HawkMan

So, 500,000 of 25m is 2%. Does the beeb spend 2% of it's sports budget on RL? Yes ....probably. Not forgetting the generosity of my initial number of RL fans figure.

This old chestnut about TGG and the beeb. Now roughly I believe the UK has a 60m population, 50 in England, 5 Scotland, 3.5 Wales and 1.5 Northern Ireland. So let's stick to England, now let's ask how many RL fans are there in England? I'll be generous, so generous you can call me Mr Generous, and say 500,000, that's really generous but so be it. Thats 1% of 50m, now just counting sports budget, not overall budget, do the BBC spend more or less than 1% on RL? What live sports do they have now? Tennis, Athletics, Snooker and RL are the biggies. No live football except for FA Cup outside of major tournaments, lots of radio coverage of course. Mustn't forget The Open of course, but that's just highlights now. So I would say that the BBC spends more than 1% of it's sports budget on RL in a situation where at best 1% are fans, and is therefore blameless regarding any problems RL may have, QED. BTW it is a tight call who has more fans, RL or Women's football, die hard fans probably RL but casual fans probably Women's football as Men footy fans will give it a watch if that's the only football going. I was in a pub at weekend and it was on.

I'll be watching Leeds/Hull today and Wigan/Wire tomorrow, then sorry but it's the footy at 5 England vs Andorra, we'll it is a WC qualifying game. Might be a slight drop off in viewers for the 5.30 Magic match. Who's playing then ? Oh no, it's Leigh!! Conspiracy Conspiracy!

League structures eh? Here's an idea.. To be introduced ASAP preferably next season. No relegation from SL, top 8 from Championship added to form 20 team SL in two conferences, places determined by league positions. Conference A SL 1st place, 3rd,5th, 7th,9th and 11th, Championship 2nd, 4th,6th, and 8th. Conference B SL 2,4,6,8,10 ,12 and Championship 1,3,5,and 7. Remaining clubs Championship and L1 to form new Championship. ELIMINATION PHASE Conferences A and B , ten teams each play other twice. = 18 games. Top 4 in each qualify for; QUALIFYING PHASE 8 teams carry over points and record from Elimination phase, play 4 teams from other conference home and away, 8 more games equals 26 in total for season. Top 4 into semi finals and Grand Final. Beaten semi finalists 27 game season, GF teams 28 game season. REPECHAGE TOURNAMENT 12 teams that don't qualify for QUALIFYING PHASE enter REPECHAGE, on offer a new trophy, something to play for AND playing for their place in SL for following season. 12 teams , points record etc NOT CARRIED OVER, into three groups of 4. 6 matches equals 24 game season EXCEPT three group winners and best second placed team go into semi finals and REPECHAGE FINAL - Trophy awarded. Two of the three bottom teams in the three groups, the two with worst records play off against top 2 in Reconstructed Championship for SL place. TV MONEY- more teams means less money right? Not necessarily, there's no reason why teams can't have different amounts from tv pot, a sliding scale depending on league positions. Higher you finish more of a % of the pot you get next season.

Arteta in trouble, wants old job back( probably true).

If I was a Norwich supporter I wouldn't be fussed either.

Bournemouth last night looked chocker, 12,000 which is capacity, I didn't see any empty seats. Bramall Lane tonight looks healthy, difficult to tell on tv, but looks pretty solid attendance, North of 25,000 at least, 23,000 of them not smiling at present, they're losing.

My God!! Just checked ; Galatasaray 1 St Johnstone 1 Either St Johnstone have a good team or Galatasaray have really gone downhill.

4 times the yearly SL contract for one player, yep its true that is what I read he's on. Messi to Everton? Well he's a bit young to retire from top class football. I just don't want him to end up at Manchester City. Grealish Messi and Kane and it's over for the title for everyone else already.

ni·hil·ism (nī′ə-lĭz′əm, nē′-) n. Philosophy The doctrine that values are meaningless. Relentless negativity or cynicism suggesting an absence of values. Psychiatry A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world does not exist. THE NRL = The Nihilistic Rugby League

Just to emphasise what a selfish calamitous decision by the NRL, proof that the people in this country really get behind International tournaments held here, Women's Football Euro 2022 is going to break attendance records.* RL here definitely gets more bums on seats than Women's football, though perhaps that'll change. Personally I think the tournament should go ahead without Aus and NZ. BTW Italy failed to qualify for Russia 2018 WC , and if they fail to qualify for Qatar along with Germany, Brazil, Netherlands or whatever it'll still go ahead and be meaningful. Aus and NZ not participating in RLWC is their problem not anyone else's. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58088999 * Leigh will host matches , so apply for your tickets early Harry Stottle......maybe not!!

