There is a broadcaster and an online platform interested apparently

I do hope you are correct but will they or the current deal pay what is paid now? & will the BBC want to pay after they are under enormous pressure to cut costs or go commercial? As much as I love this game I am not so sure the rest of the world actually give a toss!

Really, I think this is a myth peddled by some fans of the "big 4" in SL.
Do you really think that any SL club or ANY business out in the big wide world, is not trying to grow their business ??

Most SL clubs NEED the Sky money to sustain their current business and even the stronger clubs in the comp would ned to re shape their business if they were suddenly to find themselves without the Sky cash.
However, to suggest that ANY club isn't trying to improve and grow their business is just plain daft

Well several clubs vote against pretty much every idea to grow the game

Some managed to get into serious peril even with the parachute payment.

Here’s a slightly different take on things....

Let’s say Sky don’t offer the golden egg anymore, Superleague doesn’t get the sort of TV money previously offered, gambling firms can’t sponsor anymore, so effectively the game struggles to stay full-time. What’s the big worry with that in reality?

The sport will still exist, the clubs will still exist, the history of the game will remain, we’ll all still be able to go and watch our teams, the players and facilities just won’t be as good long term. The players will likely have day jobs etc....

So, effectively, we’d be back to how the game looked in the 80’s in terms of financially - I loved my rugby league then (probably even more so as we didn’t have to soften the game), and I’m sure I’d love it again.

Obviously it’s better to have the Sky coverage and the full time athletes, but so what if we don’t. I’ll still go to Headingley every week to cheer on Leeds - and who knows, we might even get rid of the silly Rhinos name and return to the Loiners with our rightful hanging sheep badge....

I’m not sure it’s the disaster people think.

Christ

Indeed, we could wake up in a world where penecillin, space flight (or even flight itself) was a dream. The earth was flat, the kids went down mines, imagine the eutopia, none of that modern day internet rubbish, pah, tws better when I were a lad...

I’m not saying it was better, or that it would be better.... but would the game survive? Would we still go watch our teams?

I love playing rugby league, I love watching rugby league, at all standards. A big part of my enjoyment of it is the family and friends who I associate with the game, the history of going with my dad, my grandad, uncles etc the fact they went with their fathers, that I now get to do the same with my lads - that family tradition being passed down, the emotion of the wins/losses, the away day trips, the banter with the fans, all those memories made with family and friends all having the same emotional tie to a club. I just don’t see that we would lose the thing that makes our sport so great if it didn’t have the money it does now.

tradition doesn't pay the bills, people can yearn for yesteryear all they want, it is why RL and the UK are stuck in the dark ages. (imho)

tradition doesn't pay the bills, people can yearn for yesteryear all they want, it is why RL and the UK are stuck in the dark ages. (imho)

I’m not yearning for yesteryear, I’m saying it’s not the end of the world if the sport had to go part-time again. It would force the clubs to be more pro-active with their attraction of fans, though they’d have a marketing budget of a smaller shoestring that most have currently, but the game would survive, and people could and would still go and see their teams - the sport would just have to cut its cloth accordingly. Young lads would still grow up wanting to play the game (yes we’d probably lose the elite athletes to other sports), but there’d still be a sport, and we could all still go watch our teams with the same pride and passion.

But obviously, I’d prefer expansion to work and the sport to thrive globally and financially. But if it doesn’t, we’ll probably still all be here, having similar inane conversations on here, I’d still be on here rather than doing the actual work I’m being paid to do by my employer

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, A lot of today’s problems in the game stem from treating rugby of both codes as a business not a sport. If all sides were amateurs or part time the sides would on the whole be equal & it is the equality of class across the sport that makes for the excitement. I don’t care if I am sat in an expensive seat under cover or stood behind a rope on a council ground as long as the teams are a fair match in skill levels. What has stripped our game & other sports is the belief that it is right to splash cash on your team to the detriment of the game. This started in our game when Wigan just spent more than any other side could & my team (HKR) tried it & just about finished us for good. I suspect that a lot of sports wish they could put the gene back in the bottle & be amateurs again even the Aussies?

I’m still waiting for the “ news on the new television deal” like the op stated. There hasn’t been any

You would be left with an amateur sport, with all of the better players doing "other things".
During the 80's RL was plundering players with alarming regularity from RU, with them (Union) in no position to defend themselves.
If League went amateur, I would expect Union to seize it's chance and try to asset strip our sport completely.

It's not beyond possibility that they could "encourage" some of our top clubs to swap codes, leaving our game, although still breathing, in very poor shape indeed.

Having said that, you would expect that there will be a TV deal of sorts and it's down to our new supremo to earn his corn.

Interesting/worrying times ahead ?

Absolutely get that, and agree with everything you’ve said - the best case scenario is of course that we get the best possible deal financially and that the sport gets richer and more successful in time.

I guess my point is that I don’t find it worrying if that doesn’t happen. I’ll still enjoy the sport, we’ll still go as a family and create those memories. It wouldn’t be the end of the world.

It will exists in some format so you will get to play and watch it will just be a lesser format. We will become the Speedway of the 2020's if we don't get a decent deal. The game is hanging on by a thread today and going backwards. Remove the foundation money and the house crashes down.

Good lord - someone who actually is aware of the Superleague foundations, well done. The point here is that SKY are not going to pay the additional monies they paid to the game in this current contract to ensure BT didn't take the game from SKY, yet the debate seems to be all about SKY pulling the plug. They aren't going to do that, nor are they going to cut the foundations that help supply the players. The point here is that if the deal is reduced to £150,000,000 or less which is highly likely then the Championship will get NOTHING.

