the man

Clubs get £15 per ticket sold through the club for the final. If Barrow ever get there you would assume we would take at least 5,000 given that Barrow AFC have taken around 10,000 for their two FA Trophy finals and Barrovians tend to support one off events. For the Wakefield fixture it is shared gate and you would hope that there would be around 5,000 there given Wakefield's strong season ticket sales. Financially it is possibly the best draw we could have had - even better than a home fixture. Hopefully our supporters travel in numbers and we will have a fair few players back so we are going to give it a go. We won't be resting players as we have a week off before the league campaign starts.

Barrow will be having a programme for all Championship and cup games, probably £2.

Raiders didn't vote against any change to the structure, there was no vote, only a discussion. What we did say was that we are tired of the constant chopping and changing to the structure. We said to look at football and the pyramid system they have and that every team in the country from grass roots upwards should have the opportunity to progress with the caveat that promotion to a higher division should be with minimum standards. We said the Championship had been a great league this season but we recognised that League One was broken and suggested that some top conference sides might be invited to take their chances. There was also a suggestion that Wigan, St.Helens and Hull might enter B teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spanish football. We have since written to the CEO and suggested an interim season of one division with a view to a 12 team Championship in 2025 and 10 team League One but with the mission to get two extra teams to also take League One to 12 teams. The one division of 22 teams would play each other once and 5 loop fixtures to ensure the 13 home games that we are selling season tickets for. Top 6 play-offs. top 11 in the Championship for 2025 and a play-off for the remaining place for teams 12th to 17th. That should keep an interest for most right to the end of the season.

Harvey is on loan to the end of the season but they have the recall option at any time.

He's on loan to the end of the season but they have a recall option after 2 weeks

We wanted to keep them both but Wigan wanted them back

The shop is owned by the auxiliary branch that run the lottery. The closing of the lottery and the shop went through the official Facebook page as soon as the directors were informed. The club can't make official announcements on behalf of the auxiliary branch, they have their own committee and their own staff but they do have access to the official social media channels. You must have missed it, but the announcement was there. Going forward we have been in discussions with an alternative lottery provider and hope to announce something next week which will coincide with the last draw on the 21st July. As for the finances of the club it remains a challenge as it always has done. Losing the lottery is a big blow so hopefully the membership will swap over.

Absolutely not. I think we have a fantastic coach and I wouldn't swap him for any other. We are very much a team and share success and failure and work together to try to improve. I didn't say we had poor recruitment, the original poster may have implied that. I said that with a bit of luck we could have picked up a few more points. Performance wise we are pretty consistent and sometimes results don't go your way, that's sport.

1. Carter . He wanted to leave and not go on loan as he wanted regular game time. If he went on loan we would have to pay his wages and reclaim it from Whitehaven. There are financial risks that I'm sure you can work out. Our policy is not to keep unhappy players. It doesn't do anyone any favours. 2. We got virtually no notice with Iaria, it was in the week we played Halifax and we didn't have anyone lined up. He was adamant he wanted to go back home. How can we force him to stay? And is it a good policy not to treat players well? We treat Alec Susino well in a number of ways and on the back of that Iaria was attracted to the club. We don't want a reputation of being a club that doesn't appreciate player welfare. In the long run it is better to look after players. 3. Again they both wanted to leave. It is always difficult to keep squad members happy although in Tom's case it wasn't just about playing opportunities and he has retired from the game. Ironically it is about this stage of the season when squad players start to get opportunities like Brett Carter is doing. Perhaps we consider a smaller squad next season and just add to it as and when required by keeping budget back. 4. As soon as we lost Gillam and Iaria in one week we were in the market and brought in Makin and Wilkinson. We pretty much spent our playing budget so getting French players over with flights and accommodation, especially for unknown players, was too much of a financial risk. We are starting to form a good relationship with Wigan who have some top quality youngsters which is a good option for us. Just bringing extra players in to jump ahead of our squad players isn't always good for morale. 5. Player recruitment and retainment, within budget constraints, is the choice of the coach. Obviously we aren't happy where we are in the league table but we probably over-achieved last season and this is more of a reality check of how tough the Championship is. That said, apart from Featherstone away, we have been very competitive and with a bit of luck we could have picked up a few more points.

I have a meeting with the CEO to go through our potential score in a couple of weeks time. I'm also interested to see what we score. What I will tell you is that last year we were the highest graded Championship club for digital engagement.

There are at least 150 going from Barrow with it being Bank Holiday weekend . Japan RU side are using the usual ground as a training base for the RUWC. I'm sure they could have stayed off the pitch for a couple of hours on a Saturday night

It's because the video feed is connected to the referee's microphone (for use at any disciplinary hearings) and the feedback that gives is worse than the insane music

Keighley will have got the distribution as the 13th ranked team, which is more than the League 1 clubs. As has been said 50% of the distribution is based on ROI - crowds, finance, media, TV appearances and viewers, and governance. A League 1 club could, in theory, get more money than a Championship club if it shines in all the ROI areas. Personally I think a larger distribution should be based on ROI and the remainder equally funded between the clubs.

Interview with Radio Cumbria if you're interested https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fhzv6j There seems to be a general feeling on this thread that the clubs have received more information than is in the public domain. The simple fact is the clubs haven't. Although each category has points we have yet to see how that is broken down and we don't know at this stage how we will pick up a single point. Can a Championship club even achieve 15pts to get an A-grade to keep SL growing after it has reached 12 A-teams? The clubs were voting on a principal rather than a detailed proposal.

The RFL have the platform to do the streaming through Ourleague, they have put some resources into getting the production team together and have put some promotional resources in helping to ensure that the rugby league public know the game is televised. They will also upload the content to the disciplinary panel which saves Barrow a job. Barrow have taken all the risk so they get the chunk of the money and some might argue being streamed may affect their gate, although Barrow don't share that view as they believe getting our product to a wider audience helps grow the game. PPV options came in during COVID for the behind closed doors games and first option was always given to the home side to cover production costs, if they declined the away side could take the risk and pick up the income. The option for PPV has continued and as long as the fixture doesn't clash with something a broadcaster like Sky is screening then you usually get approval from the RFL. Leigh streamed a few games last season. The option for the away side is still there but the home side have to agree. In the 2021 season Barrow paid for quite a few games as the away side and didn't quite cover the production costs but had the game on the big screen at the ground and more than compensated through bar sales with hundreds there.