Re: Next tv deal : Sun Nov 29, 2020 9:20 pm  

MadDogg wrote:

We have but I'm glad we've replaced the top 5 with this new top 6 system. One thing you dont want in a playoff series is repeat fixtures - wasnt good to play Salford twice last year. This years system was simpler, the top 2 get a clear advantage with the week off and it knocks a week off the year.

Yeah prefer top 5 myself because it rewards you better the higher you finish but do take your point. Regardless of which system you like, it's hard to argue that it isn't frustrating how often we change the structure. Especially when we are going back to what we already had in place sometimes. Other than that I think the rule changes tend to be for the good, and have generally been praised by a fan base that loves an excuse for a good loan as a rule.

Re: Next tv deal : Mon Nov 30, 2020 5:08 pm  

exiled Warrior wrote:

Sadly,

1.Too many games are nowhere near that standard, not even close

2.Too many clubs accept mediocrity and lack ambition,

3. Game is heading for semi-pro status at an alarming rate and the RFL are seriously complicit in that
4. International RL is a joke

A reduced tv deal will be a good result at the present time because the game is is serious difficulty. If that means we have to put up with current Sky commentry (and especially the amateurish summerisers on the commentry team - what a joke they were last night especially) then it is not going to help make it any more appealing to a wider audience.

This in my opinion is one of RL biggest issues and i have posted on the Warriors fans forum about it previously.

Instead of everyone striving to be Wigan, Saints, Leeds etc and pushing to be the highest denominator, we bring everyone back down to the lowest denominator. When super league was introduced i am sure that there was criteria attached to being entered into SL i.e. ground, business plan, academy etc. It appears that this has fallen by the wayside given the relevant states of not only some of the stadia, but the apparent reluctance of teams to run academy and reserve grade teams.

Whilst i appreciate that there is a salary cap in place i am sure that the last TV deal covered the amout of the salary cap. If that was the case, then all teams should be made to pay the full cap to playing staff. If someone then wants to take advantage of the marquee player and any exemptions for long service, then that is up to that club to do so, but the minimum should be all clubs spending at least the cap amount. There is no incentive for teams to sell season tickets, market their games etc if the TV money makes it easier for them.

Wigan used to be streets ahead with marketing when Simon Collinson was at the club, and have fallen by the wayside up until the last few weeks where it appears to have been re-energised and back to where it should be.

Re: Next tv deal : Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:01 pm  

Not looking good at all. SKY have offered £20m which is roughly half the current deal. https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/

Not looking good at all. SKY have offered £20m which is roughly half the current deal. https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/

Re: Next tv deal : Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:21 pm  

MattyB wrote: Not looking good at all. SKY have offered £20m which is roughly half the current deal. https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/ Cant help but feel it was always going to be tough going with Skys new owners and that was before covid struck.

MattyB wrote: Not looking good at all. SKY have offered £20m which is roughly half the current deal. https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/ Cant help but feel it was always going to be tough going with Skys new owners and that was before covid struck.

Re: Next tv deal : Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:27 pm  

Any player with an ounce of ambition will be desperate for a NRL contract.
Hard times ahead for the professional game, can't imagine any other broadcasters are going to throw big money our way.

Re: Next tv deal : Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:58 pm  

Not good at all. Time to take the shackles off. They need to drastically raise the salary cap so the clubs who do have money can keep talent in our game.

Re: Next tv deal : Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:32 am  

Semi pro here we come i guess

Re: Next tv deal : Tue Dec 22, 2020 8:40 am  

I am sorry having to say this but it comes as no surprise that Sky Sports are offering less money when our game when it no longer attracts the top players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa like it use to do before Rugby Union sold its sole and became fully professional in the mid nighties. As a result, Rugby Union has become more attractive in the eyes of the television media companies like Sky Sports and BT while Rugby League has now become less attractive to the television media companies..

Supporters, prior to the mid nighties were used to watching many of the top players from not only from Rugby Union, especially South Wales, but also top players at their peak from down under which is no longer the case due to the NRL in New South Wales and Queensland becoming like Premiership Football in our country.

The only way to improve the situation in order to attract better offer from Sky Sports or even BT who are the two biggest companies in sports media coverage is for some clubs to merge and form bigger and financially stronger clubs to create a better, bigger and financially stronger professional game in our country.

As long as some supporters want to cling to the past and have the same number of small clubs along the M62 corridor, where attendances are nothing like they were years ago, our game will continue to struggle as a major sport and will perhaps end up again as a part time sport, but unlike in the past, now living in the shadow of Rugby Union which is now a far bigger game in the eyes of the television companies like Sky Sports and BT.

The idea that the league game should be put out to tender is a non starter as Sky Sports and BT have the most money where the coverage of team sports is concerned as illustrated by the massive multi million pound contacts to the Premiership in Football and more recently, Rugby Union with its Premiership and European Cup Competitions.

The financial future of the game is bleak unless the RFL follow the example of the game in Australia of a few years ago and take some similar draconian measures to rectify the situation, even if upsets some clubs and its supporters.

Re: Next tv deal : Tue Dec 22, 2020 9:15 am  

Ruddy Duck wrote:

As long as some supporters want to cling to the past and have the same number of small clubs along the M62 corridor, where attendances are nothing like they were years ago, our game will continue to struggle as a major sport and will perhaps end up again as a part time sport, but unlike in the past, now living in the shadow of Rugby Union which is now a far bigger game in the eyes of the television companies like Sky Sports and BT.

Having Leigh as the 12th SL club has hardly helped the case for bigger investment by Sky. To them and the watching world its just "another M62 club" joining an insular, inward looking sport.

Re: Next tv deal : Tue Dec 22, 2020 9:42 am  

muttywhitedog wrote:

Having Leigh as the 12th SL club has hardly helped the case for bigger investment by Sky. To them and the watching world its just "another M62 club" joining an insular, inward looking sport.

Totally agreed. The whole way it was done absolutely stinks. The clubs decided Toronto’s fate but an independent committee decide to promote Leigh?

Leigh was the safe bet but that doesn’t mean it was the right one.

The so called NRL takeover will happen next year IMO for a fraction of the prove touted. The sooner the bloody better, no one in this country seems capable of running RL effectively or competently. That offer is the result of years of poor baffling decisions, impatience with decisions (licensing, Exiles, War of the Roses etc) and a clear inability to do anything but lower the standards of the league to satisfy the likes of Wakefield, Cas, KR who have absolutely no intentions of raising their own standards.

Licensing should have been a new dawn for RL. A set of minimum standards each club had to meet consistently to keep their place in the league. Instead we got clubs like the aforementioned half heartedly promise stadia and investment that just never came. Wigan, Saints, Leeds, Catalans and Warrington have been consistently meeting and exceeding those standards, even after they went. Those clubs are the benchmark for UKRL and the standard which York, Newcastle, Toulouse and London are aiming for. Having successful and well run clubs attracts sponsors, fans and media and that’s irrespective of where in the country the clubs are.

The only people to blame for this mess is the RFL and SL. Together they’ve reduced RL to no more than an after thought. The kind of sport people like but wouldn’t know when/where to go watch a game. It’s an absolute disgrace of epic proportions.