Gorbals

If the other two games are at Everton and Wembley, makes sense to play at Leeds 3rd. You'd be guaranteed a sellout imo (at either venue) and even if it was a dead rubber, you'd still get an up for it crowd of RL fans hopefully making a racket. A full Elland Rd on a crisp November saturday teatime under the lights with the series at 1-1 could be memorable Locals will still be desperate to visit BMD in autumn, even curious reds I reckon. £20 a ticket in the prole areas might fill it

Surely someone's got the wrong end of the stick here? Leeds makes sense, but not Headingley! I'd have looked elsewhere in London. Wembley has cachet and prestige, but that's diminished when it's not full imo

Revenue is skewed by on-field performance, but take away prize money (broadcasting revenue essentially) and Leeds are comfortably top 10 in terms of commercial and matchday income (based on the accounts released last spring and pertaining to 22-23 season), but only 19th for broadcasting/prize money (cos they finished 19th that season) Their shirt sales placed them as the 16th biggest club in Europe (7th in the UK, above Celtic and Rangers but behind the rich 6) according to UEFA. That's pretty good going for a club without European football and who had recently spent 16 years outside the top flight Their broader commercial income has them in 7th place in the football pyramid (again behind the rich 6), this is despite a terrible shirt sponsorship deal (signed before promotion in 2020 iirc) As you point out, their crowds cannot be top 10 on account of stadium size, but despite this they still ranked 9th in England for matchday revenue, behind the rich 6 and W Ham and Newcastle (owing to their massive stadiums and extra games played in Europe and the cups). Interestingly though (to me), when you adjust for the number of games played, Leeds' £1.4m per game revenue is only 100k less than W Ham and 200k less than Newcastle, but still 9th overall. Brighton are the only other club in England whose stadium generates over £1m per game Adjust for stadium size and Leeds are once again leading the chasing pack and in 7th place for matchday revenue, making £34.12 per punter, only about £3 less than Man City. That's £12 more per punter per game than a club like Villa, or £15 more than Everton, both huge, storied football clubs Of course none of this matters much if you don't get it right on the pitch. Finishing 19th that season earned Leeds £111m in broadcasting payments. 10th place got £138m. That £27m difference equates to a season and a half of matchday revenue for some of the biggest names in English football

Elland Road generates £1.25m a game for Leeds United. For comparison, Leeds Rhino's parent company's entire annual turnover (gate receipts, merch, prize money, broadcasting etc.) is only £11m It's not a perfect stadium, but it is geared to squeezing a lot of money out of matchdays, a lot of which is from all the corporate and hospitality options.

The only way you can get to 21 games is 2 groups of 5 and no semis, or 4-3-3 with 2 interpool games per team in the groups of 3, meaning teams in groups B and C play 4 times each in the group stage, which isn't ideal as it imbalances things Also can't find a reference to 21 games using Google

A group of 5 playing each other once would give you: A vs B, C, D and E (4) B vs C, D and E (3) C vs D and E (2) D vs E (1) 10 games surely? 20 over 2 groups? You'd only get to 21 without semis

How do you get to 18 group games in groups of 4-3-3? (probably should be quoting the other fella's arithmetic but can't work out multiquote!)) Surely you have 6 games in Group A and 3 games in each of B and C. If you have intergroup matches to bump Group B&C's games from 2 to 3, that only adds 3 more doesn't it? So 6 games in A, 3 in B, 3 in C and 3 inter group = 15 group games, so 18 tournament games Whereas your right that 2 pools of 5 generates 2x9 games EDIT: D'oh. I'm an idiot . Surely would be 2x10 Also where is it written it's a 21 game tournament anyway? Sorry for barging in, hardly ever post!