If we don’t have the Super 8’s in 2019 that is a different league structure

Or' waiting to see whether his wishes are fulfilled without further meddling, it's quite ridiculous.
Are we really saying that the professional RL clubs the western hemisphere dont actually know what they are playing for



I know that Elsotone hasn't been in the job all that long and that Rimmer "loved" the "civil war" but, come on.
Between them that have actually made Nigel Wood look clever and forward thinking, WOW

Nothing wrong with the current format except the Super 8s should be considered a new, different competition. Crown the top team after 23 rounds as League Winners then for the Super 8s all teams start on zero points. Top 4 play off and winners are the Super League Champions. That would give much more meaning to the 7 rounds before the top 4 play off.

The Super 8's are history. Michael Carter was quite clinical in that fact tonight. He as a SL club owner requires 14 home games to survive. He doesn't agree with one up one down, but acknowledges it is what is with looping fixtures.

I didn’t hear Carter but he gets 14 or 15 home games under the current format. I don’t see your point.

His point was not knowing the schedule of the 8's fixtures was costly. He made tonights game an example of the failings of the Super 8's structure.

If Wakefield could double their crowds they would only need 7 home games to survive financially then. Carter should get in touch with Toronto then and get marketing tips. Learn what it means to be pro active rather than reactive

Regards

King James

Bugger.....I find myself agreeing with you.....I need a shower.

Wakefield, Huddersfield, Salford and the rest

We really shouldn't be building a business model based on making our players do more. Carter should be making more from the fixtures that Wakefield have, and generating more from non-matchday revenue sources. Demanding more fixtures because it's easier than doing that is not good for player welfare or for the quality of the on-field product.

Can't RL do simple for once.
Each league has home and away fixtures + 1 magic weekend/big bash fixture.
Each league has top 5/6 play-offs. The winner in SL are champs, the winners in the leagues below promote to replace the bottom team of the league above.
Each club has 2 objectives: get better off the field, get better on it.

[i/Alarm clock rings and wakes me up/[/i

That's great but, he's not demanding more fixtures ??

What he wants is to have the same number of games (27) and to know when they are to be played so that his club can "sell" the games.
Trinity have the luxury of playing Huddersfield 5 times this season and apart from already having lost 4/4, this cannot be good for anyone and as for the Super 8's, far from every minute mattering, nobody actually cares.
Saints have the LLS and although there is a slight scramble for second spot, the rest of the fixtures are like a damp squib, and not exactly mouth watering fayre.
The qualifiers however, do hold some interest but, these seem to be getting scrapped.

A 14 side top flight seems to be about right and play everyone home and away, plus Magic, which should be a "random" set of fixtures, rather than contrived games, although this may not suit Sky ?

Salford are getting there.

Salford are getting crowds that would meke me, a London Broncos fan., embarrassed.
Mergers are the best way to build a sustainable top tier..... But the lower divisions will never let that happen

The fixtures for this part of the season were announced on 1st August. Even if we assume that Wakefield didn't know about the fixture list before it was made public (which is unlikely, but nevertheless), are we honestly saying that 16 days is not enough time to sell an event - an event where a large amount of tickets are already pre-sold?

The more I hear this argument, the more I think Hetherington was right; too many clubs are using the format as a convenient excuse for their own poor commercial performance.

Salford are getting where? Into administration again

Though I understand and to a certain extent agree with the theory of mergers they simply do not work. Fans do not have the affinity with new teams and in a lot of cases would rather not go than follow a merged team.

There are a few locations where there is an outside chance, perhaps creating a Cumbria ‘Lakers’ team with Whitehaven, Workington and Barrow feeding it.

Agreed. I think there would be little to lose by forming a merged 'Manchester' team from Salford and some or all of Swinton/Oldham/Rochdale. Manchester Regional Arena (next to the Etihad) could be a potential venue for them, maybe requiring some work to be done eventually to increase capacity if it worked out (currently 6,500 according to wiki though, more than Salford ever get). They all have hardly any fans anyway, so the risk of them walking away is smaller than the opportunity of attracting new fans IMO. There are three big universities in the area for them to exploit.

Agreed. I’m a Trinity supporter and a massive Carter fan, he’s made huge steps towards making the club viable and competitive. But - I don’t see a great deal of marketing going on. Perhaps I’m just not looking in the right places but I shouldn’t be the one who has to go looking. As an example; I live near Birmingham and have occasionally bought tickets for the T20 at Edgbaston. Warwickshire CC now have my email address and I regularly - 2 or 3 times a week - get fixture reminders, updates and ticket offers for upcoming matches plus a thank you for attending games. I was a season ticket holder at Trinity for several years and now regularly buy tickets on line but I’ve never, ever had similar marketing emails from the club. How hard is it to keep a data base of everyone who’s ever bought a ticket and keep in touch with them? And yes, 16 days is ample time to bombard people with the fixture list and publicity.

