No it won’t.

It will..

1996 Leeds RLFC, nearly bankrupt nearly selling ground and having to move to Elland road, no major trophys for decades, club completely on its knees.
2018 Leeds Rhinos RLFC best supported club in the Game (when running at full stadium capacity)most successful club in the game, 20 years of producing a conveyor belt of junior players, most profitable club biggest turnover, own their own stadium and when this phase of development is complete will have the best stadium in the british game (either code) bar none predominatly for RL use.

All down to one mans adminstration.

No need for poles or debate. Facts speak for themselves.

The sale of any stadium will only increase the income revenue briefly. Unless Wigan can increase their revenue, they will always post a loss. They can't sell assets every year to make a profit.

Flawed debates all round on this.

Hetherington is a CEO (full time employee), the rest actually own and Chair their respective clubs.

At the end of the day, does it actually matter?

Given who the OP was, clearly not - and yet people bite.

none of this matters, nor does anything on here matter, its a forum for discussion and debate, and a bit of fun and enjoyment, well that's what its supposed to be.

Nothing to bite to on this occasion. Was a question put forward without any name calling, belittling etc. and people have been giving their views, as is the point of a discussion and debate forum. “What’s it matter?”...we’ll nothing in reality but you can say that about any thread, what will be the point of a league table prediction before the start of the new season? Nothing really as it won’t tell us who finishes where but we’ll still have a thread about it.

I can't imagine many other chairmen securing £20m through its City Council.

There are 12 clubs in SL; the question limited the answer to only 5, so it's deliberately provocative.

And in the end, almost all fans would choose their own club - it's what we do.

No it’s not, he doesn’t have to include every single one to debate it if he doesn’t think others are in the running. If you or someone else think another name should be mentioned then mention it and debate it, don’t just say it’s a pointless debate because one you wanted isn’t on the original list. If someone started a thread asking who the best prop or centre was in SL should they list each and every single one or who they think the best 5/6 are?

Hetherington is not just an employee, he is a partner/shareholder, Caddick is the majority shareholder probably by some way. Hetherington tried to buy the club once he sold the eagles on and Caddick was also trying to buy it, so they threw their lot in together. Caddick being the main money man though.

Yes it is.

What kind of argument are you trying to have here.
Surely, in order to decide "the most astute SL club boss", you would have to include ALL of the most astute bosses in the poll ?
If not, it's just the best of the rest.
Maybe you could say that the op had their own agenda


Maybe the Trinity Chairman has been omitted to stifle the competition

The OP doesn’t have to include him if he doesn’t think he’s In the running. If you and the other Wakefield fans here think otherwise then debate it and put forward an reasoned argument saying why Carter should be worthy of mention and what he’s done (like Leeds and Wigan fans have done) instead of complaining that the thread is pointless, provocative and not worthy of discussion just because of the poll options of which very few of the people who have actually read the thread have voted.

God it’s not like whichever name comes top of the poll actually wins something so stop being so sensitive about Carter’s not being on there....and let’s face it that’s the only one you’re bothered about not being on there. If he was included with the 5 listed then you wouldn’t give a damn about the other 6 clubs not being listed insisting all 12 should be on it.

I'm a Salford fan and believe Carter should be in that list. The guy's done a tremendous job at Wakey. And surely the Cas Chairman deserves a mention?

The OP NEVER creates a thread without an agenda and it's embarrassing that people outside his own list of aliases are jumping to his defence.

Using words like “Agenda” and ”provocative”....just because you can’t click on someone’s name in a poll.....that’s embarrassing

If they deserve a mention, then mention them, nothing stopping you. Is what the chairmen of Wakey and Cas have achieved only worth debating if you can click on the names in a poll?

Ok, lets start with "astute"

shrewd, sharp, sharp-witted, razor-sharp, acute, quick, quick-witted, ingenious, clever, intelligent, bright, brilliant, smart, canny, media-savvy, intuitive, discerning, perceptive, perspicacious, penetrating, insightful, incisive, piercing, discriminating, sagacious, wise, judicious;

Then we move to the shortlist, engineered to fit in the Catalan supremo, on the back of having full s/c to spent (plus the benefit in the exchange rate, which gives them circa 200k extra to spend) and then compare with Steve Gill at Cas, who has turned an average and under performing club into top 4 genuine title contenders or, Michael Carter at Wakefield who has worked bloody miracles on a shoestring.

Perhaps the op and perhaps you dont understand what astute actually means.

Surely the "astute" person is someone who has performed better than expected rather than someone who has all the benefits and had some success.

Lets face it, Wigan and Leeds SHOULD win something every season as they have the spending power to beat the competition. Therefore, not winning any silverware in any given season should be regarded as abject failure.

As I said previously, to judge the best from only half a list is just daft but, you dont seem to think so.

So does the op have their own agenda or, do they really wish to see who the members of RL fans judge to be the most astute CEO.

Difficult to compare someone like Michael Carter to Gary Hetherington as the situations are very different. Probably easier to put them into categories of chairman doing a very good job, decent job and bad job.

You'd have to say Michael Carter, Hetherington and formerly Steve Gill would be the top three. Hetherington for turning Leeds into the behemoth they are now and Carter and the guys at Cas for turning the clubs around to the extent they have with the resources at their disposal. Wigan, Warrington, Saints and Hull probably do about as well as you'd expect clubs that size to be doing. Salford, London, Hull KR, Catalans and Huddersfield do alright at times but most could probably use some improvement.

The thread is fine, the pole is one option short.


6. Non of the above.


so don't vote, better still don't read the garbage in the first place, its not like you didn't know it would be garbage

The OP has got you lot arguing,and that's the result he wanted.

Can you imagine any other club boss buying Daryl Powell, Darren Fleary and a bunch of others, all in for a £30k transfer fee?

Can you imagine any other club boss who could sell a Rugby League player for more than £1m then manage to effectively sell the same player again to a rival club a couple of years later?

Can you imagine any other club boss who would be able to sell a heavily loss making union team for £10m and then a couple of years later get the people who bought it to pay you another £5m or £6m to take it back?

I don't know about astute but Hetherington has been on the right side of a series of jaw dropping deals.

No, what I’ve said is that if you think Carter should be in contention then debate why (which you’ve FINALLY done now). That he wasn’t on one person’s list that you couldn’t click on his name shouldn’t stop you from doing that or make the thread pointless.

Personally I don’t think Carter has the longevity yet to be in contention with some of the others. If he carries on like he’s doing for another few years then yes.

Like John Wilkinson OBE did with Salford City Council

Great poll, this. It's like asking "What's the best colour to buy a car in" and only listing silver, black and white as the options. It's a classic 'troll poll'.