Surely, the return of promotion and relegation will see crowd numbers surge

Free entry, naked playboy cheerleaders and handicaps wouldnt see attendances surge

Free beer on top of those above might but unlikely to happen



Hard work and investement coupled with long term planning will work, however it also requires a different mind set to what we generally see, far too much importance is placed upon ' on ' field performance ,that is the responsability of the coaching staff ,the management of clubs should be more focused on running their ' businesses'

Unfortunatly that is boring and not the reason they got involved in the 1 st place ,but many then dont want to employ the right people to do that job, or to provide them with the budgets needed, quite often the term ' successful businessman ' is used to describe the people charged with running clubs, but just because a person has been fortunate or lucky in the timing of their personal business doesnt mean they have a clue how to run a loss making black hole like a sports club

How are you supposed to invest long term with the hardwork and skill necessary, how are you supposed to plan long term, and execute that plan and prioritise the investment in 'the business' leaving the 'on field' performance to the coaching staff (i agree with this principle by the way) when your long term plan and investment can be massively undermined, if not devastated by the loss of income and exposure guaranteed by relegation?'

You mean like real businesses in the real world?

Outside of sport I know of no industry with anything comparable to relegation.

But if no one wants to watch the product because the games are meaningless, you can't run a business.

Yes crowds haven't surged yet, we still have the horrible ridculous 8 team play-off system. Also not really relegation threat as Bradford and London are down.

Personally don't think the new structure will work as the same teams will be split year after year.

The RFL should have swallowed their pride and gone back to structure that worked before licensing. But no the RFL had to be innovative and we have a structure I really don't think will work.

The structure prior to licensing didnt work, it was proven not to work. The system before licensing was a failure and that is accepted by all within the game.

You can at least give a little credit to the the rfl for trying something that is unlikely to work rather than going back to something we know didnt work.

So poorly performing businesses dont find their incomes reducing?




You're losing it again

bloody hell that is an awful argument.

Surely even you cant think that has scored you the 'point' you are looking for

three posts it has taken you from telling us that clubs should be run ans businesses and owners should focus on the business side of things and leave the coaching to the coaches before then arguing any club which is relegated is poorly run and like any poorly run business will see a reduction in income

I give the RFL no credit for this idea as I stand by my contention that this new setup is simply the illusion of P&R rather than actual P&R. Unless the salary cap is adjusted so that it's the same for both SL and Championship clubs there's little to no chance of a Championship club breaking into the SL monopoly.

So you want Bradford to go bust in the Championship as well as SL?

Marvelous

Every 'real world' company is exposed, state run aren't

RL and other sports clubs businesses are exposed in exactly the same way as those other companies without relegation.

Relegation is a huge added risk that simply has nothing comparable in any other industry

In other industries there is nothing comparable to fans either.

Fans are different to customers. In the real world customers shop around for the best deal. In RL fans come and go but over a longer term and tend not to change who they support.

Also in other businesses the bottom line is key, not staffing performance awards.

Do I care as a shopper if ASDA staff win the equivalent of the challenge cup, will I turn up and cheer them to the town hall?

Will ASDA propose spending more on staff to increase customer attendances.

No.

Sport and business are not the same.

Sport is more akin to the arts.

Fans are exactly like customers. Fans don't change who they support, but they to decide whether to go to the game or not.

Each club only has a few thousand hardcore supporters who will turn up no matter what. The rest go because they enjoy the sport. If the sport is boring because there is no intensity or the product is poor, they will stop going. They will stop buying season tickets, merchandise which then has a knock on effect on TV deals, sponsorship etc

The challenge for clubs is to get families to decide to come to a game of rugby league, rather than take their family to the park, cinema etc

2 years a go Bradford got over 20k against Leeds. Last Sunday 5k watched them against Catalans. Them 15k fans haven't gone to watch another club. They have just become disillusioned with how the club has been incompetently mismanaged for last few years. The challenge for Bradford is to try get those fans back while paying the normal price.

I did say they come and go.

But they are not the same as customers.

If they are please point me to the forums where the customers of dixons tell management which staff to sack and hire next year.

Like I said sport is not a business, we like to think it is, but it is far from it. It's far more competitive than business.

3400 at Salford, Jesus! (and that's probably with Hull taking 500-1000). There are some areas in the UK where RL will simply never take off, no matter how hard you try, just a lot of different factors I guess.

Lets be fair last year the survived going bust.

This year is a lesson in expectations, they were getting 6000 when the talk was of top 4 and winning the league in 2 years.

But as reality has set in, all that money spent has shown that it's going to take time as well as money to build up to being playoff contenders.

Principles eh? Good job there are clubs with 10k averages to prop the smaller ones up!

As well as clubs with a very respectable 7000-8000 in a 250,000 population, compared to 1000 in an 8,000,000 population.

I'm sure you're right; after all no-one knows better what affects a side's attendances than its own fans.

What I've often wondered about Wigan's attendances is to what extent the apathy towards the regular season following your 2013 play off exit turned off non-core fans. The feeling that regular season fixtures were utterly pointless must have been hammered home to them in a big way. Likewise, I've also wondered whether it might have been a factor in players deciding to move on in the last couple of years. After all, in a rugby town like Wigan, players can hardly be unaware of fans' opinions.

The playoffs are always going to be an issue given that we run a pretty even league system along side it.

Next year with the fixtures being more uneven but only a top 4 in the playoffs, I'm hoping this will spark a bit more interest in the league without diminishing the GF concept.

In the end the GF provides the glory, but the league system provides the income.

I know. Arsenal get rubbish crowds compared to Alfreton Town don't they.

Re Salford, the doctor is maybe finally realising how much it costs to run a SL club and specifically how much it costs away from first team wages to build and run a decent club. And that he's going to need considerably more patience than he appears to have.

The league system is no different to how it was ten years ago, so I really don't get why people use that as an excuse to falling crowds.

The real reason I fear is the lack of quality out on the pitch. We've lost English stars like the Burgess bros, graham, Tomkins to the NRL and also lost some stars to union - Eastmond being the big one from my POV. Also we haven't been able to attract the likes of Jamie Lyon since.

Imagine if you all watched NBA, Christ. 82 games before the play offs...but that doesn't stop me supporting the sport or my team. It's the stars within the game that keep me interested and seeing them perform so often is a pleasure even though the regular season means just as much as the SL regular season.

I was talking about teams in Superleague. Why bring championship clubs into it