Seven Betfred Super League clubs awarded Grade A status

[josie andrews]

Seven Betfred Super League clubs have been awarded Grade A status in the indicative phase of the new club grading process that is being introduced as part of Rugby League Commercial and IMG’s ‘Reimagining Rugby League’ strategy.

Leeds Rhinos lead the way, with a score of 17.49 out of the maximum available 20, following detailed analysis of every club’s performance under five pillars – On-Field Performance, Fandom, Finances, Stadium and Community.

They are followed by three clubs separated by 0.14 points, with Wigan Warriors’ success in winning the 2023 Grand Final lifting them to second on 16.87, ahead of St Helens in third on 16.78 and Catalans Dragons in fourth on 16.73.

Warrington Wolves are fifth on 15.75, and both Hull clubs have earned A grades, with Hull KR sixth on 15.52, and Hull FC seventh on 15.05 – just above the threshold of 15 points required to be graded A.

Toulouse Olympique are the highest-performing club outside the Betfred Super League, with their score of 12.97 leaving them 10th in the indicative rankings as the third strongest of the 17 B-graded clubs.

After the data submission deadline, Castleford Tigers submitted information that the RFL will review and consider particularly given the tight scoring margins around the 12th position in the rankings.

Membership of the Betfred Super League in 2025 will be determined by the top 12 teams in the 2024 rankings, which will be announced at the culmination of the 2024 season.

The main purpose of the indicative grading process in 2023 is to give clubs a clear indication of their strengths and weaknesses, and the areas in which they need to improve to increase their score in 2024.
Tony Sutton, the Chief Executive of the Rugby Football League, said:

“Rugby League embarked on a bold journey with the launch of the strategic partnership with IMG in May 2022, and 18 months into that journey, the publication of these indicative club gradings is a highly significant step.

“The sport has had to examine itself more closely than ever, at all levels – whether in terms of our central governance, or for our clubs in assessing all areas of their off-field performance.

“The results are heartening, as seven of our clubs already reach the A Grade by reaching the score IMG set as the benchmark, and which we believe should be the level clubs need to achieve in order to confirm their place in our elite competition – and another 17 have earned a B Grade and now know exactly what they need to do to reach the higher level.

“Congratulations are due to the A Grade clubs, although I know they will not be resting on their laurels as the key to the grading process is that it is dynamic and requires clubs to maintain standards.

“All clubs also deserve recognition for the positive way in which they have engaged in this process, all with the aim of raising the standards of Rugby League – and of reimagining the sport.”

Grading was one of seven recommendations which were presented to Rugby League in the autumn of 2022 as part of IMG’s Reimagining of the sport, and which were supported by a substantial majority of clubs at all levels.

Grading has been designed to incentivise clubs to grow their fanbase and top-line non-centralised revenue, to better engage with fans, to be run in a best-in-class way, to invest in their club and the sport in a sustainable way, and to ensure strong governance.

Full details of the grading criteria were published in early 2023 - IMG & Rugby League Grading Criteria 2023.pdf (rugby-league.com) – with clubs receiving the grading criteria handbook later in the spring, which has also been published given the emphasis on transparency throughout the process Rugby League Grading Handbook Updated.pdf (rugby-league.com)

https://www.rugby-league.com/article/62 ... e-a-status

[Jonathon Kerr (JK)]

Are IMG based to the East of the M62?

Not that they count for much at this point, but how are Leeds ranked top, has there been any breakdown of the scores published or do we just get the final result?

[josie andrews]

Castleford Tigers release statement after missing out on Super League spot in IMG gradings

Castleford Tigers have been ranked 13th by IMG.

Castleford Tigers owner Managing Director Mark Grattan has release a statement after the club missed out on Super League spot in IMG gradings

The club were told on Tuesday that the RFL had made a mistake with one of their finance gradings, which has knocked Castleford out of the top 12 places that will hold Super League status in 2025. The Tigers have appealed their grade with more to follow.

Grattan said: “On Monday we were given a grading score with just a headline number for the four categories. Each of the categories were as expected, as was the overall grading score. As a result of this, we did not challenge anything ahead of the 1pm Deadline on Tuesday 24th October.

"At 7pm yesterday evening, I received a phone call from Tony Sutton, CEO of the RFL to inform me that the RFL had made a mistake on one of the data lines in finance. This meant they were taking half a point off us which moved us down to 13th. At that point, we realised that the finance score was incorrect. Within an hour we spotted a missing data line that we had not submitted.

I sent all of the supporting evidence to the RFL expecting our error to be amended as the RFL’s error was and we believe other clubs’ scores were amended. We were then informed later yesterday evening that due to the lateness of the information the grades would be published with the RFL’s amendment, but without ours and they would also allow us to appeal and they would be announcing that as part of the grading story.

"We are extremely disappointed with the RFL’s decision as both ourselves and the RFL made an error but the RFL error masked our error on the scores which meant up to 7pm yesterday evening, we believed our score to be correct.

