For reference as bad as our performances have been, we have finished above Wakefield the last 5 seasons or so.

I don't see how a team in a lower league can score more performance points than a team in SL no matter how bad they have been. How can a promoted team get anything more than say a maximum of 1 to 2 performance pts in terms of the grading as the 2 leagues are poles apart. As you say Dave they were a full time full on pro team playing in a lower league against part time teams.
This for me shows once again the IMG grading system offers very little in terms of importance and to actually devalues the whole ideology. .

Clearly a totally nonsense system where it pays to be relegated or play in small stadium.

Rugby League really is a joke sport sometimes. We've got a two match test series coming up which was rescheduled due to a player getting married. Can you imagine any other professional sport doing that?

I agree.

Wakefield will have a lower league performance than Hull, however will have scored additional points for winning the 1895 Cup and the Championship Grand Final. They can not win those points next season (unless they will the Challenge Cup and SL Grand Final), so will lose those points next season.

I think their new owner is doing a good job at Wakefield and their new stand is long over due. However, one major flaw with the IMG points is that clubs like Wakefield, Cas and Rovers get rewarded for having a poorer, smaller ground, as it is better utilised (ave crowd v capacity).

Any team averaging 7,500* gets the same crowd score. No bonuses if you can attract 20,000, or if all your ground is under cover.

It’s mad, but Hull would score more points if we owned our own 8,000 stadium and sold out every week, as opposed to having the best ground in SL and accommodating in comfort, every home and away fan who wants to go to the game.

The deal with IMG seems to be getting more ridiculous with every passing month . And the RFL are paying nearly half a million for the privilege .

Paying IMG nearly £500,000 per year for 10 years to do what exactly?
You are correct the sport has been mismanaged but this deal with IMG will go down in history as the biggest blunder the RFL have ever made.

Think I might retract my earlier comment about IMG...

Surely that was the Stobart lorries?

Thats up there for incompetence but it didnt cost money like £500000 per year..
Mind you i wouldnt be surprised if Stobart got the RFL to pay for the paint jobs on the trailers

Stobart deal
Papa John's sponsorship with clubs only getting paid in pizza
Not making the most of opportunities in London, Toronto and Toulouse
Buying the lease to a big hole in the ground in Bradford
Continuing with loop fixtures
Not capitalising on the success of the 2013 world cup
Worldwide talent search for a new CEO that led to someone from inside the organisation getting the role

There's lots of mistakes from the rfl that meant they had to get IMG involved, if IMG weren't involved, you wouldn't have seen clubs like Cas and Wakey making long overdue improvements, the playoffs and grand final seemed to have more media coverage than previous years....I think the stadium capacity is a fair point, our games would have a far better atmosphere if we had a 10k crowd in a 12k stadium rather than 10k in a 25k stadium

While it’s frustrating, I reckon at the moment we score between around 0.4-0.5 from a possible max of 1 point for stadium utilisation, no reason we couldn’t average around 15K if we had a competing side, that would take us to 0.6 points, I doubt IMG will be around for another 3 year cycle but that’s not the point.

For perspective after a quick look at last years attendances as a rough average it looks like Leeds (highest overall graded side initially) will score around 0.6-7 for the same criteria. Wigan will be around 0.5-6, Saints around 0.7 of a point. Those are the benchmark clubs, I doubt they’ll be too bothered about not getting the full point. Rovers will likely score near the full 1 point, but they’d still love a bigger ground though and I’m sure they’d sacrifice 0.2 of a point for extra revenue.

Long winded post but the point being that the reason we are not a grade A club is mostly down to poor performance on the field and horrendous salary cap management. Get the other stuff right that’s within our control and missing out on a max 0.75% of a single point on the stadium becomes much less significant.

With regards the IMG gradings, I would hope there is another phase of grading in the next 3 years.

I think all SL clubs should have a min capacity of 12k with the aim getting clubs towards 15k in the future. There is no point in just growing the game on social media, clubs need to keep growing the number of fans attending games.

SL crowds across the board are actually a lot healthier across the board than league attendances in the 80’s and 90’s. Challenge Cup and Play Off crowds struggle more.

Also there should be attention given to clubs who run Academies. It’s great that there has been ground improvements with scoreboards and advertising boards, but I’m still amazed player development has been ignored as is needed to sustain the future of the game.