https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/ This does not look to good, not sure the private equity deal would be a good thing either.

https://www.totalrl.com/super-league-re ... ghts-blow/ This does not look to good, not sure the private equity deal would be a good thing either.

Far from unexpected, but 1/3 cut from current TV income is going to make things tough. We'll not be the only sport with similar funding issues.

I would be very wary of this private equity investor. PE firms that are cashed up can take advantage of industries and businesses in crisis by solving their short-term cash flow crisis in exchange for owning large shares of their future. A quick google search suggests this investor is trying to do something similar with French RU. They could be viewing both codes of rugby as an expansion option where they can lock up a large share of ownership and dictate our futures.

There are also news stories about this firm's investment in a security firm that is using spyware to track investigative journalists for authoritarian regimes.

Plus Super League is being asked to pay £750k fee just for the privilege of being "introduced" to this investor?

Something tells me that this investment is not going to prioritise developing the game of rugby league and preserving its traditions.

The equity funds are about making money for their investors ,they would strip Super League bare to maximise THEIR returns. Now I’m not saying that’s a bad thing bad thing but given our sports situation right now it’s not good for us. The £60 million would be squandered.

~£7m a year (based on the new TV deal) in perpetuity for £60m upfront sounds like a great deal for them. I wonder if they need any more investors, I like the idea of that.

With a ROI like that you could question whether they would do the thing required to improve future TV deals as they could just be happy as it is. Although any increases they help to generate, they get a nice percentage of, so you never know.

Also, need to consider the PE exit strategy. Would the SL clubs ever be in a position to buy them out?

I think I read that the NRL was also interested in taking an investment in SL ?

I think I would only go for the PE deal if SL was about to financially fold. As it stands we are not exactly a booming sport with outstanding potential, so we are clearly only going to get a raw deal. One third of £20m each year is around £7m so the PE would recoup their monies in 9 years and still have their hooks into us.

One final thought, surely SL should consult with the fans if they are considering this avenue of funding ? We may not be shareholders but they are certainly dependant on our loyalty and spending to support the game.

That would be fairly normal, but I agree with cautioning about PE.

....and we kick out a team that we’re self funding and giving the other 11 teams it’s share plus extras.

It's perhaps another thread/debate but I think they effectively 'walked' rather than were kicked out and as for self funding that didn't seem to add up and to continue the cricketing parlance what "extras"?

As far as Sky are concerned, on one hand I can't blame them as a business paying as little as possible for a product as they are effectively bidding against themselves most of the time.

However, it does seem a little disingenuous to say the least to flog that product to within an inch of its life, marginalising it instead of fully marketing it, whilst proclaiming it to be 'the greatest show on earth' to an audience that it limits by its own product placement.

Sooner or later something will give and I don't think that it bodes well for the sport PE or not

We really need to be selling to another broadcaster IMO. This is awful of sky and they've messed us around in recent times with Thursday matches etc,they had loads of games last season out of rugby league as well. I honestly think that sky believe that superleague/ the rfl don't have the backbone to consider changing broadcasters so they are taking the pee a bit with their offer. I dont think we can afford to see a drop like this in the cap without seeing a mass dilution of the rl talent in the UK to the NRL and Union. A huge backward step.

go back 18 -24 months, fitzpatrick and the club saw this happening, and tried to implement a plan of A getting more s on seats, B, more social media and wider media attention, and ergo, better viewing figures.

Trying to make SL a much more cooler and important product. in advance of the negotiations Sadly none of the other clubs followed suit, a lot fans have used it as a stick to beat him/us/the club with,and now here we are.

Sometimes its worth looking at the bigger picture.

covid notwithstanding

I don't think anybody on here would object to the idea of promoting the club better and making the product more attractive to get fans in. The scepticism was that KF was going about it the right way.

Lets say you're running a pizza chain and the punters say your pizzas are not what they used to be a few years ago and are boring and predictable now.

At a board meeting, one of your directors says, OK lets focus on getting our core product right, focus on the pizzas. Lets change our head chef and switch up our menus. We need to review why our recruitment of staff has not been as good as our competitors, so lets get a new HR director in. We need to look at why our apprenticeship programme doesn't seem to deliver enough chefs coming through, get someone on that. The goal should be to outcompete our rivals on the strength of our core product and make our pizzas the best quality and most varied and interesting on the market.