We will issue a further statement this afternoon with more detail into our IMG grading.”

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/ru ... e-27978030

[DaveO]

.....has there been any breakdown of the scores published or do we just get the final result?

The grading criteria are set out in this document: https://www.rugby-league.com/uploads/do ... 202023.pdf

The only one we be sure of is we got 4.75 points for performance.

We will have received 4.75 points due to winning the GF (4) and the league (0.75) out of our 16.87.

Which means all else remaining the same if we ever finished 12th we would be grade B. For finishing 12th a club gets 2.7778 points and so we would have 14.8978 points (16.87 - 4.75 + 2.7778).

Leeds with 17.49 (they finished 8th so received 3.2222 points for performance) can basically never be relegated as even if they finished 12th they would still have 17.0456 (17.49 - 3.2222 + 2.7778) points and would remain a grade A club despite finishing last.

Taking performance away we scored 12.12 points out of 15.25 so lost 3.13 points somewhere.

[josie andrews]

How can Leeds be top?

They haven’t won anything since 2020 & the away stand is on a par with Castleford & Wakefield

[Dr Zaius]

How can Leeds be top?

They haven’t won anything since 2020 & the away stand is on a par with Castleford & Wakefield

You need to read the criteria!
Leeds have very strong financials, have tens of thousands more social media followers than other clubs, get the biggest TV ratings, have a fully compliant ground where they have primacy of tenure and LEDs, with high stadium utilisation. "The away end" is irrelevant. Only relatively poor on-field performance is reeling them back closer to the other upper A grade clubs.

[DaveO]

How can Leeds be top?

They haven’t won anything since 2020 & the away stand is on a par with Castleford & Wakefield

It will be due to owning their own ground (Leeds get 0.25 points for that - we won't) and they may also get a point for utilization.

The capacity of Headingley is 20,112. Leeds average crowd for 2023 was 13805 = 68.64% utilization

The capacity of the DW is listed as 25,133 and Wigan's average was 13494. = 53.69% utilization.

There is up to one point available for utilization and if those figures remain similar then we will always score less than Leeds on this criteria simply because we have a larger ground.

It also means a club with a much smaller ground who fill it but have an average crowd less than Wigan would also score more on this criteria. Warrington's ground capacity is 15,300 and they averaged 10,894 in 2023. So that's a utilization of 71.2%.

So they will get more points for utilization than Leeds or Wigan despite an average gate of almost 3,000 less.

It could get worse because the average crowds will in future be calculated on numbers going through the turnstile and season ticket holders who do not attend won't be counted. So if our average 13494 includes season ticket holders each week regardless of if they attended, the attendance figure used to calculate the utilization could fall.

[DaveO]

How can Leeds be top?

They haven’t won anything since 2020 & the away stand is on a par with Castleford & Wakefield

You need to read the criteria!
Leeds have very strong financials, have tens of thousands more social media followers than other clubs, get the biggest TV ratings, have a fully compliant ground where they have primacy of tenure and LEDs, with high stadium utilisation. "The away end" is irrelevant. Only relatively poor on-field performance is reeling them back closer to the other upper A grade clubs.

That poor performance will only have cost them just over 1.5 points.

The stadium utilization is a joke as it is related to ground capacity. It would only make sense if the capacity of all the clubs grounds were identical.

[Dr Zaius]

How can Leeds be top?

They haven’t won anything since 2020 & the away stand is on a par with Castleford & Wakefield

You need to read the criteria!
Leeds have very strong financials, have tens of thousands more social media followers than other clubs, get the biggest TV ratings, have a fully compliant ground where they have primacy of tenure and LEDs, with high stadium utilisation. "The away end" is irrelevant. Only relatively poor on-field performance is reeling them back closer to the other upper A grade clubs.

That poor performance will only have cost them just over 1.5 points.

The stadium utilization is a joke as it is related to ground capacity. It would only make sense if the capacity of all the clubs grounds were identical.

I think it's a metric primarily to assess how good or bad a stadium looks on TV - acres of empty seats are not good for the viewer experience.
Stadium utilisation was one of the criteria in the old licencing system as well.

[Charriots Offiah]

You need to read the criteria!
Leeds have very strong financials, have tens of thousands more social media followers than other clubs, get the biggest TV ratings, have a fully compliant ground where they have primacy of tenure and LEDs, with high stadium utilisation. "The away end" is irrelevant. Only relatively poor on-field performance is reeling them back closer to the other upper A grade clubs.

That poor performance will only have cost them just over 1.5 points.

The stadium utilization is a joke as it is related to ground capacity. It would only make sense if the capacity of all the clubs grounds were identical.

I think it's a metric primarily to assess how good or bad a stadium looks on TV - acres of empty seats are not good for the viewer experience.
Stadium utilisation was one of the criteria in the old licencing system as well.

Ok, stick some dummies in and everybody will look good, it is flawed criteria which needs amending.