Don't think it's too gloomy having WC next year. BBC should still be showing same number of games, Qatar WC doesn't start to Nov 13th, most of RLWC will be done. The warm up games for Home Nations for Qatar will be on Sky. The Premier League would have been a factor this year anyway, so no change there. The only problem might be securing football grounds, because they'll be squeezing in games before the 6 week close down, 2 weeks for warm ups and 4 for the tournament. So getting the grounds might be tricky. On the other hand , see below. October 2022 - MOTD GARY LINEKER ( to camera) " before our next game, just a reminder that the BBC is the only place to bring you double World Cup coverage. Qatar starts in 6 weeks but before then we have..." RLWC TRAILER SHOWN. LINEKER " Yes two world cups, let's get behind our home nation teams" ALAN SHEARER " absolutely Gary, looking forward to it" LINEKER " now our next game, bottom two teams of the Premier League, Manchester United and Arsenal " ( well I can but hope)

Genuine question- what exactly are the criteria to be selected for the NZ Maoris or Indigenous Australians. Is it just a race qualification or culture or what ? It just doesn't sit well with me tbh. Does this project an image of a 21st century dynamic sport.

What effect covid19 has had on attendances, such as are some people simply not bothered about going to live sport, or are they put off by having to prove their double jab status, or is money simply too tight, lots of folks have lost jobs. These questions may be answered to some degree when The EFL and EPL returns. If they suffer a drop off then it's not just a RL thing, but if they don't see a reduction then that's a different situation altogether.

Terrible start to the season for Celtic, out of CL and a first day league defeat, first time that's happened since 1997. How sad !

Incredibly watching the Eurosport channels I keep getting sport , where's the endless studio chat that the beeb have on BBC 1? Eurosport ch 985 football- Sweden vs Australia women, yes Australia!

Disappointed with Dechambeau, I was looking forward to his mighty hits but the course just doesn't suit him. Hope Speith wins, seems a real gent.

Pre just means before the event in question. Pre heat oven before cooking, rather than switch oven on and put food straight in. Pre order: on Amazon for instance, look at product on sale and order it, or pre order if it's not available yet. Pre menstrual tensions are feelings women get ,ie mood swings before menstruation, ie it's before the event. BTW I never never preheat oven before cooking, pop food in and just add 5 minutes to cooking time, same result.

The K.O. Time of 19.15 is I believe the French time. For U.K. thats 18.15, according to my Sky box anyway.

Anyone missing the Euros can watch The Gold Cup, Nth and Central America's version on FREESPORTS Ch 422 on sky box. All games shown complete but not live. Basically 24hrs after the event, but as it's easy to avoid results you can watch as live. I'm enjoying what I've seen so far. Tonight 8pm Qatar vs Panama followed by Honduras vs Greneda. Qatar are a guest team in preparation for '22. They actually look OK, won't embarrass themselves next year. Saw their match with Panama already repeated tonight, and it was some second half.

Countdown lexicographer Susie Dent often talks of the fluidity of language and semantics are decided by usage in the long term not the other way round. There isn't a word fixed in all time for its meaning whereby if enough people use it differently it's wrong. If enough people use a word to mean something eventually it becomes that meaning . Football means association football in the whole of Sth America, Europe except Ireland, Asia, Africa Central America. The exceptions are Nth America, Australasia, and er..the M62 towns. So 90% of the world use football meaning soccer so by the popular usage giving meaning idea Football means soccer. If you need to differentiate then it's Rugby League Football or Aussie Rules Football, just as it's Cricket World Cup, Rugby League World Cup but just THE World Cup for soccer. Actually I'm not sure it's beneficial RL being confused with football. RL needs it's own moniker, I would use Rugby 13's.

You misunderstand, I'm glad you've posted this thread, I was thinking of doing it myself. The thread on AOB has been running for a few days, I just wanted to draw attention to it, sorry if that for some reason disturbs you.

There is a thread running devoted to this on AOB along with a 7 option poll. Please visit if you care to. https://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php?/topic/362585-sunday-8pm-alternative-viewing-poll-added/

18 minutes into this episode of Selwyn Froggit with Bill Maynard, the conversation with the Duke and Selwyn turns to RL ending with Selwyn demonstrating with a cushion as a Rugby ball.