No argument - just a fact

Desperate, really? Hardly any away fans means lower revenue and less atmosphere in the ground.

My own team's away support is measured in hundreds, but to some Championship teams that's a godsend in terms of extra cash coming into their club.

We can't expect that Catalans, Toronto or even London will bring many fans, but having more of this ilk in our leagues will negatively impact income streams for all UK-based teams.

I ask again, what is the benefit [ufor the UK game[/u to have foreign teams playing in our leagues?

Will he really? I'd say we'll have 6 teams in Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Wire, Hull and Cas fighting for the top 4. Fancy Wakey and Hudds to make up the 8.

Can see Catalans bottom 4 again very easily.

But it raises am intresting question. Given that SL chairmen voted against Toronto joining sl last season. And this was part of reason against them. Do we think that the chairman (who are all mostly only interested about there own clubs), are going to be keen to have Toronto, New York, Catalans and Toulouse and wherever all in SL? That's 4 home games where there will be very little extra cash from away fans.

How will fans from other clubs react to them all being in. Will they just save up and go to these away games, ignoring most of the others? Will people rather go for 4 days in Toronto rather than the m62 roadworks on a Friday night?

And how attractive will our game be to TV, marketing etc. if there are rows and rows of empty seats and a home crowd only?

But the thing is, they know that these games will attract next to no away fans. Catalans have been in the league for over 10 years now, so clubs should be doing everything they can to get more people in when they play Catalans at home. But instead, clubs stand still and allow for this lower attendance.

Get out in the community, give tickets to local businesses or schools for this fixture. School kids will have paying parents coming along, plus any money made from sales in the club shop or concourse.

Didnt the good doctor try something similar last season?

Was it a success?

I remember a few of the season tickets holders were not impressed

Clubs make far more from selling tv rights than selling match tickets. Away fans then make up a very small percentage of supporters at all games, clubs need to focus on growing their home support and not rely upon a few away supporters.

If we can sell tv rights in the UK, France, Canada and USA, the tv rights pot that gets shared out amongst all clubs, could be much bigger than if we just sold tv rights in Yorkshire and Lancashire. This is how UK clubs benefit from having teams like Catalans and Toronto in Super League.

People are also more interested in competitions with an international flavour, see the European Heineken Cup in Union or the Champions League in football, these competitions do very well with tv ratings, meaning the UK tv rights alone could be worth more with a competion that has Catalans and Toronto in it as opposed to Leigh and Featherstone.

That's a fair point, if the payments are substantial enough. For instance, how much do we get from beIN Sports for them to show SL games? From what I've seen, SL viewing figures are comparable with RU Premiership, but RU have brokered a far better deal with BT than RL have with Sky?

The Heineken Cup and Champions League are a different beast to what we're talking about. They are competitions that teams in other leagues qualify for based on league position in the previous season.

14/15 televised games a year is worth much much more to our game than a few thousand 20 quid tickets a year.

The Catalan games on a Saturday rate around the 30-50k mark so they are directly bringing around half a million viewers to SL and Sky. Which heartland club in the Championship could bring anywhere close to the value Catalan bring to SL if they were to be replaced.

I don't see how that makes any difference? Under the current structure, if a current Championship team replaces Catalans in SL, then they'll have done that on merit by winning games in the 8's and maybe the MPG. For the next season they would be a SL club, and Catalans would be a Championship club. Sky will still pay to televise the SL games regardless of whether they're showing Catalans or not. I also don't see that the 30-50k viewers only watch on a Saturday just because it's Catalans that are playing - it's more than likely that viewing figures would be slightly higher as there would be more local interest from paying Sky subscribers.

I get the point about selling TV rights to foreign TV companies, but it all depends how well the deals are negotiated.

Whilst not disagreeing with your point. The problem is that clubs rely/want supporter's on season tickets. And they can't really sell the game for 2 different prices.

Though I do think they should do more, kids for a quid, more things happening at the ground (food markets, bouncy castles, a French day etc). Instead of accepting a low crowds and hoping the other games will allow them to get away with it.
You only have to look at what York & Toronto achieved for there 8's game with successful marketing.

Great contribution.

But there would be no games on the Saturday so we would lose 500,000 viewers a season. That would no doubt affect future TV deals and League sponsorship.

Can you imagine the RFL going to Sky in 2020, yep we have lost you 14 live games a season and half a million viewers. But its ok because we have replaced them with Leigh who will take 500 fans to Wakefield on a Friday night. How about an extra XX million our new broadcast deal!

They are also self sustainable club which is rare in our game.

Truth hurting Sinny?

In that case,It's imperative that Catalan must never be allowed to be relegated.
I will inform the RFL that the new structure for 2019 must state this when it is implemented

. What a pile of rhino goons on here.

There would be nothing to stop Sky televising games themselves on Saturdays as well if they want to. Presumably Sky have to pay French TV to show the games in the UK anyway, which means the financial equation probably isn't so straightforward.

Self-sustaining means "maintaining or able to maintain oneself or itself by independent effort". I'm sure like all other clubs, they're very happy to take the Sky money every year, and I suspect that Catalans directors have put some of their own money in as well.

To be honest, Catalans are in SL on merit now (albeit they nearly lost their place this last season), but they shouldn't get any special treatment (as they did when they originally joined SL), and neither should any other clubs whether they're from the other side of the Atlantic or a small town in Yorkshire.

If the MPG next year has the same participants as this, but with a different result, then the clubs should swap places in the league. That is what team sport is all about.

Don't talk such rubbish, absolute nonsense even for you.

Are you stating that English S.L. clubs get a share of the French T.V. deal, I wasn't aware of that.

One thing Catalans has going for it ATM is that its the one foreign team in SL. If Toronto and other North American teams enter SL then the interest in Catalans will decrease and they'll become yesterday's news.

They do not produce games on Saturday because it costs SKY money. At the moment they can show 14 extra games for very little cost.

The question you asked was what Catalan bring to the UK game, the answer is a alot.

For those who don't know this, the French based BeiN Sports gets a feed of the two Sky televised SL games every week, which it shows at its own convenience (sometimes live, sometimes not). Having the BeiN Sports video feed of Catalans games on Sky would be partial payback to Sky for Sky's service to BeiN.

If Toulouse gets promoted to Super League, its home games will be on BeiN and also available for direct feed to Sky.

If you took the Catalans home games away because Catalans were demoted from Super League Sky would not be happy.

The best outcome for Sky would be to have both Catalans and Toulouse in Super League. That way it could be guaranteed a French Super League home game every Saturday night, and for minimal cost.

That's right,let's make sure the French teams are exempt from relegation,stuff the rest.Yer not reet int yed thee.

Why does a Leigh fan laugh at how much Catalan bring to SL, strange. Very strange.
Printer makes a good point about the potential damage to Catalan if there was another overseas club in SL.

Although Perpignan has the attraction of being close enough to visit for just a couple of days, there is little doubt that Toronto wins hands down as the better "destination" for a break, albeit more expensive to visit and many fans may choose Canada as their overseas trip.
Likewise, Toulouse, if they were in the top flight, would also dilute the number of fans visiting Catalan.

"we" do seem to be heading blindly into unknown territory (with the possible further expansion of SL) but it's time to show us the money and seriously think about where the game is heading what the effect's will be having SL spread half way round the world, with a possible 3/4 overseas clubs in the top flight.

Apart from 4/5 current SL clubs being "safe", everyone else becomes vulnerable in the new world order.

Perhaps, instead of protecting the new overseas wanabee's, we should set a minimum number for English clubs, which would theoretically protect the domestic game ?