Supporting a Championship team I would be happy to see Leeds in the Championship. I watch most of the Sky games irrespective of which teams are being featured, I would guess that Leeds fans would do the same..

The doom and gloom around the relevance Leeds being relegated would have on Sky is from their fans overstating the club’s importance.

No, you're absolutely right. A product losing one of its few marquee institutions would in no way devalue that product to potential investors. Losing the club with the highest attendance and viewing figures will have no impact whatsoever on the bottom line of a sport that already struggles financially. It's just Leeds fans being high and mighty, not economic reality.

Spot on!

Some will who follow the sport very closely and are the types to go on RL forums to talk about the sport....think people are underestimating how many casual fans their is though who’ll tune in when it’s their team playing but not religious watchers of the sport weekly. I personally will watch Leeds Utd games when they’re on tv, but I don’t watch other Championship fixtures usually whereas a bigger football fan will watch more routinely. Given the size of the city of Leeds they will have more casual fans than others who will watch like this when it comes to RL.

The Catalans game at home has also now been confirmed for Sky so that’ll be 10 in 12 games Leeds have been on Sky and only two that weren’t were ones scheduled for Sunday (none Sky game days) from the start of the season.

Seconded.

And Sky's love in with showing Leeds is a joke. By far one of the worst teams to watch this year yet they persist on showing them.

Maybe they're trying to entice the Love Island type of viewer.... people that know they really shouldn't be watching such sheeite but they just can't help themselves...

I find it a touch embarrassing that Leeds fans are attempting to make fans of other clubs who would like them to go down feel guilty about it.

Some Leeds fans are getting a bit like Liverpool fans in football as in believing the whole sport revolves around their club. I'd like to see them get relegated and take their bloody annoying Leeds Utd songs with them. To hell with the 'tv deal' they keep banging on about.

You can even tune in to watch Watkins with gold coast this Saturday

So many people on here who have no clue about the TV deal.

I will spell it out for you. Leeds going down will have no bearing on the new deal what so ever.

It’s irrelvant who’s playing as sky find it hard to sell the advertising during breaks because no one wants to advertise their wares to a load of working class people

Why do you think the domestic cricket tv rights are worth over a billion but have a fraction of the viewers? Because affluent people watch cricket so companies fall over themselves to advertise them.

But sure Leeds fans, keep on believing you are a paramount to a new Tv deal when it’s the polar opposite

Because surprise surprise, Sky don’t care about styles of play or great play.....they care about how many are tuning in. If a Leeds match attracts 150k viewers regardless of poor play and another fixture between two better performing teams attracts 75-100k, which do you think Sky will prefer.

In any sport they pick the clubs who bring the most viewers to show more often, really is that simple. In tv, numbers rule and dictate.

Not trying to make anyone feel guilty about it, just pointing out they’re kidding themselves if they don’t think it’ll make a difference.

Look at the grief Leeds got from other clubs for not wanting to do a reserve team over the last few years. Even though apparently all other clubs wanted it they couldn’t properly organise it and made a mess of it between themselves and other clubs and their fans pointing the finger at Leeds because Leeds apparently needed to do it too for it to work and Leeds non involvement was key to why we weren’t getting a reserve League this last few years. Cue Leeds potentially getting relegated and now those same opposition fans are saying it would make no difference to the main league. Just because you don’t want to or generally can’t see it that Leeds’ presence is significant doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Is that a hypothetical question or are you saying Leeds on TV means the potential to double the audience?

I trust you've got the viewing figures ? why not post them so we can all see how much more Leeds bring to Sky.

Not many people actually watch the advert breaks, Working class people in pubs get th’ale in or go for a slash. Those at home raid the fridge, wash up or send the kids to bed. People like you probably get the Butler to do all that and probably watch the match for you as well.

Genuine question here.....did the inclusion of the 2 South African sides generate any "extra media" for Union? I suspect Toronto will get some press if they get promoted....then radio silence will be as usual in the off season, followed by a couple of media blasts at the start of the season and then normal service will be resumed....anyone who thinks Toronto are the answer either wasn't listening to the question or doesn't understand it.

I can't see anything other than London going down this year, with the highest points tally of any side to finish bottom, which is a shame really, because they've shown some real guts and teamwork this year and they'll have all their best players stripped away and will have to rely on their kids to survive next year.

