Dave T

Lots of interference after the tackle.

Could have gone either way that one.

I'm afraid we're looking toothless, I suppose that's what changing 2-5 completely will do.

As I say, i don't agree with his view, but that's his prerogative and he didn't feel the need to drag others down.

I'll choose my words very carefully here. But the recent verbal attacks on the RFL Directors don't come across well when considered alongside complaints like this. Sneering about anonymous letters seems like a silly thing to do in the current climate imo.

This is the big mystery. Because the way this is being framed is that they are the new owners, this isn't about the sale failing or looking for alternative buyers or anything. Not publicly at least.

Same thing's achieved with going to the widest possible audience. Rewarding loyal customers.

Agreed. I'd personally have gone out to all ticketing database and all our league registered people. People don't really need to know you've emailed everyone. Just badge it as an existing RL customer.

Well no, the point is that alongside that they sell and cull costs, but things like holding back on reserves because they will count on the cap is counter-productive.

Spot on. Far more professional. Whether you agree with the outcome or not.

Sports clubs go bust. Pro sport is a tough model, full of basket cases. This has happened before, and will happen again. It happens in football, it' happened in RU. They didn;t need the NRL to save them.

I think the only option is to try and get them through the season. But, and I genuinely don't know the answer here as it' all cloak and daggers, but doesn't the RFL just taking this in house cause genuine legal problems in terms of of ownership etc? Now I wouldn't be surprised if the 'owners' would be happy to wash their hands of it, but that could mean that their land investment falls through, so they may not play ball. I think at this stage the RFL should relax all restrictions around player selections and maybe even cap restrictions on things like adding costs through using academy players, or loan restrictions and just do whatever is needed to get them through to September.

To be fair, they will have thise details, they just aren't included in the selections for this campaign. Which also isn't a massive issue as you can just register tbh.

Is this true though? Because tbh, that appears to be a common thread that runs through everything we do. Sometimes it feels like that gets focused on at the expense of other things.

There are things you say and do that have repercussions. Always have been and always will be.

We don't see people getting fined left right and centre, so it hardly feels like it's gone too far. I think its reasonable for RL not to want players to use homophonic slurs or refer to trans people as mentally ill, or refer to LGBTQ+ people as brainwashing. That feels reasonable and proportionate tbh.

This is clearly bigger than a couple of hundred k here and there. Cutting those costs three months ago wasn't changing this outcome.

I suppose we get what we pay for then! Didn't we used to have a CEO?

It looks like the bullet in italics is the crucial point to me.

On pricing, one thing that the last World Cup showed us was that people are prepared to spend money watching major RL events. But they do have to be events. We sold decent numbers at the WC at places like Newcastle, Arsenal, Old Trafford, Elland Road etc - people knew those games were major events. They wouldn't however pay £70 for a halfway line ticket to watch Papua New Guinea at St Helens. When people have talked about the need to increase pricing and not just trade on lowest price tickets all round, this is what they refer to. Whether it works, we'll see. The other element is that I really do hope they make these Premium events. We do appear to have changed our mindset and seem to be focusing on fanzones, presentation, catering etc. far more now, so hopefully this is translated into a really premium package for what really should be seen as the pinnacle. We are hopefully gonna attract tens of thousands new fans to Wembley and Everton - we need to put our best outfits on and do our best to woo them!

I think we can very safely assume that there is some massaging of the narrative here, but tbh, this is all about creating a buzz (there is literally no other point to this pre-registration piece) so I don't think it matters.

I don't disagree in general, but I'm not convinced too many are choosing the upper tier at Wembley over any of the others, as they are bloody high enough as it is! Although I do prefer choice, as some may be happy to pay £35-45 to sit high up on halfway, but not the £80 or £150 for that view in the lower tier, so I do accept that viewpoint.

I think this shows a touch of nervousness, and I must admit, thinking about it further, yeah, I'd have liked to have seen maybe the four main blocks for sale in the upper tier from the start to maximise choice, which I think would only add around 5k capacity in. You say that the Challenge Cup starts with 65k, but that's because they broadly get that. The record crowd for an Ashes at Wembley is 57k, the last time we played the Aussies at Wembley got 42k. Now of course we should have ambition to beat both of those numbers, but I do think it shows that this isn't guaranteed. I would say, that I'm not convinced we are mucking customers about on this specific one - they are the worst seats in the ground. The only challenge would be as per a few posts previous, if these then come on for a cheaper price.

I don't think it's a voluntary role.

Yeah, I think Everton could do very well, maybe at the expense of Wembley.