How to spend the bailout?
Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 5:02 pm
With today's news that the government has offered a loan of 16 million to save the sport of rugby league, were comments from Hull KR's chairman that there are too many professional clubs, taking into account Super League, Championship and League1.
It is clear from his comments that the Super League clubs will swallow the bulk of this loan and let the part timers go the the wall - you might call it Super League's version of herd immunity.
As a rugby league fan for 50 years, it grieves me to see the state of clubs which were once strong, with big followings like Oldham, Halifax, Featherstone and the cumbrian clubs barely surviving.
If the survival of the fittest policy reaches it's ultimate conclusion, we could start up again with just 12 super league clubs, and all the rest folding or becoming amateur clubs.
We are lucky that Wigan remains one of the select few, but is that really what we want to be part of?
Rugby League came into being as a working class sport, which provided recreation and entertainment for working class people in the industrial towns in the North of England, and did so more or less successfully for 100 years. In the last 25 years the number of northern towns with a professional club has declined from 30 part time to only 10 full-time professional clubs, and probably no part timers if the current crop of owners get their way.
Personally, I think rugby league was holed below the waterline as a separate code of rugby when rugby union went professional; and the best way forward to save rugby in the northern communities might be to consider a merger with rugby union.
Heretical I know, but the reason for rugby league's separation from rugby union has surely ceased to exist. The union game is evolving fast into an attractive spectator sport, following the same trajectory as rugby league did from 1895.
If the sport of rugby league at professional level is no longer sustainable in today's economic climate, all options should be considered, and a unified rugby sport does not seem such a bad idea in comparison with the alternatives.
It is clear from his comments that the Super League clubs will swallow the bulk of this loan and let the part timers go the the wall - you might call it Super League's version of herd immunity.
As a rugby league fan for 50 years, it grieves me to see the state of clubs which were once strong, with big followings like Oldham, Halifax, Featherstone and the cumbrian clubs barely surviving.
If the survival of the fittest policy reaches it's ultimate conclusion, we could start up again with just 12 super league clubs, and all the rest folding or becoming amateur clubs.
We are lucky that Wigan remains one of the select few, but is that really what we want to be part of?
Rugby League came into being as a working class sport, which provided recreation and entertainment for working class people in the industrial towns in the North of England, and did so more or less successfully for 100 years. In the last 25 years the number of northern towns with a professional club has declined from 30 part time to only 10 full-time professional clubs, and probably no part timers if the current crop of owners get their way.
Personally, I think rugby league was holed below the waterline as a separate code of rugby when rugby union went professional; and the best way forward to save rugby in the northern communities might be to consider a merger with rugby union.
Heretical I know, but the reason for rugby league's separation from rugby union has surely ceased to exist. The union game is evolving fast into an attractive spectator sport, following the same trajectory as rugby league did from 1895.
If the sport of rugby league at professional level is no longer sustainable in today's economic climate, all options should be considered, and a unified rugby sport does not seem such a bad idea in comparison with the alternatives.