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/re ... s-in-2019/

https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/re ... s-in-2019/

That near enough proves my opinion in that Castleford and Hull are the new kids on the block to join Wigan, Warrington and Saints. For Leeds there is just no attraction rugby wise and are losing stature at a great speed of knots.

I'm one of those who think that if Leeds finish bottom their will be a rule change to stop them being relegated. It could be along the lines that whoever wins the Championship Grand Final will not be promoted with some rarely known rule.
I don't think Hull KR, London or Wakey will be afforded that luxury.

If Leeds go down, I think it would be good for Rugby League and the Championship.

Lets be honest, they have been more in the middle 8's more than most in the last few years and have basically 'floated' in terms of being in S/L.

My head says though that it will be London which is a shame. They have punched above their weight with a team to be fair, poorer than the Leigh side that got relegated (after finishing 11th !) and a team better than Widnes that got relegated last year.

People feel that the quality of S/L isnt as good this year, but I honestly think that some Championship teams are simply catching up to supers leagues level. Its going to be really interesting to see how both leagues pan out come September.

Apart from Winning it less than 2 years ago that is.


Look we are a poor team at the moment and there's many factors that has led to us being in the position we are in, if we finish bottom we deserve to go down, its as simple as that.

I just don't think that would be a good thing for SL, losing the best supported club in one of the biggest cities isn't good IMO I would say this if it was any of the so called 'bigger clubs' as well, losing Warrington, Wigan, Saints, Hull FC, Catalan, Cas would not benefit SL.

I don't particularly want London to go down as it will be a shame.

Personally I think it's actually a great opportunity to go to 14 teams, I'm not even sure who would be complaining about it. Let's say SL announce today that relegation is scrapped and we are going to a 14 team league for next year with straight home and away fixtures. No one goes from SL so we keep London (and yes Leeds) Toronto automatically gain promotion and the championship playoff goes from 1-5 to 2-6.

Who loses out in that scenario? the Championship clubs now have a better shot at promotion, SL keeps its teams including London who can build on the 'Success' of this year and Toronto come in plus another Championship side.

The idea of relegation in SL is inherently flawed as we don't have an even handed fixture list at the moment.

I think that means sod all when its basically a one way street they might have the greatest home attendances albeit a declining one but they bring nothing by way of away fans to bolster other clubs ticket sales. When you compare the away fans of Hull, Warrington, Wigan and Saints they are in a different league compared to Leeds. Obviously you have to consider the Fickle Fans Factor but the away support of the Leeds fans is just plain abysmal and doesn't reflect the so called high and mighty mentality of their fans on this forum.

And the rest of my points?

Its not about being high and mighty it’s about being pragmatic

Leeds will bring more away support than a lot of clubs especially London, Catalan and Toronto but then I’m a firm believer that it’s up to a club to bolster their own support not away support.

Leeds have had 3 out of 4 seasons being frankly rubbish yet they remain the best supported club, losing that is not good for SL as a whole.

You may have noticed from my many previous posts regarding Toronto that I dont believe that they (or any other N. American sides should be in SL).
However, although there will be very little coverage in the press, where RL is a taboo Northern Sport, there will be interest amongst the fans, just as there has been with them in The Championship and if they were to replace Leeds, there may be little overall effect to attendance numbers- despite their lack of an away following - which is totally understandable given that nobody could reasonably fund 12-15 trips over the Atlantic to watch their side play every other week.
The derby games with Leeds would be heavily affected but, overall, there really may not be too much in it and of course, if they replace one of the smaller clubs, attendances would increase overall.
However, unless they are successful in SL, the spike in interest will likely fall and the real point of interest will be that, IF they start to get beaten regularly, what will happen to their home attendance.
As for London going down, I'm not so sure.
They are, at least, fighting for points in every game and right now, it's a genuine 5 club dog fight.
Huddersfield look a lot safer and Trinity less so but, a couple of wins would see any of the current 5 hit safety. It's just a matter of which club fails to get the 2 victories.

As other CAS fans have said.... If only we could of kept our recent good league record Vs Leeds into this season.... They could be 4 points behind London now.

I think London will be the team to drop. Losing to Wakey in the last game.