Another director says, I agree the pizza quality is not acceptable and must improve. But I want to focus on getting the best eat-in experience in our stores. And I want an edgy social media strategy that gets us more interactions on Twitter by doing wind ups of other pizza chains. I don't just want us to be the best pizza chain, I want us to be one of the biggest commercial brands in the world.

Which approach do you prefer.

For at least a couple of season ago, It wasn't difficult to envisage the Sky deal being a massive issue. Why? because of two things, the game has become a very boring 80 minutes worth of 17 players trying to run over the other sides 17 players. There's no skill, excitement or character left in it, coupled with the demise of the individual standard skill set of players, has left us with an inferior product.

Unfortunately there are no other broadcasters who could come close to the £20m on offer from Sky.

its been that way in the most for about 10 years, add in the loop fixtures and over exposure of playing the same teams.

Which is replicated on here, go back about 15 years ago before franchising and promotion and relegation (new teams) were removed for a while and on here was a warzone in the week leading up to saints wigan or widnes games, the boards were unreadable due to trolling and arguing and back and forth, bans handed out left right and centre,

Most clubs have been asleep at the wheel since they were gifted a stack of money back in 2015/16 when the last tv deal was almost forced upon the league, in a lot of cases, just existing with dwindling current supporters, almost in a similar position to where they were at the inception of SL

maybe he was, maybe he wasn't but the point at the time was he was trying to be proactive in terms of promotion and trying to encourage 11 other SL clubs to get their finger out collectively and realise they can't just coast, because it was going to bite the compeition in the .

You'll have the likes of wakey KR and cas who are dependent on SL funding, what have they done for the league.we had wigan begrudgingly joining in, saints sort of letting us do some stuff and cas and Leeds outright saying they dont want to be involved.

Granted SLE should be taking the lead on this from the top.

What I think you are saying is that more play makers are needed?

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive but if you are going to wind up the opposition in any market you'd ideally make sure that your product was top notch otherwise you'll look foolish.

I'm sorry for the derailed thread but taking your pizza analogy further, I'd suggest that our board does generally give the chef the most expensive ingredients. If the customers are still dissatisfied, the question is have we got the right chef or has the board been buying him too much pineapple when he's been asking for peperoni

Yeh off thread again but PINEAPPLE on a pizza is wrong on any level.

Questions would have to be asked about the buying team. Are they using the right suppliers? Are they driving a good deal or getting taken advantage of by suppliers?

Agreed.

So Sky have used RL to promote their politics and now bent them over a barrel, that’s gratitude.
Sky can swivel and please don’t sign the private equity deal whatever happens.

It might be a big gamble but I think the RFL should try and agree a short term TV deal.
Apart from crowds being allowed back in the stadium the best thing that could happen for RL in this country would be that England win the RL World Cup.
I know it is a big if but we were an ankle tap away 3 years ago and even though the aussies have some great players I am not sure that they have the same attitude as the Smith, Slater, Thurston etc etc era.
If England can pull off a win in the world cup then the value of the TV deal would increase dramatically
It would just be the luck of Northern Hemisphere RL that they agree a bargain basement TV deal and we win the world cup but in the same year the England Football team go and win the European Championship and we go and grab a bucket load of Olympic medals so get no exposure at all and have already signed up to a TV.

Just imagine though if France made it through to world cup Semi final and England won it whilst the football team get dumped out of the Euros at the group stage and the Olympics were not our finest hour. I don't think it would on the scale as the interest in RU after Wilkinson stuck over that drop goal in 2003 but in terms of a shot in the arm it would be massive. We might be able to move on from Batchelors mushy peas to Fray Bentos pies sponsoring the SL or maybe even Bisto gravy.

It's amazing really how ,back in the 60s ,BBC 2 used RL as a shot in the arm to get it underway & sky did the same but now sky barely pay the game lip service in their promotional advertising.
Perhaps a major problem money wise is that sky funds are needed elsewhere to compete with other networks to provide coverage of what have been marketed as & turned into international sports with global appeal ....football ,motor racing ,cricket ,the other ruggah, golf & more recently the women's versions of all those sports. Sports that attract worldwide spectators & worldwide betting opportunities & 24 hours viewers somewhere in the world.

Sadly, from what was used as a crutch to get sky up & running, over the years our game has been dictated to & marginalised to the status of shelf filler in its schedules.

You only have to look at how much money is poured into football in the UK by Sky ,BT ,& Amazon & others to get the matches to sell subscriptions to potential viewers & advertisers & not to forget the betting revenue.