Rugbyleaguesupporter

I don't want IMG to be ground breaking. I don't think there is anything they will suggest that hasn't been tried before in some form. Games of rugby league will be played in a stadium. What I want from IMG is relentless focus on increasing interest in game- and getting right mix between increasing ticket and commercial sales (ideally from more people going) tv income and streaming That will hopefully combine with increasing player pool and community interest- so we have sustainable growth. No magic wand needed- just improve on basics and be smart- won't be quick fix either

Darts vs rugby league is bit tiresome. Darts positives are World championship sells out (but only 2.5k seats or so a session) and PL nights although not all selling out anymore, they get 7-10k plus. The big two things to learn from Darts is how most people are aware of it, and it has a good social media game. Outside of world championship (which records 500k to over 1m- well above super league for the last week of it) the tv audiences are similar. Downsides- pdc only has 32-40 full time players. Earnings outside of that aren't great once expenses come into play. Longer tournemounts (grand prix and grand slam) typically get 1k on midweek nights- showing a lack of a dedicated base, unlike RL

Possibly. Sky would pay more as no production costs. It's tricky- for £15k or so you can get a good I follow 4 camera production- at a quality sky would probably broadcast (certainly on red button). For a proper broadcast your looking at much more- 12 cameras minimum, sound engineers, a full production team. Cost is multi millions across a season

So apart from F1 (when it started Sky offered this for £10 in order to get sign ups to their broadband/ entertainment and in recognition they only had half the races) I think 90% plus, could even be 95%, opted for whole package. Slight difficulty for us is that we are probably Sky 5th biggest contract, so that will get attention. (Sky PL at £1,100m a year, cricket at £220m ish F1 at £180m ish EFL at £120m) being bigger Apologies if I've missed one Edit: https://media.sportbusiness.com/2019/03/skys-reunion-with-us-pga-championship-to-stretch-to-2023/ Above shows IMG not a silver bullet, and Sky reducing spend from 2014-15 peak

@Harry Stottle when you factor in inflation- £40m to £25m is more like a 50% drop (from £50m to £25m in real terms) Real terms (for all readers who may not be aware) is adjusting prices in past years to current prices. E.g. if I bought a Mars bar for £1 last year, I'd expect it to be £1.10 now with 10% inflation @gingerjon I don't think it's a mistep by Sky at all. They have record viewing numbers for test cricket and F1. I don't think its a major issue either way. If sky lose EFL rights I could see 1,2,3 return and some dedicated channels, but I don't see them wanting to revert back to channels 1 to 5 with some content hidden on red buttons. There has only been one big Sky mistep in last 10 years and that was 16 to 19 premier league auction where Sky bid too low in first round and BT won the second best package of matches cheaply, which meant Sky had to bet very big in second round to secure the rest. That cost Sky £500 to £600 million- a massive hit. Arguably helped boost Premier League popularity though, so there was some benefit

With hindsight, we'd be laughing if RFL kept £10m a year of the last tv deal in bank every year. Perfect storm of people throughout the sport running down game and claiming sky deal was rubbish. However, we are where we are. Tough call I suspect- renew for additional year at £25m or new five year at £30-32m a year I think might be on table. Latter roughly coincides with spfl, cricket and f1 rights. *no insider knowledge

Cheeky one would be to ask if she could get her bosses to pay more for the SL contract. A more nuanced one might be along lines of: How do you deal with conflict of being employed by Sky when discussing wider financial or broadcasting issues.

I think there is a balance to this. I think rugby league is great, but I also think there are areas we can improve. I also think rugby (both codes) will always be behind football in entertainment value as simply it's harder to score goals in football than points in rugby. Therefore inferior teams have higher chance of winning/ keeping score tight. You can also kick the ball long in football and achieve success, unlike often in rugby (harder to go end to end passing backwards) The game on its ###### posters and comments are irritating, add little and corrosive, but I think it's right to say the product isn't always the best

In case I've missed it: 600k average wheelchair final (from 7pm to 10pm) 800k women's final 1.4million mens final

£15 early bird, let's not go £20 on day I suppose Sky or BBC won't want costs of two broadcasts

Sorry if I've missed it, but who is ref? How do we know it is an Aussie?

What's the attendance for Emirates looking like? High 40s I hope

@Toby Choprathose RU six nation numbers aren't right. Journalists covering it took total tv revenue (including France and global) Bbc/ itv pay much nearer £3m a game But yes- I agree with your sentiment

@Dave Tplus catalans home games took you to over 100?

We can escape fact that as condition of government funding we needed most matches in North