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the owners want control away from GH and his chums

This is bullshit with respect and it really would help if you tried to understand the dynamics of the TV deal before you go repeating talking points.

1. Sky came to the RFL/SLE several years before the contract was due to end and years before the negotiations were due to start.
2. They had a hard deadline - an upcoming stock market announcement they wanted to make revealing renegotiated packages across a whole host of sports. This to settle market nerves after the increasing threat of BT.
3. They did give a take it or leave it - the leave being, stick with the existing, lower deal which was an option. Did this place the RFL in a difficult place? Yes - Sky aren't stupid. Did the clubs, including Lenagan who has whinged about it non stop for the last 4 years vote for it? Yes they did because it was a decent deal.

The great irony is that the same people who say the last TV deal was a poor one are complaining that the next one won't match it, even if negotiated by these genius businessmen (not genius at RL but apparently outside it). Which is it to be folks?

Having an SL manager or CEO is fine and I think everyone supports it, including Hetherington.

The structure is negotiable although both sides have vested interests and Leeds appear to be the only one, given the present situation, voting against those vested interests.

What is not fine is SL clubs, purely because they can't grow their own businesses, taking the relatively small (to SL clubs) cash amounts from the lower leagues to plug the gaps in their budgets. It's pathetic and the greatest admission of failure on their part and the greatest reason we should be cautious about empowering a group of failed RL administrators to run the game.

do they not deserve something?
all clubs were happy with the agreed share when the last deal was agreed. what has changed?

This is bullshit with respect and it really would help if you tried to understand the dynamics of the TV deal before you go repeating talking points.

1. Sky came to the RFL/SLE several years before the contract was due to end and years before the negotiations were due to start.
2. They had a hard deadline - an upcoming stock market announcement they wanted to make revealing renegotiated packages across a whole host of sports. This to settle market nerves after the increasing threat of BT.
3. They did give a take it or leave it - the leave being, stick with the existing, lower deal which was an option. Did this place the RFL in a difficult place? Yes - Sky aren't stupid. Did the clubs, including Lenagan who has whinged about it non stop for the last 4 years vote for it? Yes they did because it was a decent deal.

The great irony is that the same people who say the last TV deal was a poor one are complaining that the next one won't match it, even if negotiated by these genius businessmen (not genius at RL but apparently outside it). Which is it to be folks?

I would add that Elstone appears to have been backtracking ever since his original, pretty disastrous, introduction. The latest concession was that the lower divisions wouldn't get a smaller amount of cash than they do now if the next TV deal is the same or larger. Now that could be an admission that he thinks he won't get a better deal (but yet his buddy Lenagan says the old deal was crap??) but still, he's quickly realised that he has lost control of the situation and become identified with some/a pretty toxic individual(s), in RL terms and in the view of the wider RL family.

Listen to him and you will see what you have put above is clap trap - all they ever said was that the clubs that generate all the revenues should get a a bigger share - not an unreasonable stance. They have never said the championship clubs should not get any money. Elstone has never changed his point of view on this.

Listen to him and you will see what you have put above is clap trap - all they ever said was that the clubs that generate all the revenues should get a a bigger share - not an unreasonable stance. They have never said the championship clubs should not get any money. Elstone has never changed his point of view on this.