Toby Chopra

It really isn't. Did you actually watch the season? All the metrics are trending upwards. Could it be even better? Of course. Could the NRL help with that? Definitely. But all the talk of SL dying, a car crash, etc is just people pushing an agenda.

The RFL can do what they want, as they did last year when they expanded to 14 out of the blue. It seems the RFL have got themselves into a situation where they have to let London in to get a deal with the RFL, but letting London in drains some of the new money from the start. So it's a bit of a standoff.

The moral hazard is off the charts if they did that again!

Ah, apols, I misunderstood your comment. It's weird thing you highlight though. Maybe we should focus on packaging up the CC for Youtube, but let whoever wants it simulcast the final.

In this day and age, it really doesn't, especially if you're targeting new and younger audiences. In fact, this says that even over 55s have doubled their watching of Youtube via TV sets in the last year. The rate of change in viewing habits is exponential, and given they don't pay us, we can let the BBC go. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-adults/tuning-into-youtube-uks-media-habits-revealed

The IMG system might be on its way out, but it's very unlikely it'll be replaced by old fashioned P&R. More likely something even harder to break into, so people should be careful what they wish for.

Good post. Spot on about what the strength of SL is, but I'm not sure the ARLC are demanding what you say. They're demanding London, which is about a fantasy (or at best, a punt) on what they'll bring to the project. They'd happily shed 3 or 4 other teams, it's the existing clubs and their RFL allies that are resisting that.

At some point in the next couple of weeks the RFL will need to make a decision on whether to admit London as an extra team, as they're not getting in via the gradings. I can't see them doing that without a guarantee of extra NRL money now. Adding London in 2028 as part of an NRL investment, with a year to sort out the logistics, remains the best option. It doesn't really matter what London do in 2027 - they should behave like an expansion team like the Dolphins, not a team seeking "promotion".

If the NRL was only targetting English rugby league's limited existing audience I'd advise them not to bother. But I'd hope they're setting their horizons much bigger than that, although they do need to understand that this is a long term project. The NFL and NBA have spent decades building their audiences for Gamepass and League Pass, and they're still only in the hundreds of thousands as best we can tell. Although that translates into revenue in the tens of millions.

Agree they're not in the US sports bracket today, but they're a league that's done almost nothing to ever promote itself in the UK, unlike the US sports that have been actively doing that for up to 30 years. The NRL is just about to get going. Hard to say how successful they will be, but I do believe they are the best rugby competition in the world - either code - and there's huge potential for them to grow if they get the approach right. Whether they do, we'll see, and remains to be seen if they need SL to be part of that.

I'm not sure we know that for sure. I think it's fair to say that piggybacking on the existing Superleague customer base would give them a head start in promoting WatchNRL here, but the US sports show that you can build a customer base for your league and your service without having a domestic link. The NRL considers itself in that bracket. I think they're mostly right. The NRL needs to decide whether paying X million for Superleague - which also brings other benefits to the wider sport - is better value than using the money to promote WatchNRL on their own.

And we've done it in the past, with the creation of Superleague and the entry of Catalan. The moaning from some quarters still continues to this day, but the majority of the game doesn't doubt they were the correct decisions. Sometimes you have to look past the immediate noise and be bold, but you need strong leadership to do that.

You're right, my mistake, I read the wrong year. But with performance grading now only done over 2 years, and weighted to the most recent year, if anything London will gain, I'd have thought. Stadium and crowd scores are pretty much the same I'd have thought.

I'm open to suggestions but on the face of it it's completely impossible for Widnes to make up more than a 4 point gap on London given they've finished below them this year and it's only a two year average now. Even a balance sheet stunt wouldn't come close.

I mean, it's b*ll*x for them to say they're part of a strategic approach, because there isn't one. We know the RFL certainly don't have one, and the NRL seem to be making it up as they go along too. So it's just words from London to try and get themselves into SL. Which I think is fair enough, whatever it takes from their perspective given the roadblocks they face. But it still remains, there should be an expansion strategy, they should be a key part of it, they won't succeed in SL without it, but they still shouldn't be leading it. Edit: So perhaps we agree!