Dr Revolution

[old hooker]

I would be very surprised if the rest of the chairman follow Koucash.They realise he is just an egotist who likes the sound of his own voice.He has become something of a joke within RL circles and not many take him seriously.However I do agree that the RFL need shaking up as they are ruining our game.

[DaveO]

I may be wrong but a big increase in Salary cap may sink smaller clubs trying to keep up with the main big outfits.
1995 Workington Town fought to maintain SL status finishing 5th from bottom of the league in that inaugural season.
The very next season they nearly went bust, failing to pay the wages of players like Jimmy Pickering, Rowland Phillips, Phil McKenzie and others. Those players were released and Town hit the slippery slope down and never to recover. They would have a fan Base of maybe 2500 to 4500 per game, not much different from Wakefield are now at a guess.
The bigger teams like Wigan, Leeds, Sintelins, Warrington could attract and keep players on bigger salaries, but how would it affect teams like Wakefield,Huddersfield, Castleford and Widnes (used as examples only).

I think Koukash knows this and in SL getting control of their own finances I think he means increase the money available to SL sides by not giving half of it to the lower leagues for a start.

Other restrictions could be lifted as well such as a players image rights not being subject to the cap allowing players to earn more for sponsorship which if they did that currently, it counts towards the salary cap.

I remember TV adds when Gillette were sponsoring GB Paul Sculthorpe's face was everywhere - he could not earn a penny from that which would not count on the cap. What a joke.

[Wigan_forever1985]

I still think the issue will be that the big 3/4 will not see a need to change and the bottom 8 (bar Salford and maybe hull) can't afford to.

If you are think about it logically you're going to have to give clubs more money if you want them to spend more and I can't see where that will come from.

Stains, us and Leeds will not be up for it, we make a lot of money through tickets/merchandise etc and we don't invest it in the squad because frankly we don't need to as we have junior academies to produce cheap replacements. As the standard of the league is shocking these juniors can still get you in the running for a trophy. So why would IL et al want the smaller clubs to be able to invest making him have to invest more to keep pace

The bottom clubs won't want it as they can't afford it and clubs like hull kr etc will see their only chance as competing as a strict cap.

The problem is that the cap has not made the competition closer - it's made it worse but inevitably the same teams win all the trophies. To date the grand final has only been won by 4 teams one of whom has gone bust proving that the cap also doesn't stop this from happening!

You can change the rules etc till you're blue in the face the league needs money the only way I can see of doing this is condensing it

[jaws1]

The crux of the matter is the TV money is paid for SL matches without SL there would be no money at all . The SL clubs should get a fair share of the TV money and not watered down as it is at the moment. What we want is a thrilling exciting game at SL level to generate more money the only way I see this happening is the standard of players. At the moment SL is at an all time low relying on youth and players should be paid more. If SKY money was not so diluted the clubs could get more money and not leave the game to Union and NRL. The club chairmen should take this on board and not starve the game which they are now doing ,when was the SC last increased??
Wigan for instance are running the club on a shoe string we have lost quality players and replaced them with players from the u19s,this is not too bad IF we had senior players to show them the way.Some of the Wigan senior players are not good enough to play for Wigan as it is ,so how can they lead the way. When was the last time we signed a player from the NRL ??We seem reluctant to buy any player from the NRL. Warrington signed Gidley and Sandow what a difference those 2 players make to the team.

[markill]

What happens to the TV deal if there's a split? The 'whole game' is written in to it isn't it - Summer Bash, Middle 8s, Million pound game etc.

Cutting down/off funding for those clubs outside SL would ruin the new league structure before its really got going.

I'm yet to see anything that suggests the breakaway would work better than the current system, although I'm open to the idea if that comes. The issue with RFL 'admin' is that they just don't have the same resourcing position of the very top sports leagues (and they still get stuff wrong!). It would be better for more transparency and more club support. They need to work together but pit themselves against each other - the clubs v the RFL and the clubs v each other. Self interest reigns supreme in this world we've seemingly been happy to create for ourselves. But the self-interest is often blinkered by greed, so doesn't actually achieve the best position for the 'self' or the sport.

[Mike]

Pool all the clubs into a centrally owned company. Distribute all earnings evenly. Clubs at the bottom of the league get advantageous rights to select the best new players coming into the league. This creates an even competition and decisions are made for the good of the whole company, not for a subset of individual clubs.

[DaveO]

Pool all the clubs into a centrally owned company. Distribute all earnings evenly. Clubs at the bottom of the league get advantageous rights to select the best new players coming into the league. This creates an even competition and decisions are made for the good of the whole company, not for a subset of individual clubs.

That is a US football franchise draft type system except even there there the clubs are not centrally owned.

There are just a number of franchises that can be bought and sold.

One, Green Bay I think, is publicly owned!

Anyway I can't see central ownership ever happening.

A player draft assumes an independent production line of players which is the USA is college football.

So given we don't have anything like that here and player production is club based with Wigan, Leeds and Saints doing the most it can't work here. There is no incentive for a club to produce anyone under a draft system so unless we invent a college system that produces them instead it's a non-starter.

[Wiganer Ted]

I was hoping the DR would run a full on legal challenge to the salary cap.
It's original purpose was to stop clubs overpaying on players salaries relative to their income in an effort to prevent them going broke. That doesn't happen as the last few to go into admin did not break the cap.
It has failed in that original purpose.
They did invent a theory that the SC would provide a more competitive league with a greater range of clubs winning the League Championship (Now Grand Final).
With only four clubs having won it that theory has failed.

Time for new thinking.
I'm sure the DR could come up with better then we have now!

[markill]

The NFL is a fantastically well organised sports league. Culturally though that won't work over here, people want p&r. Plus, like others have said, there's no way to work a draft as it stands.

I'd love a closed shop with strong revenue sharing. It won't happen thought i don't think.

[Owd Codger]

I would be very surprised if the rest of the chairman follow Koucash.They realise he is just an egotist who likes the sound of his own voice.He has become something of a joke within RL circles and not many take him seriously.However I do agree that the RFL need shaking up as they are ruining our game.

Very good assessment of the matter.

Koucash would make a good politician as they are good at saying things to boost their own image knowing that what they say will not happen.