No offence, but Mick Gledhill is hardly a top journalist!

When would you revoke it? Immediately? What if there's no-one else to come in?


With what money? What if the other clubs aren't happy with the governing body funding a SL club? Would that call into question their responsibility to be impartial?


A remit? It's just a word, it's not a plan. How would this be achievable?
It's about as effective as me saying "I would appoint a new SL Director with a remit to double turnover at all SL clubs".


Doesn't sound like a complete overhaul at all to me. Sounds exactly how it is at the moment!


How would you come to this decision? You're in charge, don't forget. If it's scenario dependent, what scenario would result in what system?


What is classed as real income? Why isn't director input counted as real income? Couldn't a director just sell sponsorship for a ridiculous price and count it as "real income"?

For all you profess to have the answers and slag off the people that run the game, this reply suggests there's a lot left to be desired. There are certainly HUGE holes in a lot of these answers.

SL is not the success Sky, RFL and Clubs are painting for various reasons like
1) Clubs struggling if not getting seriously in debt. Wakefield, Bradford, Crusaders are just the tip of the iceberg. Salford, Cas, London and Hull KR are struggling to not just compete but survive in SL. Even the likes of St.Helens lose a lot of money. Is this really how SL was meant to be?

2) Standards on the field in SL have not seen the chasing clubs move nearer to the top clubs, but rather the top clubs have seen their standards drop. The defence is still as poor by many teams as in previous years. And the intensity of games is still nowhere near what it should be. How many games are real tough and of a high quality similar to an average NRL game? Very few.

3) SL Clubs would still rather waste money on average or less NRL players than invest that money on academy players and bringing through youth. Even clubs like Leeds, Wigan and Hull do not spend enough on Youth and rather pay the kids peanuts and train a couple of times a week. Maybe if the youngsters were full time and do more training alongside the Uni/college work they would be better prepared for RL and standards would be better both for individuals and clubs. Clubs still look for the quick fix rather than spend time and money on youngsters. As per usual Clubs dont take Academy rugby seriously and are now looking to change things because clubs dont want to spend the money or invest in something they dont feel is important. Typical Short term thinking.

4) The Licence procedure is a joke. Its all done behind closed doors and its clear that something is not working when Bradford are giveb a "B" grade and a couple months later are announcing debts close to 2 Million and going in to administration. The Crusaders was also a real joke made worse by the RFL and Nigel Wood personally knowing the problems, but chose to ignore what was going on and made empty promises to people who are still owed a lot of money. I cant say that the licence procedure is a success at all as it still has managed to miss severe problems in the game more than once. Halifax, (amongst other Championship clubs) make small profits and are deamed "ridiculous and not good enough for SL, meanwhile a number of Sl clubs are given praise and a licence and are losing hundreds of thousands a year and run badly. Sorry but that for me is something I cant accept and fail to see how licences have improved things that much.

I think SL needs a minimum standards, not just for clubs wanting to get in to SL, but also those currently in. For instance standards on ground, running of the club, Academy teams at U18 and U23 ( I think U20 should be changed to U23 and all clubs in British SL & Championship forced to run teams at these levels) etc should be part of the minimum standards, but why cant you also have P & R as well? If the Championship club fails to meet the minimum standards then they stay where they are with no relegation. No system is ever perfect, but more should be done to not just improve SL but Pro RL. But clubs like Fax, Fev, Leigh, Sheffield should be given the chance to play in SL if they meet the minimum standards but they also need to work hard alongside Sl clubs and not just left to feel they dont have much chance of ever seeing SL.
I dont think Nigel Wood and Ralph Rimmer are the right people to be running our game. They both have failed miserably when at SL Clubs and have left many unhappy people- some who have never returned due to how they did things at Halifax and Sheffield/Huddersfield. The way they treat people and seem to ignore many serious warning signs is a worry for me. I dont trust them and I know many friends who follow Sl clubs as well as Championship clubs dont either. The RFL really needs another person to run the game IMHO. Richard Lewis for me did many good things and has helped bring in extra money from various places. He was not perfect but probably the best leader the game in the UK has had. We need somebody similar to help the game at many levels and especially have a plan for all levels not just SL. Currently the Championship is a mess and the RFL come out with badly thought ideas like the Rail Cup, the recent Euro games etc. These ideas need to be better thought out and better planned.

I havent suggested that owners/directors cannot/could not put money into a club, just that they would have to spend more/work harder at creating non director income to become more self sustaining, ie like a ' real ' business, rather than a charity, it is that they would be judged on

This is a well thought intelligent post. Well done!

Nice to see instead of the usual bring back promotion and relegation shouting we see.

If you want a 50 page breakdown of the ' hows ' then sorry you wont be getting one, and my days of ' Smokey ' type individual proving of points is also over with, there is substance and plans to how things would be achieved, but I am not going to waste my life breaking them down for you on here

Read my post again, I didnt say real money, I said real income, income is what you ' earn ' , not what you are given

I don't want a 50 page breakdown. I just want you to add a little substance to what are very vague "solutions" to the game's problems, like "a remit to double attendances".

