I think that it may be some SL clubs more at risk of folding, Salford being a prime candidate by the look of things.
Wakefield must be struggling too. However I reckon most national League 1 & around 4 Championship Clubs will be similarly challenged & more so in some cases. Very few get 2,000 through the gate regularly. I did read somewhere as there will be no relegation & promotion this season that the £500k parachute payment could be divided between the lower league clubs. Obviously no where near enough but every little helps. The RFL has got to get tougher with the SL clubs to demand a fairer share of the money.
On the other point of sport shown on TV. Sky show loads of inferior stuff, five a side football, oodles of old football matches. Eurosport show very little decent sport. The RFL IMO should be marketing our game first to Sky as they are already involved & if there is nothing doing approach BT Sport to try & get a deal. Or perhaps approach BT first & if interested would strengthen the argument with Sky for a better bid perhaps. This may have already been done . I do not know. No one knows what negotiations or approaches have taken place. I did speak briefly with Ray French years ago when he happened to be at the club picking up his journalist's club package for the SL season when I was picking up a ticket. His view then, over 10 years ago, was no TV company would be interested in Championship Rugby at any price.
I mean the Thursday night Championship stuff on SKY say around 07-10 was good but it's drifted since then. SKY show or have shown Champ RU, and I certainly think Widnes v Bradford is a higher profile game than say Ealing v Cornish Pirates. They see it differently. I honestly can't see a TV deal as such for the Championship, unless it was a kind of Highlights programme on an obscure channel.
I think if SKY funding goes completely, then it brings to a head the real underlying issues in RL. Is it a commercial sport or a community one? Does it still judge itself against RU? If the game went totally Semi-Pro then I think the International Game would basically rely on more than 17 good English players getting NRL contracts and RU would hoover up some good talent not willing to relocate down under.
Interesting comments from McManus about SL next year. He is opposed to having an 11-team league if TWP don't come back in and suggested a licensing system to fill the 12th spot. In this case, I could imagine that Bradford and possibly Newcastle would be favourites as they meet the big city criteria.
Maybe the licensing system will be re-introduced, which would see the end for Salford and have a few more worried. At least this approach would enable the Championship teams to concentrate on becoming the best in the Championship, rather than striving for SL status. It might also improve the Championship, if RFL could make some effort to promote the league.
If a 12th team are invited in next year, I would presume it would be either London or Toulouse, I can't see Sky being impressed by losing a big expansion team for Featherstone or Leigh. Not that I think that is a great attitude.
I can see a 10 team closed shop with a mixture of the biggest SL Clubs and expansion clubs, which would then leave some good clubs in a very competitive Championship.
And that would suit Sky I suspect, a nice neat weekly set of rounds, not too long so that people might even remember where the competition is up to. Truth is that Sky don't give a toss about 'the game' as a whole, just their little slice of it. Their hold over the game would need to be SL only. They would have the Grand Final etc.
A Championship that is competitive and properly organised, as we have suggested before, Championship plus Challenge Cup (open to Championship and below only) should get some attendance support again. If it didn't then the game is gone.
Mixed FT and PT could be allowed with limit on number of FT players. That would form a bridge between SL and Championship but limit the Beaumonts flooding the game with money.
Spot on there Frank, we would have no chance on a franchise system but the favourites for me would be Bradford ( if they moved venues) and London
Yes - I agree, London would be one of the favourites too - pity neither London or Bradford have a decent ground. How are Wakefield and Castleford new grounds progressing?
They have brilliant artists impressions I bet!!!!!
On the topic of funding, apparently the central funding for next year will be based on league positions from 2019.
So further lingering punishment from Jimmy Rule.
I think the Championship funding is fairly even but still, every little helps, especially now.
I thought Wakefield were staying put now , the council loaned them £ 3 million plus to buy the freehold and surrounding land in march last year and they are planning to redevelop.
As mentioned earlier , there is no way SL could or should be played at Dewsbury, and though they have played there before, valley parade is a bit tight in pitch size, so Bradford are probably out, though they would be likely to draw the biggest support.
So, who would be the preferred option, London or Toulouse ?.
There is always the chance that the RFL will treat Toronto in a different way to any other club and allow them back into SL.
Having seen how the RFL conducted the last attempt licencing , it would probably be fairer for all interested parties to draw straws.
Sky are cutting costs it would seem with some shows cancelled (e.g. Sunday Supplement) and some longstanding Football pundits gone, presumably to be replaced with younger and cheaper ones.
Put this in the wider context of Sky having lost the away Ashes Cricket, major Rugby Union and the Champions League in recent years.
They will want to shore up PL, F1, Major Golf and England Cricket over the medium term, with Covid implications RL could well be collateral damage....
That would be ok. Get rid of SKY and binge on BBC & ITV repeats.
From Rimmer's noises there are clubs grabbing loans to help them survive. Not a great idea, they have to be paid back, unless the RFL are going to cover them.
I thought Rimmer's comments were interesting about the game needing to be reshaped and not being able to guarantee the survival of all clubs.
I feel this could be the prelude to a more streamlined pro structure.
As long as we never go down the route of Australia style feeder clubs.
I thought Rimmer’s comments were interesting about the game needing to be reshaped and not being able to guarantee the survival of all clubs. I feel this could be the prelude to a more streamlined pro structure. As long as we never go down the route of Australia style feeder clubs.
There is some contradiction in his words. He talks about re-shaping that could bring up the previous plan to merge clubs, which in reality would achieve nothing other than losing some clubs (and fans) with no benefit to the retained club. He then mentions the terms attached to the Government loan, which relied heavily on the local community aspect of the sport.
Whatever changes are made will be determined by Sky, who will no doubt be promoting the international big city approach. There are fans who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the game and plans to merge clubs or aim for an international big city league, will only drive those fans supporting local community clubs away from the game. Like others, I have been increasingly bored by the games on Sky and have hardly watched any games recently.
He more or less confirms that TWP will stay in SL. I predict no Sky funding in 2021 for TWP, but agree to review at the end of the 2021 season and possibly a 6 point deduction (or even a suspended fine).
At least he is talking about needing to look ahead to what the game will look like in 2022, which is about a season further than they normally plan ahead. Bringing SL and RFL under a single management structure must happen.
More in hope than expectation, I would like to see two domestic leagues - a Premier League of 16 and a Championship of 20 - with a fairer distribution of central funding between the two divisions. Initially, this could include Catalan and Toulouse, but the long term aim would be to support the development of the French game. The NA teams would be encouraged to develop the game in NA.
In reality. I would expect that the big city international league will be pursued, with Sky money being used predominately to fund that dream and the rest left to live on the crumbs.
It is almost a given that future Sky funds will be reduced drastically and the funds concentrated on SL clubs as they are now. Any failing clubs will be outside SL.
Championship clubs will have to survive on their own funding, whatever that is.
Time to recognise the pattern and allow SL to break away with Sky and the big city logic. The M62 Founder clubs would be better as far away from the SL as possible imo, they are just padding to be used and discarded in the new structure's formation.
The decision has to be made sooner rather than later I am afraid or we are all at risk. Back to the future!
A new management structure would be needed to manage the Championship and League 1, which should be no problem with people like Beaumont around, not to put money in but to help organise the process.
The game ran for many years before Sky funding raised its head, organised by club reps etc. and could it do it again. Some clubs would no doubt be fearful of leaving the promise of Sky funding but that has to be faced. Time for absent supporters to make their decision!
There remains the question for some SL clubs to consider and that is which clubs are to be jettisoned to make way for City Clubs? That is their problem. Would anyone trust the present management?