Red Hall need to get off the backside and sell the game to where the money investors are be it Russia, India, China even the USA. The game can'r raise its profile without money and media support, thats the be all and end all, we need something now in a similar process when Sky and Uncle Mo discussed and fast tracked the super league concept.
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Raising the importance of internationals is OK but we need a complete overall of Superleague it lacks quality, intensity and the sky presentation is stale. The Yorkshire v Lancashire re introduction is a good start but give it a lot more weight like the origin games, re badge it as Wests v Easts to get rid of the North of England (M62) vision. The RFL need to take a risk with the Challenge Cup and send it out for broadcast tender with a balanced fixture of rounds with the final in July away from the season starts of football and Union.
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The magic weekend should be a 9's comp over 3 days involving more clubs in a seeded preliminary couple of rounds and set in the Newcastle or Birmingham areas well away from any rugby league hot bed area. The RFL are just not dynamic enough to change things quickly and seem to be scared of all the eggs falling out of the one basket. Nigel and Brian are not the ones capable of taking the game forward with purpose and haste, the stobart deal was just one piece of proof of that fact.

Is this the same Uncle Mo who was hated by most supporters outside the Wigan area?

Still to this day the most visionary executive the game has had in modern history.

Re-introduced the World Club Challenges, tookinternationals to larger stadiums (Wembley), dragged the game from winter rugby with the invention of Super League. Not all his ideas were favoured (mergers) but I remember an interview from the mid nineties where he stated his dream would be to see a challenge cup final Birmingham v Wigan, full to capacity. Ahead of his time, unfortunately in a sport where risk and change is unwelcomed by a large majority.

I agree. Which is why I think we need a mid-season 5 Nations every year and we need to focus funding and support on Wales and France to try and get them to a position where they're able to give England a game.

I've said it before but I also think we need some rule changes in the game to avoid blowout score lines. You only need to be slightly better than your opponent in RL to run up 40-50 points, that doesn't happen in Union or football. The nature of those games keeps the scores closer. So I think we need other areas for teams to compete in other than the play the ball, such as scrums and maybe look again at the kickoff and some other areas as to where we can allow teams to compete and avoid one team easily establishing dominance in a game.

What like letting the other side get the ball back after one team score like in U8s

Didn't they used to do that?

Just hire the s from the Salford incident and get them to get drunk and kick off every week, we'll be on the main news permanently.

We don't have a big enough 13-a-side game to change the Magic Weekend to a 9s comp.

As it stands Magic Weekend is our third biggest weekend of the year so it must remain in the form it always has been. I know non-RL fans who have gone down to Magic Weekend each year when it was at the Etihad (they never bothered with it moving up to Newcastle last year) who never attend another RL game all season and who just watch the CC final and GF on tele. They really enjoyed what Magic Weekend was. They liked the rivalry in the stands too. With it being a meaningful table game it's really intense with the fans of the clubs too. Move that down to a 9s comp and fans interests will be far less intense.

In fact, i reckon that attendances would plummet if we made Magic a 9s comp.

More people live along the m62 corridor than nsw,Qland and NZ combined. Making it more popular in heartland would be at start! I do agree that until the game is on free to air to it is always going to struggle to build an audience either in heartland or further afield.

We definitely need to make it more popular in the heartland.

We need big Manchester and Newcastle teams in my opinion too. Keep swapping Magic Weekend between the two cities every other year. Etihad one year, Sid James' the year after... Sell it to the public of both cities; "can you beat last year's attendance figures from the other city" and say they can attend a game for free at Newcastle or Manchester Rangers/Salford RDs with their Magic Weekend ticket or something.

Dont know if its been mentioned on here, but our Nigel, signed a new contract at the RFL recently, think he's here another 3 years.

If the game won't scrap the Salary Cap, just scrap it in respect of any current or future club that is based "outside the heartlands", however you want to define that. Might, for example, the Bath RU owner establish an RL team to enter League 1 and aim to rise to Super League within two years if he could "guarantee" success by there being no salary cap imposed on him?

For heartland clubs, allow a 2nd marquee player allowance to be exempt from the Salary Cap to apply only to the signing of a current "6 Nations" international Union player. Not compulsory, just an option for clubs. See it as marketing spend.

