Sam Burgess has commented that the 'loop' fixtures should be scrapped to return to a simple home and away regime. This, he maintains would increase crowds for league games and cup matches because teams would meet less frequently. I am sure that that would be the case and each game would become more of a 'must watch'.
This, however, would also tread on Sky's toes when the require 'a game', any game, on say a Thursday night!!!!
Or is Sam looking further ahead at RL without Sky?
We know that very few Championship supporters cross the Pennines these days. The aim of big city teams seems to have failed dismally and if our game is to sustain itself at all it maybe essential to recognise the need to make it less accessible to fans rather than moreso.
Could it be he is thinking of expanding SL by 2 teams and reverting to 2 divisions ?
far too sensible mind
Just thought that his views sound remarkably out of kilter with the RFL/SL, but it might just be hat we have to do if Sky pull the rug, or maybe desert the Championship!!!
If the latter happened the Championship clubs would have to save themselves returning to self support would be a necessity and might need to rely on local support and travelling fans!!!
TBH if push comes to shove I can't honestly see the SL clubs or management refusing to cut away from the Championship clubs!!!!
Let's face it that was what Lindsay was wanting, the clubs to merge, ignore history, and form a new imposed loyalty to the merged clubs. That didn't work and ignored the intense local rivalry that had made the RL what it was. SL has flooded TV with over-use of the same clubs, largely because they are allowed to have bigger budgets, using wealthy donors to overcome the opposition.
The whole idea of these "loop" fixtures was to keep the money amongst themselves, they wanted a small league of exclusive clubs only but also had to come up with a way to have a full fixture list, they have messed around with differing formats, from 10 teams to 12 then to 14 and back down again to 12
They introduced the qualifiers and bottom 4 when they last reduced to 12 and quite simply the reasoning behind it all was to split the pot amongst as few teams as possible, they have crunchie on the rest of the RL for 30 years splitting away to form SL and only coming back to the RL a few years ago when it looked like the gravy train had come to a halt.
Everything they have done has been to the detriment of the rest of RL, Burgess sounds like he is speaking as fan of RL and not a monopoly obsessed SL club owner so fair play to him..
Sky wouldn't go for that. If they could, they'd have Wigan, Warrington, Saints and Leeds playing each other every week. And so would the likes of McManus. These people have no interest in RL beyond that/lining their own pockets.
- @gpo1971 Wouldn't have said they are lining their own pockets , them clubs are losing money and the owners are keeping them going with their own cash. It's costing them money if anything.
Notice in the League Express that Degsy is also telling the truth about the IMG farce and suggesting sensible, though major, changes that need to be made.
At the root of all this is the question of what are the aims of the RFL/SL/Sky? It looks as if only a minority are bothered about the game itself and the majority of SL clubs are looking for survival at any price though just what sort of competition it would be with fewer and fewer clubs should give cause for concern.
The future state of the game will have to be sorted, and without waiting the twelve years that the IMG will have to get rich. Waiting to see if something will 'turn up' is not a strategy that many clubs can afford.
Real thought and effort needs to be applied to look at the future of the game with or without Sky. The idea that Sky makes us look big as a sport is just kidding ourselves - our coverage of the UK has hardly changed in the Sky years with promises that continue to fail. Sky realise that and have reduced their input accordingly.
Support is still very much on a local basis and may still be the way forward!!!
I have said for a long time that the loop fixtures need to go.
They serve no purpose, and are of little interest to the average RL fan.
They also offer teams too many opportunities to have a 'weekend off' which often leads to 'odd' results which to me, short changes the paying public.
Big games need to be rationed in order to maintain genuine interest and excitement amongst supporters - they don't want to be watching Saints play Wigan five times (sic) a season.
Less = More.
For me, the game needs a 'back to the future' approach - look back at the structures of what made it great and mixing it with today's modern business practices.
If everyone would sing from the same hymn sheet, then I believe much of this could be an easy fix.
But we all know that will never happen under this current watch 🙁
The purpose that they do serve is to give Sky 'packing' to fill their programme sheet. The whole package was to sell Sky boxes, but that has long been achieved and they have to develop or invent something 'new' to attract viewers.
They have realised that RL is never going to be a national sport unless RU join with us and develop a new form of rugby.
The RU are working hard to press their game back into a better place and are really struggling.
yes the RFU are indeed in a bad place but still have many many millions behind them
RL has suffered from mismanagement for about 60 years, had a great opportunity after the war and squandered the chance - the welsh league and the London clubs for example
the way forward is all the clubs need to come together and put together a proper fixture format, maybe reintroducing old competitions - Lancashire and Yorkshire cups for example, even if SL clubs put their reserves in it
get back on terrestrial tv would be a really good move ( my dad would turn in his grave on that)
True, but at the end of the day the clubs have to be able to pay player and staff and I can't see full time SL players being happy to drop to semi-pro pay level at the moment.
I was only a nipper but as far as I understand it players in the 50's and 60's played for something around a manual workers pay packet, as did soccer players like Mathews etc. RL players had 'day jobs' and so doubled their pay packets.
Since then pay has risen generally and SL contracts etc have changed the expectations.
True, but at the end of the day the clubs have to be able to pay player and staff and I can't see full time SL players being happy to drop to semi-pro pay level at the moment.
I was only a nipper but as far as I understand it players in the 50's and 60's played for something around a manual workers pay packet, as did soccer players like Mathews etc. RL players had 'day jobs' and so doubled their pay packets.
Since then pay has risen generally and SL contracts etc have changed the expectations.
The Great teams of the 70's and early 80's used to play for a "match fee" which was around £80 - £100 for a league game with a flat £25.00 for a loss, they also used to get a rolling win bonus meaning their pay went up each week they had consecutive wins before falling back to the standard after a loss, Cup games were a different pay structure because of the added revenue for a good cup run
When contracts came in most players were on around £10 - 15k per season in the Championship winning sides of the late 80's
Remember we signed Martin on a £100k - 10 years deal which was effectively £10k per season
When Dave Myers scored this try in the CC semi win against Leeds at around 40.22 on the vid you can see him count out on his fingers to 4 and mouth 4 thousand to Sprogger and Bobby as that was the fee they received for winning that game
I can certainly remember Oldham trying a 'double up' idea where they played for maybe £20 the first game. They won, so the next week 's win pay was £40, they won again, so they were on £ 80 next week, and so on. I guess that it costed itself out in the end!!!!!
Talking about league structure and TV contracts, I see that Peter V'Landy of the ARL has openly stated for the first time that the ARL and NRL are looking for RL investments and Super League is of interest .
If they could raise the domestic profile of the game in Europe and the international game, it could be just what the game needs.