So the SL clubs will be £280k less well off next year , but what of the share passed to Championship clubs?
If ever the game needed to get its head around a new system this must be it. Or are we just going to stumble on into a new season as if nothing has happened?
'Cometh the day, cometh the man' they say. Our fan's reponse proved that that might well apply next year for all clubs. The RFL and the clubs must recognise this and get a grip.
Not the best of times to test your support maybe, but tested it will be.
So the SL clubs will be £280k less well off next year , but what of the share passed to Championship clubs? If ever the game needed to get its head around a new system this must be it. Or are we just going to stumble on into a new season as if nothing has happened? ‘Cometh the day, cometh the man’ they say. Our fan’s reponse proved that that might well apply next year for all clubs. The RFL and the clubs must recognise this and get a grip. Not the best of times to test your support maybe, but tested it will be.
I absolutely hope Sky pull the plug, clubs have gotten away with it for too long. Look at Salford , getting 3,000 a game but paying players £100,000 contracts.
So the SL clubs will be £280k less well off next year , but what of the share passed to Championship clubs? If ever the game needed to get its head around a new system this must be it. Or are we just going to stumble on into a new season as if nothing has happened? ‘Cometh the day, cometh the man’ they say. Our fan’s reponse proved that that might well apply next year for all clubs. The RFL and the clubs must recognise this and get a grip. Not the best of times to test your support maybe, but tested it will be.
I absolutely hope Sky pull the plug, clubs have gotten away with it for too long. Look at Salford , getting 3,000 a game but paying players £100,000 contracts.
If Sky pulled the plug the sport in this country would go under. There's clubs in our league who can't run a semi-pro team without central funding, what would happen if the central funding was zero?
In any case Sky don't fund the sport for a laugh, they don't pay out millions because they like us. The sport sells a product to them and is in turn compensated, I'd argue too little. You look at the viewing figures the sport gets on Sky, they get a good deal, the people in charge undervalue the sport and show way too much deference when they go into negotiations, they're just happy to be there. We'll always be at a disadvantage because we don't have the connections and class solidarity of the other code, but what we get now isn't proportional to the popularity of the sport.
Good, let the dam game die. The fat cats at the top have made the game untenable for 80% of teams in the rl pyramid anyway.
The game needs to die and then be redeveloped as a semi professional sport.
Good, let the dam game die. The fat cats at the top have made the game untenable for 80% of teams in the rl pyramid anyway. The game needs to die and then be redeveloped as a semi professional sport.
There are loads of reasons to see that playing out Spike I. The economy generally will be rock bottom and that hits sport in the pocket.
The nightmare is that clubs like ours fight our way to the top - SL in our case, but by then the SL expansion bubble will have burst and guess which clubs will be eased out?
My idea future for the game and for Widnes, is that we refer back to part time rugby, where clubs have to develop 70% of their squad from locally sourced players.
Have you seen some of the sports on Sky and other channels? If the RFL cannot market the game and get a better deal for the sport, then they should bring somebody in who can properly market the game as a whole and not just the so called Super League.
One thing that TWP have shown is that if the game is marketed locally and game day becomes an "event", people will turn up. To do this, the team needs to be an integral part of the community for people to support their local team. It is no good creating an artificial team on Merseyside, calling it Liverpool and hoping that people from all over the city will support it - particularly when it is probably just a re-branded St Helens team based in St Helens. The same with Wigan and Manchester.
The NA expansionist dream has failed. It was based on a false hope that there is a demand for an international rugby league game, based on big city clubs; and that there will be broadcasting companies queuing up to offer massive tv deals.
Expansion should start in the UK - or perhaps it should be life support for the game - and all efforts should be made to re-build the game in the traditional heartlands and then look to expand the game within the regions of the UK. I may be biased, as I grew up with the game, living just around the corner from Naughton Park, and have seen the ups and downs of the club over the years, but rugby league is a fantastic sport - speed, skill, strength, agility and passion. It has been undersold by the game's administrators and a few clubs, simply looking after themselves with no interest in the wider game or its future.
Whether the future is full-time or part-time or even maybe the game may have no future - it could end up looking more like American football - the RFL should bring in someone like the Hearns, who may bring in new ideas to promote and market the game and have a wide-ranging consultation with fans, players (including ex players), administrators, broadcasting companies and other professional bodies and individuals, to see if any consensus can be reached on the future direction of the game.
This could include plans for developing and promoting the game in NA and other parts of the world, with the aim of having a truly international game based on national teams in a widened world cup and even developing an international club competition in the future.
I don't disagree with your sentiments Frank, but I am more concerned with the game as it is atm, and how it change can be accomplished. For a start the RFL/SL are rarely inventive or creative. They respond to situations and if no situation arises they will sit on what they have.
If, as I believe, we shall see a reduction in our central funding just how much would that reduction need to be to cause clubs to face folding? I would guess that quite a few clubs are already living hand to mouth and that any reduction in funding, accompanied by a drop in walk up support, would threaten their existence. That could, some would say should, be the time that collectively the clubs should inform the RFL that a change is essential or the game will collapse.
