I hope it doesn't take over the 'best Wigan team ever' threads.

I dont care as long as the kit thread stays

As long as I've got photoshop, the kit thread will live on.

BT have announced they have acquired the rights the broadcast the champions league from 2015, outbidding ITV and SKY paying £897m - serious money. Now that SKY has lost this franchise wouldn't it be in its interests to inject a little money into SL ? This may lead to more matches being played mid week but is that a bad thing? No doubt SKY will still charge its customers the same price without CL but it needs to maintain is market share and SL has high viewing figures. This is good timing in regards to the "breakaway" clubs, is now the time to push SKY all the way?

It's a game changer, for sure. Sky now have a chunk of money that hasn't been invested and a big gap in their (unfortunately, winter) programming. It will be interesting how they respond strategically, and they almost certainly will.

Could be a great opportunity for RLs power men to get them over a barrel - if they've got the brass balls to do it - and demand more money. Interesting times ahead.

We need somebody like BT to come in and show a genuine interest in us because if they do that it will put us in a really strong position when it comes to trashing out any new deal with Sky.

Fingers crossed.

Yes I think I would agree. I initially thought BT might go the way of the other Sky competitors, but apparently they now have 2m subscribers signed up and their consumer division is making money again. So it is looking as though we now have a real competition for sport broadcasting in the Uk...... only problem, the Sky deal lasts until the end of 2016 and anything can happen between now and then.

That is plenty of time for RL to gets its act together ready to negotiate a new deal. There needs to be some competition for the sports viewing rights. One bidder = sport sold on the cheap.

If Sky are the only interested party there won't be any negotiations. Sky will set the price.

Despite the harsh times economically there is clearly money sloshing around in terms of TV rights and I have no faith in Wood and Co having the skills to maximise the amount RL can gain in 2016. IL and Co have got to get the sport to into a position where we have at least two bidders if the RFL can't (or won't).

The RFL have two options. They can sell their rights as they always have and hope that the competition will force the price up.

Or they can go to Sky and basically say you have lost all this content, you have space and money, we want it, what do you want from us so we can have it? Nothing is off the table. Offer them unparalleled access to the players and coaching staff, before, during and after games, if Sky want Barrie Mac in the changing rooms directly after a game talking to players, that’s what they can have, if they want to interview the captain in the changing rooms before the games, go ahead. If they want a new midweek cup comp, a 9’s comp fine. If they want the game played as 4 x 20minute quarters to fit in 2 extra ad breaks do it.

The Champions League viewing figures weren’t miles out from SL’s. Sky were spending £100m a year on it, if we can do similar if slightly lower figures for half the price, then its win win. £50m would probably pay for 2 or 3 real expansion sides, make most SL clubs profitable, with a bit left over for investment in the grass-roots and a the hand out to the lower leagues they have been begging for.

Thought the BT deal was for European matches not Domestic matches.

And bring in the draft system, allow forward passes, helmets, shoulder-pads & 10 minute time-outs - are you mad man ?!

Games in France, Australia, and even here during the summer have a drinks break at about 20minutes already. Why not formalise something we already do if we can make money from it?

I would have no problem with a draft.

You can't have a draft here without the removal of all junior player development from clubs into some sort of unrelated centrally controlled system.

You would have to close down Wigan's academy and initiatives like Central Park would become pointless.

Unless of course you are advocating the clubs that do produce good players from their academies (such as Leeds, Wigan and Saints) allow others first pick in a draft system of the next batch of their junior players should the senior team win the GF! That would mean Cas, Wakey or Salford etc would get to sign Hampshire rather than us. That'll work......

Yeah. Ryan's next point of call - approx 10 seconds after being told he's going to Wakey - would be whichever RU club is first to pick up the phone.

All the other star kids would probably do it after a bit more deliberation - 15 seconds.

Yeah, I think you would have to remove it from the clubs. My preferred option would be for the RFL to take control up to 17 focussing on producing the best players rather than the best teams, using some amateur ‘super clubs’ where we invest in their facilities and coaching, at 17 they go to championship clubs, and at 19 to a draft.

I think that would be a far more efficient way of bringing talent through for a few reasons.:
1 it would mean the focus of a players training would be on making him the player he could be, rather than the player a club needs
2 It would mean that at a young age they would be playing in a higher standard of competition
3 it would mean a club could take the player it needs rather than what it has.
4 we would have a better distribution of talent throughout the league
5 that spread of talent would improve the quality of the league and as such improve the quality of the player.

A good example at Leeds would be wing and prop. Leeds have struggled to find props to come through the system, Singleton has been identified as a special talent and is being brought through now but he is pretty atypical. Wing on the other hand Leeds have seen a silly amount of talent. Since 05 Leeds have brought through Smith, Hall, BjB, Broughton, Fox who have all been in and around England squads, as well as the likes of Sunley and Chisholm who just didn’t make it.

The game would have been far better served if the likes of BjB, Broughton and Fox had come through at clubs who needed a winger (and who probably covered that position with some of multitude of awful overseas wingers we have seen) and Sunley and Chisholm would probably have had a bit more effort put into them if they were the best option at a lesser club, rather than being the 5ht or 6th option at Leeds. Leeds could have also addressed the prop position and probably avoided the likes of O’niell and Cross being brought over.

Club affiliations would be lost in certain areas, but be replaced in part by England/county/rep affiliations and the RFL being able to cast a wider, deeper, longer term, more altruistic net.

Yeah, im sure Hampshire would sit there thinking ‘ you mean I get to play first grade and don’t need to travel across the country every day, I can just travel 1 junction of the motorway, sod that. I demand to do something I haven’t learned and that is more inconvenient’.

Its surprising that Gareth Ellis and Ben Westwood managed to avoid simply throwing their contracts in the air and stomping off to RU when they weren’t gifted that amazing, wonderful benefit of their workplaces being miles away from their houses.

How is he supposed to progress, playing behind a beaten pack and being given substandard training and coaching?

The same way Ellis, Westwood, Brough, Clark, Shenton, Myler, Ratchford, et al did.

they didnt until they moved to better clubs

Yeah, because the travelling is more or a concern than having a career. Ryan clearly didn't think so when he turned his back on his home town club some time ago.

Seriously, don't make the mistake of thinking RU can't offer something very enticing. The overwhelming evidence thus far is that they can and do. Imagine the advantage we'd give them if our star kids were getting palmed off to bottom-feeder clubs with zero facilities or ambitions so they could play 'first grade' in a team facing defeat most weeks.

Until all SL clubs offer equivalent opps for youngsters to play at the highest level, in front of good sized crowds, in top quality stadia, earning proper money, and with at least a reasonable chance of winning something each season - you can forget the draft.

Yes they did. Everyone knew Ellis was a good player before he left Wakefield, otherwise they wouldn't have been in for him

Ryan Hampshire was not going to go to union if Wigan weren't in for him. It isn't Wigan keeping him in RL.

Wigan or Wakefield is a massively different choice to Wakefield or RU, the fact he chose Wigan is in now way whatsoever an indication he would have chosen RU. Talent distribution such as the draft is an effort to get all teams in with a chance of winning, increasing crowds, and getting more playing at a high-level. If all teams were in with a chance of winning every year, if they were all equal at the beginning of every year we wouldn't need a draft because whatever we were doing was already working, the talent would already be distributed.

And he wouldn't be being palmed off to a club getting beaten every week because pretty much by definition, giving Wakefield better players would make Wakefield better.

I didnt say good I said progress...

But what if Hampshire didn't want to go to Wakefield even if his brother was playing there?