The storm

Im willing to bet none of us can name a single japanese rugby union team Its a corporate event sport in japan

Im not sure why derek beaumont makes meaningless appointments Is chris chester the coach or not

Is barrie mcdermott watching the same game as me

Aa castleford and wakefield trinity own their grounds, they are in fact in a better position than Hull or wigan who own nothing Hull also pay a rental fee of £600,000 a year to play atca football stadium which to me makes zero economic sense. So Walefield Trinity a far better position than both Hull and Wigan. Incidently both Hull and Wigan have owners who speak loudly and clearly for super league clubs getting the bulk of the sky money when both these clubs have been in relative decline in terms of developing alternative revenue streams, over the last 10 years. Both clubs therefore need their own grounds on the scale of a warrington or a st helens before once great clubs start to drop off the radar.

These are fairly reasonable points The clubs that own their stadium facility are best describef as elite. Many rugby league clubs have been owned or managed by fairly average and even poor businessmen. Warrington and st helens stand out as very good clubs, but based on ground ownership featherstone rovers and Batley are fabulous examples of teams who have progressed in the right way. My own team widnes vikings have received over £500,000 from supporters trusts although i think thst may include a proposed £120,000 injection of cash for next year. In that respect i view supporter involvement as critical for aspiring teams. The problem with wigan and Hull is most definately the fact that they no longer own their own stadium and ard therefore unable to create alternative revenue streams. Indeed as hull kr move towards purchasing their own ground again they will also perhaps achieve elite status. Clubs in our sport need to be central to the local community and the fact this maybe in batley or barrow, or featherstone of halifax should be embraced rather than neglected. The great efforts of whitehaven and workington and barrow have largely gone unnoticed by a critical set of rugby league journalists and north wales crusaders have also been a huge success. Our key strengths are right before us and in plain sight

The teams have budgets of £400,000 dollars each Its a start im guessing

Really? Wow Well several of my mates now watchvthe games on sky ratger tgan going the match. Its like the self service till phemomena at ASDA where eventually there will be no people in attendance

So why has the value of the deal gone down The sky deal is also costing millions in loss attendance fugures and match day sales

It is not an inspiring place im afraid

Salford seem to have down graded everything about the club

There are a multitude of doom and gloom merchants in rugby league journalism. They no doubt have low ranking degrees and struggled to find a decebt job, so went solo reoorting on football matches and the like for a hundred quid a throw (this site is the exception to that rule). We need to talk our sport up

Franchise super league. In order of eligibikity 1 Catalan Dragons 2 Wigan 3 Leeds Rhinos 4 Bradford Bulls 5 Toulouse 6 St Helens 7 Warrington Wolves 8 Hull KR 9 Hull FC 10 Newcastle Thunder 11 York 12 Featherstone And contenders Salford red devils Barrow WIDNES Huddersfield castleford Tigers WAKEFIELD Trinity HALIFAX Panthers London broncos

Im gonna buy a season ticket for my own team widnes vikings next season without a doubt. This season ive been to more games that in recent years and its that routine that is needed.

That's all it boils down to And who can grab the most of that pot without any consideration for any of the other teams, their future development and potential and the wider implications for the game I've read what Davy and Leneghan have said and their words and thought process is borderline disastrous for our sport

Rugby league journalists are on the whole very poor I'm sorry to say. Some sites thrive in negativity with my own special favourite for talking the sport down being love rugby league.