I agree with the OP that getting games on Terrestrial TV is a must. International games have seen a big boost in exposure since they've been back on the BBC (even in early morning slots for the games in Aus/NZ) and surely there is an incentive for SKY in that improving the sports profile might tempt more people to subscribe to SKY Sports.

I also agree with another poster that focusing on Manchester and Newcastle for expansion is a good idea. Both have shown they are receptive to RL, and are big cities not small time towns that we generally have in SL currently.

Yep. And crucially both places already have an RL presence albeit only small. I'd love us to be Nigel Wood's waistline and expand on all fronts, but we haven't got the resources for that. Expansion cant just be a team plonked in an area. All the previous "expansion" teams have proved that doesn't work. The one where there was some existing groundwork and basis to start from, Catalans, proves that it can.

So we have to pick and choose. I'd take approx £300k from each SL clubs TV money giving us £3.6m a year to use on publicising/grassroots/whatever in these 2 areas. And I know it artificially benefits 2 clubs over others but I don't particularly care if it grows the game. If we could establish a foothold in both Newcastle & Manchester in, say, 15 years time, I think that'd be a huge step forward for the game. We'd then have a decent sporting presence in Leeds, Hull, Manchester and Newcastle.
That should give us some ammunition when negotiating with broadcasters and sponsors.

He's way past his sell by date, I get the impression he will never be challenged and will have one of those rare Jobs for Life. Has anybody any idea what Brian Barwick has brought to the table besides a handshake at the finals.

Unfortunately RFL may have talked about Manchester until it is too late! The RU under 20 World Cup is being held this year in AJ Bell and Man City Academy Ground. The RFU has said it's aim is to get as many school kids in the NW to see a completion involving over 30 countries, and to provide the resources for an extra 1000 schools in the NW to play and develop RU. I think it is June sometine, but is all ready being promoted heavily.

The RFU has planted it's tanks on RL's lawn and history has shown they have the resources to back it up ( and no doubt a few big names) I can only guess how much Sale Sharks will be all over it!. It may be the RFL has missed the Manchester ( as opposed to Gtr Manchester) boat.

There is zero chance of the RL profile being raised anywhere at this moment.
All the main broadcasters have embarked on a P.C. campaign, to raise the profiles of several other minority sports.

A credible International game would help.

Unfortunately, you have the RFL who have done nothing off the back of a successful world cup, and still no announcement on 4 Nations venues & dates, and watched our only relevant presence in the capital die.

Then you have the NRL, fiddling as Rome burns, content with their own competition and SOO, and no thought to the wider game. Semi Radradra potentially becoming a Kangaroo is the latest blinder they're playing for International RL.

Thinking exactly the same thing, radradra playing for Australia would just sum up our international game. If any team is going to have a go at challenging the big 3 then I would imagine it would be Fiji or Samoa. Samoa pushed the 3 close in their four nations game and Fiji probably have the best squad outside the 3 on paper but great players shunning these countries really doesn't help...

The problem with using the Sky money is that Nigel Wood probably has eaten a large percentage of it already

Though really the RFL don't get enough of the TV money to adequately run a governing body doing all the things we want them to do including costly expansion plans.

Richard Lewis also had his big slice of cake, then he did a runner as they was going to announce the Sport England Funding was going to reduce the payment to RL by just under a million quid (950k), for lack of participation in the sport. I summize Brian Barwick saw the "gravy train" potential a year later whilst in the meantime they couldn't fill the media manager position for the same period.

True.

Expansion-wise, I think the method of brining in clubs into League 1 is a good one, allow them to grow organically and build their own networks, with eventually the cream rising to the top (even though it may take a while to do so).

Toulouse have started brightly with two good wins, I've got high hopes for them.

Agree with that. Unfortunately League 1 operates only just above that of amateur clubs, but we have to give them time. Something that RL is very bad at, constantly wanting a quick fix rather than long term, consistent investment.
League 1 gives these teams at least an opportunity to develop and it'll be interesting as aren't the Canadians due for entry in to League 1 next season?

I always thought making Super League games PPV on sky would be a good thing as I for one struggle to warrant getting sky sports just for rugby. It may hurt attendances slightly but it would get bigger coverage overall!

That would only appeal to existing RL fans, and would massively reduce the viewing figures, as generally, fans would only pay to watch their team and maybe the odd big fixture. Can't see many neutrals or non RL-folk paying out to watch Wakefield v Salford.... (No disrespect meant to those teams)