the pieman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 7:56 am
fozzieskem wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 5:20 pm
Charriots Offiah wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 1:43 pm
The game in general needs to generate more income, hopefully IMG can influence that.
Nothing I've seen mate fills.me with much confidence we shall see of course but it's all been done before,maybe though their experience with promoting the game can help grow the wheelchair game and women's rugby league but as for finding the promised land for the men's game I suspect will remain elusive
i think their biggest challenge is getting owners / clubs / fans to accept that the change is required for the long term good of the game. There may be short term pain for some clubs, but we cant keep being a dog wagged by its tail. Why should a well managed club / one with a wealthy owner not invest in a playing squad because club x (or most of Yorkshire) want to prevent the game from moving forwards. I'm hoping that there are licences issued and done properly, and not buckle cos Cas and HKR (i think) challenged the gradings, even though they werent at that level and then give them the grade. It needs to be fair, open and honest from day 1. All clubs should know what they need to have in place to be a grade A / tier1 club, and if they arent, they need to put a plan in place at achieve that, no good just saying its not fair etc etc
i would start with stadium (doesnt matter if you own one or not), but it has to be at whatever the standard defined is. That means that Cas and Wakey for example are not tier 1 clubs, and we dont buy into the we are getting a new ground for the next 25 years rubbish, they are made to do something about it to achieve that status.
playing rosta, should be minimum of 1st team, reserves, academy, ladies, and to be considered tier 1 PDRL and wheelchair. that shows the clubs intention, not only to play SL rugby (or whatever it may get called), but the backbone of the club and inclusivity. For far too long clubs have relied on Wiga, Saints, Leeds and formerly Hull to produce a good crop of youngsters to fill their teams. they know they all cant get a gig at Wigan / Saints, so they pick up the ones who are moved on. All clubs should have a minimum number of their own grown academy players in the squad (note this isnt we should all have 17 home grown players), but a realistic number supplemented by players signed from other clubs and overseas players
i'd like to see the number of overseas players in each team dropped down to 3 over a number of years. It should be for the likes of Brett Kenny, Peter Stirling, Steve Ella, Gene Miles, Greg Dowling, Jamie Lyon etc, not just a payday for later life, as a lot arent adding value to the league IMO and could easily be replaced by a home grown player
salary cap i'd like to see it scrapped personally, or if it needs to stay, then it should be modified to be a %age of annual revenue and audited accordingly. You'll still get people complaining that club x spends more than club Y, it happens today when all the clubs get the same amount from TV money and dont spent it all. If they want to spend more, then they need to work to market their own club and generate revenue streams
TV, as the world cup has just shown and with C4 last season, free to air TV is the best marketing place for the game generally. You cant knock what SKY have done over a prolonged period, but it feels like they are just using us as a space filler now, and the money coming in will reduce again at the next contract negotiations. BBC coverage of the WC was top drawer, and as someone who usually criticises them should be applauded. C4 got their coverage bang on, with decent presenters, and mixing up the players who added a different perspective to the pre and post match debate
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