gingerjon

To repeat: 2024 tweets.

Every action taken at a 'strategic' level is always in the belief that we are a quick fix away from solving everything. It was said, by me and others, at the time of the IMG launch that the absolute obsession over structure meant that everything else would either be overlooked or played down. And so it is. Despite decades of evidence that the structure itself really plays quite a minimal part, it is almost certainly what the fanfare announcements to come from this review will be about.

Mark Aston is still employed within rugby league, though, I believe? Everyone happy to let that drift with no appeal date in sight?

Looks like a bunch were from 2024.

I think there are more examples of it not working in soccer than it working but you're right to make the point that it isn't always fatal. The key thing is usually to have the return planned and progress started.

When were these big enough crowds? The break even back in the day was 5k so just list the seasons when that happened.

We know there aren't enough lapsed fans because there weren't enough of them when they were unlapsed. We know there aren't enough RL interested Aussies and Kiwis in the area because the demographics don't lie. So it's locals and new fans. Locals and new fans have no quick wins. Which is why, in true RL style, they tend to get ignored.

The majority have got old and that's the real issue. It's not that they can't or won't reconnect but that they (we) have drifted to other things. I don't think the answer is lapsed fans. It's the real hard work of starting as if from scratch and scooping up some lapsed fans on the way.

Quite often with himself under a different name, as it turned out more than once.

That was 'folding' - getting PCs in saver mode to run something that had to do with ... I want to say cancer?

It's a decent one that ticks boxes though. A derby you don't need to explain. Knock out game in the Cup. And older viewers can say, "Hull Kingston Rovers" in a funny voice.

Yes - Padge is Ed I (and vice versa). Still hear from L’angelo from time to time, and Chairman is a Facebook friend.

Futtocks pre dates me by a bit. Shadow does too. RP London does as well, I think. There are a handful of others - some irregular posters who you think have gone turn back up out of the blue. I do miss Rhubarbtriangulist.

I think I registered in 2003 but I also think that’s the earliest possible as the forum was updated then so even people who’d been around before then won’t show as being earlier. So I think I may date to 2000-2001.

I genuinely don’t remember that.

Every single time a whole game structure gets discussed it ends up really being about a small number of teams on either side of the SL divide.

As discussed, ad Infinitum, football screens and scoreboards don’t need to be high quality because the game rarely uses them.

We don’t agree on much, but … yes.

And even football doesn’t have straightforward P&R. There are enforced standards. And there is a point where it is based on application not on field. Nobody on here seems to believe relegation from League 1 is essential but, apparently, it is for Super League.

There is an assumption, repeated several times on this thread, that because someone has money they must be smart and have deeply considered motivations. I encounter some very affluent people pretty much every day. Some meet that, some were born with money, some are very successful in a field where that gets you money, but plenty have just got a bit fortunate a couple of times and held on to some decent cash as a result. I have no idea where Davy fits in that spectrum but wouldn't necessarily assume that just because he is successful and has the money to put ideas in place, it means it's well thought through or strategic. Sometimes a bad idea is a bad idea.

Perfect is the enemy of good, then. The need is get the tour on. Or, if not, to get a suitable replacement confirmed. We do not need to chase the favourite bits of every past tour, fall short and then do nothing.

I know Harry hates mentioning other sports, except when he mentions other sports, but the last game of association football I went to was one where the home team is 10th and the visitors were 11th in a league of 20. Can’t go up, can’t go down. A literal jeopardy free game and with several weeks to go. Crowd was bang on average and the game played as if there was a Cup final place on the line. Maybe it’s the incredibly demanding nature of RL that means it’s easier to get involved in games without jeopardy in other sports but for RL there has to be something on the line. It is part of a wider fans’ attitude that I’ve always found a bit weird.

I think you’re probably overestimating “us”. It would be the best system but when we had it, you still had moaning that Hunslet (for eg) couldn’t be promoted.

They’d be higher on a pure on field ranking. What a terrible system.

Is the answer “not that much because the whole process is a decade long development designed to use our highest levels to leverage in funding that can support the whole game but we have literally only just finished the set up phase”?