Les Tonks Sidestep
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Posts posted by Les Tonks Sidestep
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On 11/11/2023 at 10:43, Griff said:
Bradford's improved?
How bad was it?
You didn't have the pleasure of visiting Odsal in the '70s?
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19 minutes ago, Dave T said:
As per my response to EW, they absolutely could do the ranking part, they did it 15 years ago, they found the admin a bit hard so gave up.
That's because to do it properly/correctly is hard...and the IMG scheme doesn't tackle that fact.
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58 minutes ago, sam4731 said:
They are also told that if they do play in it they have to pay 500k for the privilege.
They're 'invited' to play in the CC in the same way that I'm 'invited' to holiday in the Maldives every year.
Good grief, this was sorted several years ago
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On 08/11/2023 at 08:37, The Hallucinating Goose said:
I was in Cleethorpes. I think that could be the earliest I've ever seen one up. You seen one yet?
One neighbour has had theirs up since at least 31st October (when I first spotted it, they usually wait till 1st Nov). Another out Thurs up on the 5th.
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1 hour ago, Toby Chopra said:
What Cas bodge? They're doing the work to meet the criteria, that's the idea.
Have you actually looked at their proposals? If they undertake the work it'll worsen the experience of the average fan and really is just a box tick exercise.
Earlier today a friend and I were discussing the changes we've seen to clubs' stadiums/grounds between our first and last visits spanning the last 50 years+ and agreed that there's been essentially no change to those of Cas, Keighley, Wakefield* and Workington. Almost every other club has improved their ground beyond recognition through development or moving, with Sheffield being a possible exception.
*this will certainly change in the next year
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3 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:
Well, the system is about to go through a massive change with an outside actor who has real power and little incentive to let weak clubs off the hook. We'll see.
There'll be no material change. The Cas bodge will confirm that......
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19 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:
But presumably minimum standards will? Perhaps the gradings are a bit of a red herring here - if they don't have a stadium agreement at the end of 2024, they won't be playing in Superleague in 2025, and that would have been the case pre-IMG.
That said, on reflection I do think you have a point in that the COMBINED gradings/standards regime does need a forward looking ability and if there isn't one then that does need looking at.
Minimum standards have been ignored for 15 years +. It's not going to change.
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6 hours ago, Anita Bath said:
The financial issues referred to in the article have not suddenly emerged….and the end date for their lease was also known wasnt it?
You would think that criteria used to produce a sustainable super league would pay attention to the security of tenure associated with the ground.
Own it? Yes/no
If no, how many years left on lease?
Ownership/primacy of tenure is worth a mere 0.25 pts. No club without either of those should be eligible to be classed as an A grade.
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3 hours ago, Damien said:
Great news:
AXIOM PROVIDE POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Axiom Yorkshire can confirm that both planning applications for a major upgrade to the Wheldon Road stadium and a significant new employment development on the Axiom site, at Junction 32 on the M62 have taken a major step forward this weekAxiom Yorkshire can confirm that both planning applications for a major upgrade to the Wheldon Road stadium and a significant new employment development on the Axiom site, at Junction 32 on the M62 have taken a major step forward this week, following the recent decision by National Highways to lift its holding objection to the Axiom proposals and with Wakefield Council’s highways team also confirming that they have no objection.
Planning applications for both projects were submitted at the end of 2022 and have been going through the process of being rigorously assessed by Wakefield Council’s planning team. As these highways matters were the last major issues which needed agreement on the Axiom scheme, the planning applications could be decided in the coming weeks, with Wakefield Council’s confirmation of a planning committee date hoped for as soon as possible.
If planning is approved for both projects, the circa £200 million Axiom Yorkshire employment, logistics and manufacturing proposals will create over 2,200 jobs for local people and provide £12.2 million of funding towards major upgrades at Wheldon Road and £15 million of highways improvements to the Junction 32 roundabout.
There are still the EA objections to both developments which are far bigger difficulties.
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In other DR news, our nearest Championship neighbours have partnered with Wigan
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3 minutes ago, Agbrigg said:
makes you wonder how after reading that lot. Perhaps just demonstrates you can tell IMG whatever you want and none of it is audited.
