Big Picture

If the cap had kept pace inflation it would be 3 million a year, it should immediately be raised to at least that much.

It's because Aussies Rules has always added time for stoppages in play and nowadays does so for all stoppages. If you watch an AFL match, you can see that the clock stops when the ball is out of bounds or points are scored and remains stopped until the restart of play. The more time taken up by stoppages, the more elapsed time each quarter will last. The AFL's TV partners squeeze one 30-second ad into the time between a goal being kicked and the ensuing centre bounce too and because the clock remains stopped until the resumption of play the audience doesn't miss any ot the action, over time the AFL has made their matches very TV-friendly. That's how they can get more for their TV rights despite having a smaller audience. For the NRL to get more than the AFL does it would need to accommodate more ads without the audience having to miss the restart of play.

I still have the obstacle that none of those rich guys know me from Adam to overcome. I'm looking for a way to solve that so they'll have a reason to hear what I have to say.

The authorities couldn't have made it the gold standard back then though, any more than the current lot can. Even before then they had their hands full dealing with clubs getting into financial trouble (e.g. Bradford going bust in the 1963-64 season). The plain truth is that the game's small footprint was always too small for it ever to be made the gold standard sport the youth would want to be involved in on that foundation.

Those small towns used to provide enough players, but they don't any more, and unless I'm mistaken that's true even in the towns which have had a club in SL since its inception. That suggests that for some reason many of the sons and grandsons of the RL players and supporters of yesteryear — across the heartland — don't see RL as the "gold standard" sport they want to be involved in. The reason why can't be that the changes during the SL era widened the gap between the top tier and the rest of the game, because if that was so the community game wouldn't have declined in Wigan, St Helens and the other places which have always been represented in SL. The reason for a wholesale decline and shrinkage of the player pool can only be that those sons and grandsons of the RL players and supporters of yesteryear don't see a "gold standard" sport which inspires them, they see something of much lower standard and that doesn't impress them in the era when they can see plenty of genuine big time major pro sports on TV and observe how far ahead of RL they are. The same old, same old simply isn't good enough for them. FYI I haven't put any pins in maps, I've thought strategically about cities which have the necessary profile and stature to create a Wow! factor and entice a new audience to check out something new and unique. I couldn't care less why anyone in that new audience decides to check it out, it's enough even if they're just curious (though I'd plan to give them plenty of other reasons too). If the presentation of the matches and the product on the field is good, they'll be hooked just like the Torontonians who embraced the Wolfpack were hooked. And as you're someone who finds present-day RL dull and predictable, I say with confidence that you'd like the product I'd put on the field a lot because it would be simply the best. Nothing less would do.

How on Earth do you expect the kids to consider RL the "gold standard" sport they want to get involved in when it's stuck in smallish, economically disadvantaged towns along the M62 with a mere handful of teams further afield????? What planet do you live on?

No, but they'll struggle to find financially viable ways to tour because tours which don't go to Australia invariably lose money. And given that the Aussies weren't interested last time they might not make any money touring to Australia now. Precisely. That's why I said just above that a tour to Australia might not make any money now.

One obstacle to having those annual NH Internationals is that other than France and Wales, the other countries need their southern hemisphere players to field any sort of competitive team and Wales needs a miracle worker like John Kear coaching them.

Yes the best French players do play Union. They can make a lot more money there, play on a bigger International stage and have a longer career because Union isn't as hard on their bodies. Over expectant about France and Wales or not, it appears that they're the only options England has between World Cups now.

Doing it brilliantly would have cost serious money though, and British RL has never had that sort of money to work with so it's always taken the easy, cheap option.

Considering that 10 million of the 25 million pounds from the government went into general RL infrastructure rather than the tournament, I'd be very surprised if the turnover from the World Cup was any more than 30 million £, if that. Even if Tonga and Samoa have gone crazy for RL, so what? They're too tiny and poor for that to deliver any meaningful benefits for the game.

Based on your experience, what do you think the IRL will do with the money from the bid fee they were reportedly paid up front by the organizers of this latest World Cup?

However as @Dave Tpoints out, fudging groups is a cheap option and as we saw in this World Cup cheap options (like no anthem singers for many matches) are what the game likes because it can't afford the better options. The latter are all expensive and the game (in the northern hemisphere at least) doesn't have the money needed to underwrite them. And as the fee paid to the International RL won't be all that big after it's spread across all the IRL member countries, that all but certainly remains the case now.

That's true of the children of immigrants, not true of their children though because they routinely marry someone of a different ethnic background who doesn't speak that language. I've seen this firsthand with some acquaintances of mine whose parents were ethnic Germans expelled from Hungary after the last World War; their kids can all speak and read both German and Hungarian, but their spouses didn't know a word of either language and so their kids in turn never learned them. That's why I find qualification based on parentage much more legitimate than qualification based on grandparentage. Evidently (in the British fashion too) they just were making do.

It won't be a four team tournament, it will be 6, 7, or even 8 if (under a different name than Oceanic or Pacific Cup) they include Lebanon. You need to understand, they don't need England any more.

Muito bom!!!!

An interesting mix of domestic products and heritage players for both teams, I wonder how the former communicate with the latter?

Vamos Brasil!

It's not about how much money a club's owners have, it's about their costs, revenues and bottom line. And signing Owen Farrell would increase their costs hugely considering the sort of money he's getting in RU, without considering the transfer fee they'd have to pay Saracens if he's still under contract there. And unless I'm mistaken Wigan's been losing money which is why Ian Lenagen sold part of his stake in the club in the first place.

Except that Wigan almost certainly can't afford him.

State of Origin won't be on weekends, it's going back to Wednesday nights because its ratings were better then than on weekends. We all know how that would go down with the M62 crowd, they'd never tolerate it.

C4 won't be able to pay a lot though. Their revenue comes from ads and RL matches don't have enough ad minutes for them to generate the revenue to pay much in rights fees.

I'm not sure about that. Apia's a small town with only a bit over 37,000 population. Even 4,000 is more than 10% of that.

The TV rights might be affected by a shorter season, there'd be fewer matches for Sky or whoever to broadcast.

Combined Nations stock? Seriously? Who'd ever buy any of that?