The RFL persist with these games because Sky demand it.

The crowd figures for these games continue to decrease.

Sky ditch RL because people have become disassociated with the clubs and the RFL are left penniless.

RFL - Show some backbone. Thursday night games, whilst filling a scheduling gap on Sky, are actually devaluing the sport.

I know it is difficult to get to games, but I like my Thursday TV games.

What they should have done is only make Thursday games local games (Within an hour), we have Widnes on a Thursday again, which is silly. We really should only play Rovers, Cas and Wakey on a Thursday. Widnes only Saints, Warrington, Salford and Wigan etc.

I'm glad they are staying this year.

I like that idea, don't see the problem with it.

When you have a 2 hour round trip for your home games and you're a season pass holder, it's a BIG problem. Should I just quit supporting my club? Of course not. But it's a massive inconvenience, especially considering I also have 2 school age boys who also have season passes.

Can anybody state the true viewing figures for these games? Is it really worth a dip in gate attendance money and possible dip in season pass sales?

Is is a faster round trip on a friday night?

Football has Fridays and Mondays doesn't seem to affect them. The sponsors pump the money in and get what they want

Not a fan of Fridays either. Sundays is for RL. But at least you don't necessarily have to worry about school or work the next day on a Friday night.

One of the biggest problems with Thursday matches is that it's an awful timeslot with often three or four other live sports taking place at the same time. Many of the Thursday night matches have been on Sky Sports 3 or 4 this year. So not only is it bad for RL, it's bad for Sky as well and massively reduces viewing figures and interest. To be honest I'm partially convinced that they are doing it on purpose in order to try and marginalise RL, it seems like that has been Sky's agenda for some time TBH.

Modern sport is about TV games.

The more the better imo, I want to see a Thurs,Fri,Sun and Monday games like the NRL.

Clubs should not be relying on away support for decent crowds.

Also 200k watching at home is more valuable to sponsors than a couple extra thousand away fans at the ground.

Yes, but who wants to watch a sport with no atmosphere because the terraces are empty? If the game has no atmosphere, people won't watch on TV either. The other argument is that true fans know they would rather experience singing on the terraces than vegging on the settee. Making games on Thur night makes that difficult for home as well as away supporters.

millions of people watch premier league football, with full stadiums and no atmosphere,even for the big games and derby games, so not sure that will hold sway?

The RFL? Grow a backbone? You'd have more chance of walking on water.

Quite frankly I would've scrapped the SKy deal and go with either BBC or BT. It would've meant less money but at least the sport wouldn't be at the beck and call of Sky and whoever the effin' producer for Sky RL is.

The game would go to the wall without SKY cash.harsh but simple truth.

But TV wants a reasonable crowd at the game otherwise TV isn't bothered.

It isn't away support that's the real issue, it's home fans. Friday nights work well because there's no school for kids and no work for a lot of people. Thursday's and Monday's obviously don't have that.

You can get away with a couple a season but you can't have too many at one club or it will definitely affect club finances.
Obviously through ticket sales but also the knock-on effect of that through lower food, drink & merchandise sales and eventually through lower sponsor income.

If Leeds average crowd drops from say 16k to 14k then Leeds Building Society won't pay the same as they did when it was advertising to 12.5% more people.

As long as it's not too many for one club and as mentioned they should be local games when possible then ok, but otherwise we have to be very careful.

Like Headhunter, im also getting increasingly suspicious of Sky's commitment to RL anymore.

Yeah, have Sunday lunch time matches for Sky instead of Thurdays, 2.00pm kick off.

And that is the problem.

It works for other sports.

At the end of the day we are a second rate sport and have to accept that. Football is the flagship sport on SKY (TV) everything else works around it, RL, speedway, boxing, Union club rugby.......

The RFL should have broken the rights up so for instance tier 1 would get 2 live games a week and would have the pick of the games. Tier 2 would be 1 live game per week. The tier 2 deal could be sold to fta channels. Just a thought.

Does it? I don't see much Aviva Premiership on mid-week? It seems to be mostly Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

No ones suggesting RL is bigger or more important than football. Just that there shouldn't be too many Thursday or Monday night games and the ones that are should be scheduled sensibly.

Actually we are [ithe[/i second rate sport, the second highest rating domestic sport on Sky traditionally. And a lot of our season happens to be at a time when there is no football, so virtually no competition on a Saturday. As I've already mentioned, Sky have a plethora of live sport on Thursday nights, much moreso than an average Saturday in the summer. They also didn't have any issue with showing the Catalans home matches and the Middle 8s matches in a respectable Saturday timeslot even when the football season was underway. It's not that Sky are unable to televise SL matches in a weekend slot, just don't want to for reasons only known to them. And I can only assume these are the same reasons that they have employed laughable, embarrassing pundits like Stuart Cummings and Terry O'Connor, scrapped all supplemental RL programming, virtually eliminated RL coverage on Sky Sports News etc.

It will be interesting to see what Sky decide to do when they lose the Saturday night football slot in the next football season.

RL did have a run on Saturday nights and, aside from Championship football, there's probably not too much it can use to attract users from BT Sport. At the moment that use the Championship in the lunchtime slot, but football tends to lend itself more to lunchtime KOs (due to many matches being moved for policing reasons anyway).

But ultimately, the sport (like many others) relies very heavily on Sky. It's our biggest source of revenue and in return for that, they're entitled to have some say in scheduling. For all those saying we should go with other broadcasters, there is little to no indication that:
a) they were massively interested in the first place.
b) that they wouldn't do exactly the same thing (even Premier Sport shunted Championship RL to Thursday nights).
c) that clubs would be able to absorb any hit in revenue.

As a club, Rovers' preferred matchday is a Sunday. In 2016 we have 3 Thursday games, 5 Friday games and 4 Sunday games. The Thursday games are the reason Sunday fixtures are harder to accomodate because of player safety and giving rests between games (even though Easter is somehow always ignored). I can almost take Friday games but not Thursdays.

As Him stated, this is not about away fans, its about the home crowd and season pass holders. We as paying supporters continue to get a raw deal from the RFL. I realise that Sky are keeping the game afloat, but if they decide to quit because of a decline in viewing figures/interest, the game will be left in ruins and clubs will also have degraded their own fan base.

Personally, whilst I love my club and stay loyal, Superleague as a product is on very dodgy ground.

So I ask again, how do Thursday viewing figures compare to their weekend equivalents? Are these games simply fillers for the Sky schedule or are they really promoting the sport?

I agree 100% it was not untill I read this post that I checked our fixtures & as most games are night time 8pm I now will not get a season pass & doubt I will attend anymore games after 53 seasons it is a sad day but I can't see me ever going again.

Out of interest, how many home games did you attend last season?

Four & the game at KC that was mainly because of work & late changes of match days by Sky it was a waste of a season ticket. I will be retired by the start of the season but I don't wan't to be out late at night it is not the way I live. It is not the cost & it has realy upset me as I have followed Rovers a long time.

I think why people are up in arms is because they know in advance we only have 4 Sunday games at home. We only had 4 in the first 23 rounds last season but, most were changed with not much notice.