My Opinions : Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:36 pm
I think whats needed for RL to progress in England is a larger player pool. And to get that it's a long, hard road and it starts at grass roots level. Getting the game played in schools. This is something that a lot of RL clubs do already (community projects and the like) but really there needs to be more insentive to get school kids to want to carry on and try to attain professional level. Which is where the RFL need to step in.
Francising is there to try and improve the professionalism of the sport off the field and to mean clubs don't have to try and buy success/survival and can blood youngsters. However, I think a re-think on salary cap regarding young players is long over due.
Now I'm not upto speed on current salary cap rules and I'm sure someone will correct me on this but is the current cap £1.8m and include both 1st team and juniors? If so, this really needs to be looked at. Bradford are guilty as any of allowing junior development to fall by the wayside infavour of short term gains for the 1st team and we're currently experiencing the backlash of that.
However, I think that clubs should be rewarded for increasing the player pool and developing youngsters, but I think that a monopoly on young players at a single club should be avoided which is why I think that something along the lines of a 25% exemption of the salary cap for players under 23 who've come through the club ranks would be adequate. This gives clubs an incentive to produce players and keep them on the books til they're at least 23 as some players bloom later than others.
Now, while the drawbridge is up on SL, I don't think SL clubs should completely ignore NL1 and NL2 clubs. Infact, it may be benifical to both parties to forge links between clubs, a practice I believe most NRL clubs employ. It allows young potential stars 1st team rugby at a level that's slightly above their current playing level and it helps lower league clubs in strengthening their positions within their respective leagues.
But the RFL need to increase their own influence within the sporting community. A main problem is how the game of RL is percieved. Now, I'm not saying a lot of sports journos are a little bias but it does seem to come across that way. So, instead of sabre rattling at the media, we need to bring them on side. VIP invites to RL events, free food, free booze and we'll soon have a few new friends in the redtops. Now, as for TV, that might be a little harder. However, SL and the RFL need to get together and sort out a strategy for getting more RL on the box. There's only 2 SL games on a week. That's 2 out of 7 and there's only 1 NL1 game per week!! I don't think going to Satanta is the solution as that's a channel that only reaches a limited audience. We need to get ourselves onto terrestrial channels. Or at the very least free to air channels. If you flick round on Sky there's a lot of special interest channels popping up for things like religion, low budget movies, even professional wrestling. So why not an RL channel? It wouldn't need a huge budget for the programming, and it would enable people to not only watch the game (there's got to be some deal that can be struck for classic matches, ESPN classic shows them!!) but profiles of clubs, programs on the history of the sport and explaination of the rules so that people new to the sport can understand it. After all, if you don't understand a game it can seem confusing and possibly uninteresting.
Now, on to stadia. I'm not in possession of the facts, but how hard does the RFL back clubs who are attempting to get financing and planning permission for new stadiums? Surely it would be in the RFL's interest for new stadiums to be built? Not only can we present the game in modern stadia, which will help with the shedding of the flat cap and whippet image that I think the game is still labelled with in some quarters but it will also give us a choice of stadia for international and special event games (CC Semi's etc). Also new stadiums will generate more revenue for the clubs involved, both from increased corporate sponsership oppotunities as well as encouraging supporters, both home and away, to visit.
So that's my view. It's also what I've done today when I should have been working
[/RB Mode]
