14 teams is the way to go for me, the sooner these boring loop games go the better.

Seriously dont think they have a clue where to go next other than push a fourteen team League

I know lets remove 10000 seats before every home game
IMG are a joke.
Lets get back to playing rugby and make sure its what happens on the field that counts.
These idiots have backed themselves into a corner now London have been promoted and their only way out is to increase S/L to fourteen clubs which from a finance point S/Lclubs wont let it happen.
Ill say it again when the RFL wake up to this IMG nonsense and see their imput is worth diddly squat this 12 year deal will be over in three

probably put Grade A on the shirts now

but winning the Championship didnt do Featherstone any good with a 10.65 grading

Just think of those extra points if Schneider could find touch a simple penalty.

And the 38 years of hurt would have been over.

But he didn't and it's not.

Dave K wins the internet!

Only 0.125 pts for a challenge cup win, same as having LED advertising boards at your ground!

Tbf they don't even have them

good post from a Leigh supporter who can see the light


Woohoo, Leeds are Champions of Super League despite having a crap team. How on earth can anyone call this game a sport anymore. It's an effing joke. Doesn't matter what you do on the field, an Excel spreadsheet will decide your future. They will kill the end of season games and I fear for the clubs left out. Some of the teams above us are a joke, especially Toulouse and Wakey. Last person out please switch the lights off. They should bin IM effing G before they kill the game.

Roll on Derek and his investors new league Ultimate Rugby. Super League or whatever IMG rename it - I suggest Droopy league - died today.

According to a journalist (I forget his name) the Craven Streat experience impressed IMG.

Bribed with free cheeseburgers. This is corruption and I hope the RFL are looking in to it.

It's about raising minimum standards across the sport.

Teams shouldn't be penalised for missing out on a major trophy, but they should be for not having simple things that have a commercial value as well as making the sport look more professional to the outside world.

Craven street is honestly awful… I attended a game with my grandfather who is a rovers fan and wasn’t impressed at all…. But if spare land they’ve shoved a few burger vans on.

Think we need to give IMG a chance. The game has been stale for 50 years. Heres a message from my same grandad about the state of the sport:

It’s strange to say but Rugby League has hardly grown since the early 50s, if at all. There were 30 teams, sometimes 32 in the old Rugby League table and, in total, about the same now. There were teams like Streatham and Mitcham, Merthyr Tydfil, Acton and Willesden, Liverpool City, Huyton, Brighouse Rangers, Nottingham City and many many more. Many with NO rugby league tradition. Only the traditional ones live on, it seems. So what is the powers that be doing wrong? It’s a strange one eh? The North, and RL territory, in particular, is a puzzle. What do you think?

I actually think Maurice Lindsay had the right idea when SL started that we needed teams in big cities but suggesting mergers put everyone off. Had the game really focused on Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Hull who knows where it might be now.

RLs always had an odd terriotory tho, big in Wigan but not in Bolton up the road, popular across Cumbria but not Carlisle etc that holds us back

Are the actual scores by metric available anywhere? Read a couple of articles but they just seem to be speculation about category performance, not specifics.

Doesnt seem like they are releasing the specifics, I suppose for now they are draft grades to give the clubs chance to improve over the next year

It's always been the single biggest challenge for the sport, how to change the demographic of its fanbase. Specifically, how to get it into the major cities and sporting catchment areas.

Unfortunately, that requires not only significant investment, but also investment over a sustained period of time, and it's investment the game simply doesn't have, especially in these financially straitened times. Expansion is hardly on the agenda for most areas of business in 2023/24 let alone one as cash-strapped as RL with a too narrow concentrated audience.

I think you're right, the time to make a move like this was in 1996, not 2023, I think it's far too late now, the ship has long sailed for it to happen to any meaningful degree.

Erm, has anyone else noticed that a Rugby League World Cup has been cancelled in France due to lack of funding and Rugby Union have filled stadia in the same country with theirs. There’s the rub, we not only compete with RFU but the major sport in this country, football. RL was born from RFU clubs having to cut costs to survive, cutting 2 players (flankers) to save costs and we’ve been doing it ever since.

I think it's up to the clubs to release them individually, some have

I’m not interested in a squabble about who’s bigger or better in Hull, both clubs getting an A grade is good news.

But Craven streat is far from awful. Let’s not over complicate it in that it’s some luxury bespoke dining option, but what it is is an opportunity for the club to generate additional revenue which would either be spent elsewhere or not at all. It’s also great for the fan experience - live music, street food options, kids activities etc. It becomes much more of an event and much more memorable for the fan - equating to an increased spend and increased chance of return. We’ve now seen charities getting involved promoting there issues, we have seen pop up retail stores from other brands, and we have seen social media figures & “influencers” (No, me neither) gaining social media traction after visiting. All of that is a net positive for the club and to a lesser extent wider game.

It’s why most clubs are trying to replicate something similar

Quote ="Whatamidoinghere?"Craven street is honestly awful… I attended a game with my grandfather who is a rovers fan and wasn’t impressed at all…. But if spare land they’ve shoved a few burger vans on. '" Think it's a bit more then that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-L6ebFRUIw

Quote ="Whatamidoinghere?"Craven street is honestly awful… I attended a game with my grandfather who is a rovers fan and wasn’t impressed at all…. But if spare land they’ve shoved a few burger vans on. '" Think it's a bit more then that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-L6ebFRUIw

Rugby League will be here in the same guise as it was before, when IMG are no longer involved. The sooner the better as well. Clueless yanks.

The cancellation of the France World Cup is sadly typical RL. Both French teams made their grand finals this year, stadiums and training grounds in France have just had a spruce up for the Union WC and Olympics...im pretty sure if most games were in the south of france people would turn up. But it all fallen apart.

I can see your point but the fan experience didnt do Leigh much good on their ratings and having burger bars and street food instead of a stand for spectators at HKR shouldnt be seen by IMG as a positive when stadium criteria is part of their ratings.