sweaty craiq

The joys of competitive sport so many answers to be found to so many questions, so much better than go belly up and stay up dont you think Those with better vision will see that it would be no great difference to the situation we have now except you need to improve yourself every year to stay up and the bottom 4 will always be in the radar of the top 4 of tier 2 as the ground to build from to hit top 8 You flat capping Luddites need to get out more

We cannot go part time to full time and vice versa, the gap is too big hence the solution lies within some sort of full time tier two I am a two full time tens and believe this structure will lead us to that in 3 years, if fax Leigh and Fev finish in the top 4 then I see all FT next season and much stronger the season after

Martyn you are correct we all have opinions and media will always show bias I do not buy the Telegraph expecting them to sing the praises of all things liberal and the socialist worker was never a fan of Maggie

Do they keep the cash pot by not paying players and staff on contracts? If not how do they do it

Entering a new dawn it would be very disturbing if those with most to gain are not a least half full types, I do believe we can be optimistic because we have a great product we just happen to be poop at selling and have divided our customer base

Yes it is about money, but not just what we have but what more we can attract Currently club A has no guaranteed path to SL, is difficult to market to fans and investors/philanthropists - this new system gives hope to fans and a guarantee of promotion to the latter for a sum under £1m subject to on field performance, that is now a realistic objective imo because what's a million to a wealthy man/woman or a group of such As a result cash will come into the game the second tier becomes a flowing river and not the stagnant pond it is now I can't see Fev having a problem finding that sum, Leigh won't and I believe fax also Aston knows Sheffield are a big fish in a tiny pond and haven't the fan base to go further, they have probably maxed grants and education funding to keep all the overseas at the club so this is as good as it gets playing out of a ploughed field with fans behind a glass screen

That is why the proposed funding to the second tiers top clubs is key. They must be FT, and must run on the max cap (£900k?) that way if a club takes the gamble to save money they will end up in the second tier. I expect 6 full time clubs in the second tier in 2015

It would be unlikely a part time club could step into SL as an equal, that is one reason for the changes - allowing a failed club to remain in SL is a joke

Its a weighted question John, imo aimed at proving a belief held at your HQ. At present we await the level of funding to tier2 if it is that previously muted then we will have 6/7 full time clubs and that imo will provide a vibrant mid 8 comp after a tough league campaign. Do you prefer a or b would have been better at this stage

A better poll question would have been 'is the new proposal better than the licencing we currently have?' My personal preference being 2x10, then 2x12/3x8, then straight p&r, then licencing - so how do I answer the question?

1. I would hope we can go 10/12 then 12/12 if we have sufficient clubs that can come to the table, we may even get more than 20 FT clubs by year 3 2. No it wouldn't, £19m per season and you have 1.2m and 700k more if we can secure a french tv deal 4. Isn't that a shocking stat after 6 years of franchising, things must get better

My views on this are that this will be in play for about 3 years, during that time I expect 20 clubs to become full time (Toulouse and a welsh club in that number), and will have had 2/3 years to tune the back office/academies etc. At that point we change to two full time tens with straight p&r, what we should have done now but I can understand why we haven't

Imagine the importance of that 4 v 5 middle eight decider for SL, massive massive game That split on money should see 6 full time clubs in sl2 minimum

Great structure to expand the game compared to now, I too expect Toulouse in the second tier 2015

Martyn, what is amazons turnover compared to RL? Would Amazon have any investors if they didn't have a clear path to market? Do amazons investors have the same objectives as those in sport- I do not know one person who is looking for a return from a private sports club, the motivation is different and understanding that may help you assist in taking our game forward from your privileged positionI operate on a smaller scale than Amazon, we don't spend what we don't have, we understand our market/opportunities and sell on value to our strengths, we grow through profits and reinvestment as the bankers reputation has been rightly earned during the recent years At some point my assetts may be capitalised, at that point I may want to put tens of millions into my club to leave a legacy after I become maggot food, I wouldn't do that with the structures in place now or proposed. I don't want guarantees because life doesn't work that way but I want to know that if I achieved results the progression is guaranteed and immediate - your proposal disenfranchises the people who can move our sport forward, let clubs find their level at that moment in time and ensure they can live the dream in the future RL clubs are not global brands, they are the sum total of local passion. If we want brands then we create 10 new clubs in 10 catchment areas across the UK and throw all the tv money at them and take the gamble, wasn't that the dream in 1994? The ones who will support this are the so called RL evangelists and the clubs who are one of the ten, maybe the short term pain will be worth it but will Warrington fans watch the Mersey saints at langtree park? That is now one desperate roll of the dice we do not need to make IMO but that is where you logic ends up

Great post

How can a business spend money it hasn't got and remain in business Martyn - isn't that why we are where we are and franchising has failed?The laws of the real world must be implanted in the RL world asap, who are you or I to tell a club they are not worthy. That is a gross mixture of stupidity and arrogance from a defeatist with no business understanding Competition is the lifeblood of any vibrant industry and RL has so much to sell if we make the dinosaurs extinct and focus on the wonderful product we have together with the value it will bring to our partners - I say this employing 1900 people and making £15m profits in 2013 in a business that was nearly belly up 10 years ago operating in the private sector ( sorry about the penis measuring) We take on people 5x our size and wipe the floor with them on the bottom line, 10 years ago we were laughed at and in your mentality would have our ambitions denied, that flat cap is impacting on your vision imo

Martyn's having a laugh pal, great wind up by him. At first glance you think he's being serious, sign of a good wind up merchant that, well done sir and I hope the circulation continues to rise

its our duty to keep up rambling on , the more outside the box the posts the better I heard the championships had a 5 year tv deal at £40m to move the season

Really!!

A few hypotheticals in my post, but the exclusion scenario must pose a huge threat to lower tier clubs with ambition so do they simply die, do they become feeders and die from within or do they create a new product? In those options mine would be the latter, but let's hope those choices are not relevant

That game was in the SL era when the season started December and the GF was July or August On a side note if exclusion continues the rest need to look at how to compete and moving the season is the first thing I would advocate for survival and creating an alternative product

I recall widnes v leigh 2nd game of the season with both clubs dreaming of sl around the millenium - near 7000 crowd that was bigger than most premiership ru games that day - where did we go wrong

Please read the post if you don't understand it ask this iPhone kills me

I stated that ring fencing SL allows them to take the pieces of silver, slash playing and development budgets to pay off debt, I stated that is what is happening now imo and is not good for the game We need to improve our pool of FT players eligible for eng/wales/France in the short term 20 clubs does that for what we currently have, longer term I expect those 20 to grow their own wood via the junior games promotion and would also advocate centrally run academies as the majority of clubs have shown they can't produce players, possibly wire Wigan saints Leeds and hull to stand alone with a Calder Kirklees and Lancashire run by the RFL Increased intensity at the top will put bums on seats and viewers on subs, a relegation/promotion scrap does the same Anyone thinking this robs revenue from the elite when you consider the opportunities it opens is very blinkered