The thing is, a true fan of a club will not change his allegiance. For example if Hull and Rovers formed a superclub, some fans might attend, the otgers would wait for their club to be reformed in the liwrt leagues or just quit the sport. I'm sure that's the same fir Salford fans as well. The new superclub woukd then nred to attract mainly new fans and that is a massive gamble. Fans of a club msy watch neuteal games, but if their team didn't exist they would drift away.

It always seems to be Leeds, Wigan or Warrington fans that are all for it. Yet suggest that Wakey, Cas, Leeds and Bradford all merge into a West Yorks club playing at Elland road and they simply say there's no need. It's very easy to have big opinions if your club is financially safe. One day they might not be.

Abandoing clubs to force new superclubs into existance is not the answer. People won't support them and it'll be a financial disaster. That is almost as guilty as the Keigh charman throwing money in an all or nothing approach that needs immediate results. The only way to grow is to KEEP what you've got, generate interest in the game and then people will WANT to join. For all the moaning at Toronto, that's what they've done and done well so far. Will it last? Maybe.

Back on topic......

SL is going to 14 teams next year anyway. The only people that seem not to see
this is the RFL itself. I don't care what has officially been said so far, all the signs are clear to see.







Of course, I've been wrong before.

It would be a big gamble if Salford etc had a lot of fans to lose. They don't. Even if 80% of them walked away, I'd argue that a brand new heartlands club in a big city could still reasonably expect to attract better crowds and sponsorship than what Salford get, as well as more away fans if the ground was more conveniently situated (as Manchester Regional Arena is, for example). It's easy for me to say, but if Wigan had 3k crowds every week and were in dire straights, I'd still support them if they moved to Manchester to make it work (not Liverpool though *spits*)

But if Wigan merged with Leigh and became Manchester Moles or something, different shirts, logo etc whilst a new lower league Wigan was created which game would you regularly attend? It's not a case of moving, it just wouldn't be Wigan at all.

Liverpool is a bit of a stretch, even for me. Now Birmingham (Peaky) Blinders is an interesting idea.

I still reckon 14 teams starting next year.....

Quote ="Kevs Head"Agreed. I’m a Trinity supporter and a massive Carter fan, he’s made huge steps towards making the club viable and competitive. But - I don’t see a great deal of marketing going on. Perhaps I’m just not looking in the right places but I shouldn’t be the one who has to go looking. As an example; I live near Birmingham and have occasionally bought tickets for the T20 at Edgbaston. Warwickshire CC now have my email address and I regularly - 2 or 3 times a week - get fixture reminders, updates and ticket offers for upcoming matches plus a thank you for attending games. I was a season ticket holder at Trinity for several years and now regularly buy tickets on line but I’ve never, ever had similar marketing emails from the club. How hard is it to keep a data base of everyone who’s ever bought a ticket and keep in touch with them? And yes, 16 days is ample time to bombard people with the fixture list and publicity.'" Indeed. I mean, I know London Broncos have had a whole THREE days longer, but it doesn't seem like the part-time team there has had trouble finding the time to promote their game this week. https://twitter.com/LondonBroncosRL/sta ... 7545559040 I can only sympathise that 16 days was not enough for a full-time operation to do something similar outside Westgate.

Quote ="Kevs Head"Agreed. I’m a Trinity supporter and a massive Carter fan, he’s made huge steps towards making the club viable and competitive. But - I don’t see a great deal of marketing going on. Perhaps I’m just not looking in the right places but I shouldn’t be the one who has to go looking. As an example; I live near Birmingham and have occasionally bought tickets for the T20 at Edgbaston. Warwickshire CC now have my email address and I regularly - 2 or 3 times a week - get fixture reminders, updates and ticket offers for upcoming matches plus a thank you for attending games. I was a season ticket holder at Trinity for several years and now regularly buy tickets on line but I’ve never, ever had similar marketing emails from the club. How hard is it to keep a data base of everyone who’s ever bought a ticket and keep in touch with them? And yes, 16 days is ample time to bombard people with the fixture list and publicity.'" Indeed. I mean, I know London Broncos have had a whole THREE days longer, but it doesn't seem like the part-time team there has had trouble finding the time to promote their game this week. https://twitter.com/LondonBroncosRL/sta ... 7545559040 I can only sympathise that 16 days was not enough for a full-time operation to do something similar outside Westgate.

Lower tiers ? , so who do you suggest Salford merge with ?

They could merge with Swinton and ad another 250 fans to their weekly total


There needs to be more professional clubs in the sport, not less but, some of the clever ones just dont get it.

If we keep on losing clubs from the professional ranks, eventually we wont have any and the likes of Wigan, Leeds and Saints will probably end up converting to Union and that would be the saddest end of all.

Those that formed The Northern Union would be turning in their graves.