I suspect that Beaumont would still want SL, irrespective of the threat of the 'big city club' logic but whatever, the RFL might then be forced to sketch out the SL long term plan or at least what they see as a plan.
In the meantime semi-pro clubs like ours will need to ensure that their finances are improved to take account of being truly self sufficient next year. A reversion to semi-pro format might be seen as a come down, but if the game can only flourish in that form then so be it. I cannot believe that a SL with say half of its clubs resident in this country, games played in blocks far afield, will retain their existing crowd support, becoming largely a game for TV.
I see Salford have set up a crowd-funding page to enable the fans to pay for the covid-19 tests. With their crowds and no doubt paying SL wages, Salford could well be in trouble.
What central funding do Championship/League 1 clubs currently receive? I think a figure of £200,000 was mentioned when we were relegated. I have read that each SL club will receive £285,000 less in 2021 from the re-negotiated sky deal, but no mention of how this will impact on teams in the lower divisions.
My guess is that SL teams will absorb this through reduced player contracts, scrapping the reserve teams and smaller squads in 2021. It may even help the game by forcing clubs to bring through younger players to the first team and less expensive (and not always successful) imports. The reduction will be less than wages paid to some marquee players.
Widnes have shown a way forward for Championship teams by recognising that full-time contracts were unsustainable and harnessing the local support for the game to support the club financially. Widnes do, however have a decent local fan base to do this.
I suspect that a number of Championship clubs are operating on a shoe string anyway, with small squads of semi-professional players on low contracts, supplemented by local amateur players. Others will be subsidised by a local sponsor willing to invest in the club to varying degrees to keep the club afloat.
I think that it may be some SL clubs more at risk of folding, Salford being a prime candidate by the look of things.
In any event, it is time that RFL/SL had a serious look at where the game is heading, but perhaps those in charge are too comfortable on their £300,000 + contracts to consider any change other than the dream of riches (for a few) of the super duper big city league.
And your final paragraph speaks volumes! They won't want to kill the goose.
The lower SL clubs should be able to see the way the game is going - TWP ,Ottawa, NY, or Salford?
They must see that their options are pretty poor but they have no alternative but to play on, as we are tbh. It is very difficult for any club at our level atm deciding to try to upgrade to FT, or run an efficient PT outfit.
Imo we must concentrate on getting secure financially, certainly until the mists have cleared.
There is a growing unrest among those clubs like Salford. The decision has to be made regarding TWP next year. That could upset the other budding NA teams if it goes against them.
Atm a better team structure and better crowd support (Covid 19) permitting will do us good, hopefully with some success!
If we manage to top the league I will re-think my logic!!!!
The best and only way to grow rugby league is to cut ties with sky, make the game semi pro or at least a good proportion of it and then give the rights to BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Five, completely free and start the game from scratch.
The best and only way to grow rugby league is to cut ties with sky, make the game semi pro or at least a good proportion of it and then give the rights to BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Five, completely free and start the game from scratch.
Wow and I thought the RFL where bonkers.
The best and only way to grow rugby league is to cut ties with sky, make the game semi pro or at least a good proportion of it and then give the rights to BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Five, completely free and start the game from scratch.
Wow and I thought the RFL where bonkers.
To be fair, the sky deal is worth £37m to rugby league. The RU Six Nations deal alone is worth £300m to RU, so it looks like we are almost giving the game away.
The difference in the two games was always one was amateur and one professional. Well it looks like, RU is run by professionals and RL ..... well make up your own mind!
I can remember Koukash suggesting that he could negotiate a better tv deal. Perhaps the RFL should seek professional advice when negotiating the next tv deal. The first step may be to try and sell the game to other tv companies to introduce some competition into the process.
The RFL are not “bonkers” they just don’t have any authority when Wigan, Leeds and Saints having been running the game for the past 30 years. I will say this, RL started to decline in this country when suddenly the clubs went from committees to loaded boardrooms of people who thought they could make money from the game.
I am sick of the fats and I am sick of clubs like Salford with less than 2,000 season tickets holders but paying players over £80, 000 contracts. Clubs have been to reliant on the Sky money and have become prisoner to it. Clubs no longer actively seek to develope the game locally, Wigan (supposedly the biggest club) attracts 9,000-10,000.
Cut the sky deal and start again, make clubs work harder to attract the fans, cut you exponential player wages, and bring the game back to the heartlands.
The RFL are not “bonkers” they just don’t have any authority when Wigan, Leeds and Saints having been running the game for the past 30 years. I will say this, RL started to decline in this country when suddenly the clubs went from committees to loaded boardrooms of people who thought they could make money from the game. I am sick of the fats and I am sick of clubs like Salford with less than 2,000 season tickets holders but paying players over £80, 000 contracts. Clubs have been to reliant on the Sky money and have become prisoner to it. Clubs no longer actively seek to develope the game locally, Wigan (supposedly the biggest club) attracts 9,000-10,000. Cut the sky deal and start again, make clubs work harder to attract the fans, cut you exponential player wages, and bring the game back to the heartlands.
If you're that bothered by players being on 80k and the game being televised why not just go watch West Bank? I'm not trying to be insulting, but if the modern game annoys you this much there's a whole amateur game that is already ran exactly as you seem to want?