Here's my solution: Hire someone to make the game better in all areas.

SL has failed because:

1. Club RU has overtaken RL in crowds - this was not the case pre SL
2. We can no longer attract the gates to International matches we did pre SL - eg Wembley and OT test crowds in 90's
3. Fewer people now see RL due to selling our sole to Sky, as a consequence we cannot attract sponsors
4. The column inches in the national papers are at an all time low, even though the summer has fewer sports to report.
5. The game is divided, it wasn't pre SL
6. The challenge cup has been devalued due to the rush to establish the GF


RL is expanding its amateur base in new areas because:

1. RU allows RL teams to play at its facilities
2. RU doesn't ban RL players anymore
3. RL is now not banned in the Armed Forces
4. The RFL is able to access grants to support development

As I have put in other threads, the Championships needs localised marketing and community work to bring in their local populace, the clubs have neither the money personel or the expertise to do this, that is where the RFL should be looking to help clubs

They dont need midweek matches for no recompense, gaps of 3/4 weeks without games or meaningless matches against random French clubs, even the introduction of 4 new clubs all at once is a mistake IMO, although we only have 3 up to now

A bit vague there, who do you suggest?

Spot on.

And as I've said before, the money spent on the recent hugely unsuccessful European farce would have been much more effective if used to subsidise coaches for away travel for supporters of all CC/CC1 clubs.

Something I have suggested in the past, however it should be clubs working together on that particular idea, still dozens of better things the ' Euro ' money could have been used for though

Is everything in Planet maurice an equal and opposite reaction to something else? RU crowds have no direct relevance to SL and certainly how another sport is doing is not top of the list for judging how Rugby League is doing. One could just say SL is a success because its clubs are less financially stricken than the RU ones.

Interesting choice of words. Other sports negotiate big TV deals. RL "sells its sole (sic)". At club level can you remind us what the TV arrangements were before in 1994 or 1995? Oh, exactly the same as now? Except we get £££m for it now instead. Disaster.

The way you have framed this is like these facts somehow invalidate the progress made? Curious.

Don't wanna use the phrase "super league has failed", "super league is boring."

Wood et al. are very poor and won't even keep the game stable now that Lewis has gone, so heaven help us if they try to implement another 'expansion' idea any time soon. If you take a step back, its a shame the NRL doesn't decide to embrace expansion, and treat us in the UK as an expansion target. I'd rather be run by them, as some kind of second or third tier NRL, than be run by a few self-deluded windbags who consider themselves capable administrators.

Just a minor quibble with "...even though the summer has fewer sports to report."

I don't really thinks that's true. Yes, winter is slightly more dominated by football and RU than summer, but only just - both those sports have plenty going on in their now very short (especially football) off-seasons. And in terms of raw number of different sports, surely there's actually more in summer?

I'm not arguing for winter rugby, just saying that when, at the start of SL, people put forward this argument that we'd get more exposure because of the lack of competition from football and union, I thought that particular point was b0ll0cks then and I still do. Apart from anything else, arguably the two most newsworthy parts of the season (the beginning and end) both overlap with football and union in any case.

Do you think that would be enough to double all attendances though?

I agree that there needs to be someone in charge of running the two tiers of the Championship, and that it is a bit of an afterthought at times. I just think its important to set achievable and sensible targets rather than just throw a figure out there and expect it to happen.

It'd take a lot to double the attendances of the lower leagues.

Nonsense, I work for a charity and donations are financially classed as income. No reason that a sports club can not also have an income stream related to donations.

Did you forget that RU also went professional? How is Super League responsible for RU crowds growing?



Yet commercial revenue within the sport has never been higher.



How did you measure that?



What about BARLA?



Interest in the CC has dwindled because it's no longer the prime time competition. People are more interested in the league that they are in the cup because it's what they watch every week. That's common sense.

Barely and I trust RU crowd figures as much as I trust their WC viweing claims! Reality is more people now watch top division RL than ever before. How is that a failure?

Most Int games barely attracted 15k pre SL, one or two big Ashes or WC finals games did attract decent crowds but I am not sure you can balme SL for the failings of the RLIF? I do think losing the ashes and giving up GB was a bad mistake by the RLF and ARL though.

Really, enlighten me as to how many FTA games of RL a week where on TV pre SL? At least we now get a decent pay packet from TV.

Probably a fair comment though I doubt you have any facts to back this is up. RL generally has always marketed itself poorly everywhere. It is one of the bights of the game.

haha, the game has always been divided, it was born out of rebelion and division and it is in our nature!
Agreed but the customer is always right. A combination of the loss of the old Wembley and the same teams getting there every year is what has demised the comp imo. Add in more weekend away options, a changing generation that thinks nothing of juming on a cheap flight for a weekend in Berlin and the annual trip to the big city is no longer the attraction it used to be.

Do we want charities or businesses ?

Does it matter if they are sustainable?

If you want the sport to grow and be able to invest in the future for further growth , then yes it does