It’s possible they couldn’t give it away. It’d be like trying to sell minor counties cricket... very, roughly.

Hopefully the numbers have been cherry-picked to show how much of the risk of a reduced TV deal the lower league clubs are being asked to carry, and the possibility of improved deal is at least being contemplated. Maybe the plan is that the Championship clubs get a much better deal above £40 million, although they might wonder where the incentive is then for SL to negotiate hard.

If those numbers are right (and I wouldn’t completely take them at face value yet), I don’t think there’s much incentive for those outside of SL to play ball. It’d look more like a choice of sticks rather than anything resembling an orange root vegetable.

I bet sky are looking at our game realising how weak it currently is... Robert Elstone will be laughed out of the negotiations if he wants anything near the current level. The issues are much deeper than structure! Games on the bare bones of it's Ar$e

Indeed, the game has been on its derriere for some time.

I think that the Proposers have put forward a ‘disruptive’ proposal to shake ALL of the clubs out of their complacency. It is clear that the time until the next TV deal has to be used to put get the game in a healthier state than it is. Obviously the SL clubs at the core of this believe that they can’t wait until the next TV cycle in the hope of screwing SKY to provide more income to fund a game that has, at best, stagnated.

Micheal Carter on Twitter is threatening to hold back the development of Wakefield’s young players, by stopping dual reg next year, if a certain Championship club doesn’t vote the way he wants. Classy.

This is what we have to put up with from the Wakefield club.

No he isn't <edit, MR>.

RFL, Champ and league 1 still share 7.75m it’s a deal.

He is. Look further down the threa he says it in a fit of peak. He’s also suggested if GeV don’t do as they are told he won’t be paying them rent to train at their ground. Back to thrones park dodging the dog then.

You might be right in also thinking Warrington have told Rochdale they’re taking their bat and ball home if they don’t do as they are told.

Also someone has told Newcastle that they’ll take the magic weekend elsewhere (as the night before they get their biggest gate of the season) if they aren’t good little boys and vote properly.

Which is brilliant because one of the most vocal chairmen this week runs a club that’s only here because they raped that club previously.

Interesting day ahead, you never know what youre going to get with an RL restructure!

Who actually negotiates the deal, the RFL is SL

Presumably the main negotiating point will be viewing figures - does anyone know how they stack up compared to previous??

The Championship & League 1 seem to have handed their negotiating over to the RFL lock stock & barrel. SLE have retained their options but let the RFL negotiate for them last time out.

It’s a good question. It has been the RFL. It’s one of those things where I assume that SL saw Elstone having a leading role, but I don’t know what the situation is now. I suspect people better placed than me are uncertain too.

BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/45514544

BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/45514544

Absolutely disgusting

Regards

King James

Hopefully Mr Campbell will tell him that Wakefield can't train at Feath should Wakefield not vote the way he wants........

If the super league get their way I hope and it will be 1 up and 1 down does that mean that say a team in the championship win and they have a crap ground they will still be promoted or do they stick to what it used to be and then what happens

Expect a break-away if things go pear shaped

Quote ="ColD"Financial proposals don't look brill for Champ clubs https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm--fH9XsAAFKPy.jpg:large'" When I posted in this thread before I said it was a no brainer for the clubs to pass this through. Having seen these proposals I'm not so sure anymore Basically the SL clubs want full control over the negotiations, but completely refuse to take any less money than current levels despite the outcome of those negotiations? Is that right?

Quote ="ColD"Financial proposals don't look brill for Champ clubs https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm--fH9XsAAFKPy.jpg:large'" When I posted in this thread before I said it was a no brainer for the clubs to pass this through. Having seen these proposals I'm not so sure anymore Basically the SL clubs want full control over the negotiations, but completely refuse to take any less money than current levels despite the outcome of those negotiations? Is that right?

It will come down to various issues, but this EGM isn't addressing the biggest one of them all - the appeal of the RL audience to advertisers. That's what Sky cares about, and what determines how much we're worth to them. Not one comment from any of the 11 SL chairmen seems to talk about addressing that issue - in fact, their comments have tended to talk about doing the opposite.

Instead of talking about how we grow and diversify, they seem more interested in fighting over and protecting what is, in the context of modern elite professional sports, a piddling amount of money. And then people wonder why we have a perception issue.

i just cannot possible see why sky would support loop fixture, puts proven that crowds and tv audience drop for loop fixtures, surely sky would want best audience and cameras on full grounds. if they want to attract advertises advertises will want Leeds Wigan 20k crowd saints wigan 25k all playing each other home away, not hull v Huddersfield playing a 3rd time and getting 6-7k a Kc stadium.

What Sky want is content that appeals to hard-to-reach ABC1 audiences in and around major urban centres. How well RL content does that will determine how much we are worth to Sky.

But somehow I can't imagine that's on the agenda at today's meeting, or any other meeting for the foreseeable, given the comments from some club chairman in recent months.

Let's be honest, addressing the actual problems facing this sport sounds too much like hard work.

Yep, we have completely shown our hand to Sky as well by making that top bracket £40m. Not even the premise that they could get more this time. We should be going to sky and saying "We're going up to 14 teams. Instead of Widnes, you will have Toronto, Tolouse and London. Give us a better deal."

Sky's interest in sport in general is on the wane. They've sold huge numbers of boxes on the back of their sport portfolio, a move BT belatedly attempted (many would say failed) to emulate. In short, sport's largely done as much as it can for them. Yes, they can still sell advertising but I'd be surprised if that market doesn't diminish too, particularly if the post-Brexit horror scenarios pan out. If clawing money from lesser clubs is the best plan the likes of Leneghan and McManus can come up with then the future of the pro game ain't rosy.

Reports on Twitter saying the proposals have passed.

Over to you Lenaghan, Pearson, Hudgell, McManus, Carter, Davy and the rest. You got rid of what you said was holding you back so sell outs at every game from now on, amazing commercial and sponsorship deals, packed hospitality suites and nothing less. No excuses gents.