for BBC than tiddley winks.
You've nust about summed it up Frank, well said.
The name change is what started it all - it was no longer RL but SL, a Sky gameshow. Result was that RU took over the Rugby tag and successfully managed to get into the Olympics no less!
As you rightly say SL became a feeding trough and the game as a sport suffered. We need a spokesman for the non-SL part of the sport to get the rest of the clubs motivated to stsrt again. SL can then become the international dream that it seems set on.
It would be interesting to see how the Aussies would react, there is still resentment against the SL fiasco out there.
The game is at a turning point and desperately needs an inspiring figure to shake it up.