Memories of 2011, Crusaders and licencing.......
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The 8th 'best' club in the UK and the best B grade, within spitting distance of an A.....
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1 hour ago, Griff said:
Well, we'll soon see how it fits into the calendar but 31 games is already more than the 30 that we played in 2023 and you've ignored the Challenge Cup and the play-offs.
? 27 + 4 was 31 when I were a lad (and still is I believe).....and the CC and play offs existed back in 2019
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13 minutes ago, Griff said:
I believe we've lost the Bash. One game less there.
Assuming 26 league fixtures + a maximum of 5 (2 RR, QF, SF and F) 1895 games for any Championship club reaching the final, that would be a total of 31* games over the season, the same as Sheffield and Widnes played in 2019 (27 league + 4x 1895).
There was of course a reason why the number of 1895 games was reduced in subsequent seasons.....
*ignoring CC
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And the 1895 Cup:
In 2024 the 13 England-based Championship clubs will join eight League One clubs (Cornwall will not be taking part) in seven groups of three. Groups will be seeded and regionalised, with League One clubs awarded home advantage in any fixtures against Championship opposition. The top team in each group will qualify for Quarter Finals, joined by the best-performing second-placed team – the latter to be determined by competition points initially and then, if necessary, by points difference.
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Next season's league structures confirmed with a few is to dot around the 1895 Cup and L1. 2025 structure still up for grabs....
The Betfred Championship will continue as a 14-team competition, with the top six teams qualifying for a Play-Off series culminating in a Grand Final to determine the champions. This will be played at the home ground of the team ranked highest during the regular season.
Betfred League One will be a nine-club competition, with each side playing 20 matches – 10 at home, and 10 away. This will involve four loop fixtures for each team, to be determined by seedings based on 2023 finishing positions (a contingency model has also been devised for an eight-team competition, which would see each team play the other three times in a 21-round programme). The League One Grand Final will be played on October 6 at home ground of the team ranked highest during the regular season.
(1895 Cup) In 2024 the 13 England-based Championship clubs will join eight League One clubs (Cornwall will not be taking part) in seven groups of three. Groups will be seeded and regionalised, with League One clubs awarded home advantage in any fixtures against Championship opposition. The top team in each group will qualify for Quarter Finals, joined by the best-performing second-placed team – the latter to be determined by competition points initially and then, if necessary, by points difference.
https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/1895-cup-championship-structure-kEuYP/
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Fev have announced
The Betfred Championship will continue as a 14-team competition, with the top six teams qualifying for a Play-Off series culminating in a Grand Final to determine the champions. This will be played at the home ground of the team ranked highest during the regular season.
Betfred League One will be a nine-club competition, with each side playing 20 matches – 10 at home, and 10 away. This will involve four loop fixtures for each team, to be determined by seedings based on 2023 finishing positions (a contingency model has also been devised for an eight-team competition, which would see each team play the other three times in a 21-round programme). The League One Grand Final will be played on October 6 at home ground of the team ranked highest during the regular season.
https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/1895-cup-championship-structure-kEuYP/
Edit to add: Ongoing discussions re 2025 structure
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1 hour ago, Taffy Tiger said:
Hi JH , I think it was around 1,500 seats and a capacity around 10k . However , some work has started on the main stand to take out some of the seats and replace them with padded seats and cordened off from other areas to meet IMG requirements . The plastic seats removed are then going into Princess Street Stand opposite the main stand, with more added to bring us to the minimum 2k seats . This may affect capacity a little , but we will still be well above 5k minimum and in effect could increase our IMG score a little as our utilisation score will be bigger .
Is that with or without planning permission?
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3 hours ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:
Just opened one of those 'to the resident ' letters that turned up earlier. Evidently I'm invited to a consultation about 120 houses that they want to build near me. Now 120 x 5 is a potential 600 new people in the borough and my lot are within spitting distance of the 130,000 mark. Do I fight my nimbyisms for the good of catchment. Decisions, decisions.
There's still the unanswered question of how catchment area population will be measured going forward; you might have to wait till 2031.......
