Fujiman wrote:Only in the eyes of the rugby league world. Nobody else gives a flying toss to be honest.I listen to a whole range of radio stations whilst driving around the country and its never been mentioned. It is a farce though
Exactly no one but us & stains give a flying F.....
Our club IMO is still looking amateurish within rugby league circles and it's not on!
Think the club has come out of this OK Its the RFL who are the fools
Alex the Warrior wrote:I know of no other sport that allows a TV company such total control over when matches are played. I'm not talking about like in football where they will move a match from Saturday to Sunday or Monday. The RFL allow the BBC to use the challenge cup as nothing more than a schedule filler. One year they'll cram a couple of rounds into August and the next they dictate that the same rounds be played in May and June.
The RFL needs to state that the Challenge Cup will be played one round per month and will be evenly spaced. The BBC can agree or lose it. After hearing Clare Balding telling all and sundry last year that the referee cost Leeds victory, it would be no loss.
Spot on here. After the selling of naming rights to Stobart for all the free advertising they haven't done, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that they cocked this up.
In future when the RFL are discussing broadcasting rights they must ensure the phrase "subject to ground availability" is inserted into the contract to prevent a debacle like this occurring again.
100% Warrior wrote:In future when the RFL are discussing broadcasting rights they must ensure the phrase "subject to ground availability" is inserted into the contract to prevent a debacle like this occurring again.
Behave yourself. That suggestion is sensible beyond belief!
The RFL should of pre empted this situation prior to setting the fixtures but they haven't so wigan should of had a plan b set up just incase.
The delaying in announcing a venue is ridiculous and it not only damages the sports credentials but it will have a knock on effect on the attendence. I predicit a sub 15k crowd if we play at the DW, anywhere else and we'll be lucky to get 10k.
Majorly p1ssed off
That'll be "should HAVE pre-empted this situation. . ."
"of" is not a verb!
seriously? bore off.
\Yes, seriously.
And don't shoot the messenger just because you don't like the message!
Here is a statement released by the RFL on the situation, that is displayed on the BBC Rugby League website.
"The schedule for the 2012 Carnegie Challenge Cup was circulated last year and all clubs have had ample time to put in place contingencies should a tie in which they are involved be selected for televising.
"It is the draw which decides the make-up of individual rounds, not the RFL, and whilst clubs must trust to fate, they are also aware of their responsibilities with regard to broadcast agreements.
"Whilst the RFL were informed by Wigan Warriors of the potential difficulty they faced as a consequence of their unique tenancy agreement were they to be drawn at home in the quarter-finals, the club were aware that should their tie be selected for broadcast, the onus was on them to find a solution.
"Wigan are to be congratulated on having found a solution which will see their match against St Helens played at the right venue on what will prove to be a compelling weekend of Carnegie Challenge Cup quarter-final action for all eight teams involved."
Notice they state the onus was on us to deal with the matter even though they also clearly admit that they'd been informed by Wigan about the situation.
Again I make my point the onus is not on us, the RFL when negotiating any broadcasting rights contract should stipulate choice of matches is subject to ground availability.
Something as simple as that would stop a mess like this occurring again, the RFL should get their own house in order before pointing fingers elsewhere.
100%, for me the home draw was not the problem. We could have played it on the Friday and seeing as how it was OUR home draw, that decision should have been ours and ours alone.
The debacle was created by the bloodymindedness of the BBC who not only demanded the screening rights but also the day and time of kick off. For this, they were fully prepared to jeopardise our first decent home draw in 14 years by forcing us to play elsewhere!
100% Warrior wrote:Here is a statement released by the RFL on the situation, that is displayed on the BBC Rugby League website.
"Whilst the RFL were informed by Wigan Warriors of the potential difficulty they faced as a consequence of their unique tenancy agreement were they to be drawn at home in the quarter-finals, the club were aware that should their tie be selected for broadcast, the onus was on them to find a solution.
Whilst there is no denying that the agreement appears to be pretty much one-sided and no matter whatever the amount of self congratulations, the entire problem started and finished with Whelans ridiculous stadium demands for one of it's two users!
The reason I highlighted the "unique" bit is that quite simply it is not unique. Next season Sale will move in with Salford and with Hull and Hull fc continuing to ground-share this isn't as unique as the RFL might like us "simple fans" to believe - but could possibly become more and more prevalent in the future, especially with the likes of Hull KR and St Helens all ready stating that they are struggling to make ends meet and could find themselves arranging ground sharing with other sporting companies in the future
It is unique in the sense that we are the only club ground sharing with a Prem team.
Latics have been "advised" (ordered) not to play turn around games after several complaints about the state of the pitch (Hello Mr Wenger).
"I've never seen a woman with hairy ears..and I've been to St Helens"-john Bishop
