Thought we already played in the Winter.....

Ohh. Is this ok to ‘Discuss’ now……. On an RL Forum. It’s just I was lambasted by the Podcast King for starting this thread. How funny. Well seeing as now ‘Fourth hand chat’ is a discussion point I’ll bob my two pence in 


Allegedly,  according to a lot of Aus media, discussions with Peter V’landys and Wigan owner and Wire owner have Allegedly been going on for weeks and allegedly met up in vegas for discussions. I haven’t a clue like most what is going on but what ever potentially happens, I hope Trin are not adversely effected. 


The whole reason I started this thread was the fact that Matt Ellis himself discussed going to Manchester about an NRL thing and Brian Carney mentioning it on sky prior to a game. 

It's clearly being discussed in the media. How that turns out in reality who knows, but the one thing openly talked about is money so I would highly doubt the NRL and RFL would not want Matt and Wakefield in there.

Tbf it’s openly been talked about in the Aus media for Weeks. For me and not just as a Wakey fan, we should now have a seat at the head table with Ellis etc being at the helm. 

Interesting times. I've got no issue with NRL lending their administrative expertise, but I'm not sure what 33% of SL is worth in real terms. It's easy to look at the NRL (now the biggest sport in Australia across every metric aside from participation (swimming)), and think they could replicate that here. But I think they'd be astonished how difficult it would be to do that for reasons economic, cultural and demographic.

I know they've had a recent economic dip, but it's relative boom time in Australia. Put simply, people can afford more leisure time, merch and TV subscriptions. Their wages go further. Mike Meehall-Wood wrote a great - if not quite dense - article on it for Love Rugby League recently.


Culturally, there's no other nation on earth more obsessed with sport. It just takes up a bigger part of their national consciousness. There's also no real history of football (soccer) there which dominates our papers/sites/conversations. And there's less competition for broadcasting partnerships and media coverage more generally. 


I'm not really one for trashing the RFL every time there's an issue in the game (often it's clubs themselves or broadcasters), and in many ways I think they've made good strides in their presentation, but that's what the NRL would bring - how to package the game, present it on TV and social media, and hopefully negotiate a massively improved TV deal. On that, I disagree with 1315trinity: the money isn't there. That's the biggest problem in SL, that only clubs with wealthy benefactors who are willing to sink £1-3 million a year can survive or thrive. And the RFL itself runs on about £15m. Contrast that with RFU with £175m. The fact rugby league even has the footprint it does is incredible, and that's mostly because the fans, players and communities are sheer class. We need a massive improvement on the TV deal in 2027 to kick on - Robert Elstone couldn't do it, nor could Simon Jonson, and that's ultimately what's behind Nigel Wood's return, because the chairmen and more confident in him to broker a £40m+ deal again.


As for the league structure, the journalists covering it are simply pointing at clubs with the bigger brands and growth potential. Wigan, Leeds, Catalans, Saints, Warrington, Hull FC - sure. London and Toulouse with a ton of investment and years of sustainable growth - sure. But why Hull KR, who are going well at the moment but who are a fickle benefactor and 5 bad years away from collapse? From there it's a short hop to Wakefield, a club with big growth potential and a great brand. Similar for Leigh (but without the growth potential). And then you're at Huddersfield and Cas.


And on IMG, Trojan, I get the impression they'll continue with the gradings, but there'd just be less SL places available. With that we should still be confident. 

I agree with all that.


On the IMG thing I hope they keep it, even if they modify slightly.


It worries me that people think RFL will be able to make SL like their comp.
Firstly, it took them a long time to get there and second this is a very different market.


Money, admin skills and ideas will help massively but local knowledge is going to be vital.


And Sky seem to have lost their trust in us. I'm not sure how we get it back unless viewers increase. A lot.