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On 02/11/2023 at 15:21, Blind side johnny said:
The salary cap is the same as for SL. However, clubs need to demonstrate that they can afford the expenditure before getting anywhere near that amount. In addition salaries of players in PT clubs are very hard to monitor - in a FT environment everything that is earned which might be associated with the club counts towards the cap. In a PT situation it is difficult to demand that players reveal all of their earnings from outside the game. It could be a minefield but not club outside of SL (except Leigh in 2022) has ever approached the cap, and that includes Fev in 2023.
This has been a perceived problem since 1895 by the way.
I'm not sure that is still the case with a 'Sustainability Cap' only being applicable now to 'Financial Focus' clubs, ie those in 'special measures', and even then it's at the RFL's discretion
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Ken Mattingly who was Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16, helped rescue the crew of the Apollo 13 mission and only one of 2 people to have been to the moon and flown a Shuttle mission has died at the age of 87.
Missed this from a few days go. Many of a certain age will remember the excitement of the Apollo missions of the late 60s/early 70s
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21 minutes ago, tuutaisrambo said:
I think I read that IMG only make a return if the sports grows commercially..........so they aren't going to make anything
Suppose it comes down to how long they want to put their time and money in........the results aren't great so far.
I'd have expected more work on the sports 'Brand Image' by now........Rugby League has a major image problem that could be improved with better design and marketing but so far none of that has changed. I'd have thought it would be the first thing they did.
Who know's maybe they have and were behind Leigh Leopards
They've apparently suggested 2 things:
1 Get rid of the loop fixtures
2 Rebrand (change the name of) SL
with the SL clubs rejecting both.....
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4 minutes ago, tuutaisrambo said:
The game is contracting........not growing........it's got zero chance when the sport is effectively run by a few self interested SL chairmen of the 'bigger' clubs.
Super League has one genuinely big sporting organisation and that is Leeds........the rest not so much........and they are the pinnacle the rest of the game are meant to aspire to? Are St Helens an elite club? their stadium is about as good as Doncasters and never full.
The sport needs genuine independent leadership looking out for the game as a whole.........the RFL and IMG clearly aren't that. The score Bradford received tells you all you need to know about how fair and transparent the grading was.
A grade B should be just that.....Bs should go up and gown depending on on field success.......giving a ranking score within each grade makes what happens on the pitch pointless.
We need to build slowly and celebrate incremental gains.......not tell people they'll never make the grade.
IMG will want a setup similar the the NRL....effectively growing the Pro Game (SL) and reducing the rest to semi pro 'Park Footy' as they say down under.
The problem is the UK only has one big pro club (Leeds) and a handful of medium ones..........the difference between bottom end SL clubs and top semi pro clubs is minimal.
NRL is the most popular sport in 2 major states in Australia..........SL isn't the most popular sport in any town in England.
Sydney Roosters are the Man Utd of Australia...........Wigan Warriors are the Wigan Athletic of England.
IMG have zero chance of realising their plan without attracting massive investment.....their new TV deal is less than before.
Sky use the sport to fill gaps in their schedule..........like the BBC do with Bargain Hunt.
Major brands and sponsors aren't interested in Rugby League in England.......why would they be when we have Premier League Soccer swallowing up every minute of the sports media.
The game is structured so that 90% of the season means nothing.....a qualifying exercise....and now they are dropping P&R which is the only point of interest in the regular season outside the play offs.
IMO all this 'Grading' will do is erode interest in the lower levels of the sport......Fev have cut their spend in half and so will others.... can't see it boosting interest in the top level either........there's only so many ways you can sell Wigan Vs Warrington to anyone not from Wigan or Warrington.
The game is skint so why alienate a large section of the sport by telling them they will effectively never be big enough or good enough.
Really IMG need 12 clubs like Leeds (high profile cities)......but the uk is a country obsessed with soccer....... there just isn't enough money or interest in the game here.....there's no gaps in the market or places to expand into....they all have Soccer or Rugby Union teams already.
Sorry for the rant and back to your point I agree.....they'll be gone before their deal is up....... and probably wanting their investment back.
I'm not sure they've actually invested a great deal.
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Chris Brereton
in Featherstone Rovers
Posted
It's secured against...
Land and buildings on the north side of post office road and land to the north east of post office road, Featherstone