The next point is that on the new deal the RFL will not be in charge of it. Lenegan will be in charge of it - the man who proposed the pro game should only be 20 clubs. If he manages to get that £150,000,000 he can share that across 10 English Superleague clubs (a tidy £3M a year for him, Carter, Fulton, Hudgell, Pearson, Moran, McManus, Davey, Caddick and Beaumont)

He can then invite another 10 clubs to make up Superleague 2 to enable Promotion and relegation to happen. That's 20 clubs he will have in his pocket. If he re-runs the vote they ran the other year to expand Superleague to 2x10 clubs and exclude the 17 other clubs leaving them with the RFL then this time they will have the votes.

Which is exactly why Gareth Walker went chasing Mark Sawyer to comment on the union deal that ring fenced an elite, and damnation to the rest - he was digging to see if sawyer was worried about his club's future if as is very very likely SL go the same way......Walker says this , he says [i"The hope is those at the top table, unlike in RU, can continue to see the value in the overall strength (37 clubs) of the professional RL game".[/i

Fundamentally, although clearly the games future will be massively affected by the TV deal, do you expect, that following the deal, there will be yet another change to the format ?
It's time that the sport actually had a plan for the future, instead of constantly tinkering with the format.
The 2 x 10 format would be a huge mistake and the repeat fixtures would damage interest in the game.

With the loop fixtures and cup/ play off games, clubs are already playing each other too often.
The next change in format and personally I dont think there should be another re jig, should be to increase the comp to 14 clubs and rid ourselves of the loop fixtures, which have never worked too well, either they skew the competition or just create too many repeats.

It's all about the money.
Although on your primary point, about SL having more control, I would suggest this is probably right.
Pretty much every other sport has the focus on the top flight, although most RL fans would like to see some of the Championship games if they could be shown and if SL was to largely go it alone, then maybe The Championship and League 1 clubs could arrange their own deal, albeit, they would be unlikely to get huge money,

I note the cheap dig on another thread accusing me of getting my facts skewed. [i"Donny hasn't got his facts skewed again has he

"
[/i

To say glibly clubs are already playing each other too often may be you getting your facts wrong.

You say it's all about the money.......

In 2004 Leeds played Bradford and got a 21,000 crowd

Then Bradford played Leeds and got a 23.000 crowd

Then Leeds played Bradford and got a 21,000 crowd

Then Leeds played Bradford in the play off and got a 21,000 crowd

Then the clubs got a 65.000 crowd for the Grand final.

So where does that leave your silly argument clubs play each other too much??

especially when You say it's all about the money? How much money did 151,000 tickets sold generate ££££££money wise

Where does that leave your silly thoughtless argument when the same fixture played 5 times generated an average crowd of 30,000 a game and a shedload of money??

Seems it's your facts that are skewed

Only last year Hull KR got 12,000 against Hull.

Hull got 20,000 against Hull KR.

then a boring unwanted loop fixture occurred and Hull KR got another 10,000 crowd against Hull.......

Last time there was 14 clubs in SL your club played Warrington at home [uonly once[/u. For this match they got [u3,698 their worst crowd of the season?
[/u

Get your facts right before you start the snide comments.

Yeah, you did well there, selecting the 2 top sides in the comp, thet are 10 miles apart geographically.
Let them play in a 2 club league in some kind of West Yorkshire series



Do you actually know ANYONE who is in favour of the loop fixtures and I mean ANYONE ??

Have you looked at Salford v Huddersfield - I'll let you pull the numbers out and come back with just what they did for the game.

Of course the top two clubs will always generate decent crowds, no matter how often they play but, that isnt the same argument as the loop fixtures, is it ?

As for silly thoughtless arguments. Try expanding the game into new territory and then pulling the rug from under those that have invested millions, that sounds fantastic.

Completely killing the game in France sounds like another insightful idea

Of course it's the same argument.

Yes, fans will always turn out for derby games a third or even fourth time, Wigan.v.Saints.....Hull.v.HKR.....Cas.v.Wakefield....Leeds.v.Bradford.......Wire.v.Widnes and they aren't all "the top two clubs" are they??? All you have to do is look these things up and work to the REAL facts.



IPSO FACTO M62 RL fans do not want to see North American clubs replacing English clubs and breaking up the derby traditions and relegating their clubs for phoney teams.

Your club Wakefield go down and New York go up, how will that go down when Cas/Wakey is no longer on the fixture list??

Don't you think fans in Leeds AND Bradford want rid of Toronto and Bradford back in Superleague?? Challenge cup games are badly attended nowadays but guess what - Bradford played Leeds before 10,000 fans last season ...neither were "top" two clubs, Leeds were close to the foot of the Superleague and Bradford weren't even in it

Yet you want to call me "Crazy"? How is name calling and silly emojees any sort of an argument??

You tell me how we get rid of the loop fixtures without serious consequences

Over to you.......

Neither the RFL nor Superleague "tried to expand into new territory". Perez and Argylle were the ones who asked if they could try to expand the game to Canada and bring us Canadian Players and TV deals. It was Nigel Wood who said they could try it in the Championships.

At no point did TWP ever ask Superleague if they would mind TWP coming into Superleague, as it was they got promoted and SL did not stand in their way.

But it's clear that TWP haven't expanded anything at all apart from a massive debt and a court case against them to pay up more debts. Perez promised Canadian TV deals and Canadian players and McDermott was forced in an interview to admit they would not deliver either. But nobody pulled the rug on them did they they have the rest of this year and next year to find those players and TV deals.

You had a cheap dig at me, and you got your reward. Stop digging a big hole mate, join me in hoping Wakey don't end up below TWP in the final analysis.