M j M

It seems to be mostly Wigan fans who miss the old days of just outspending everyone else. (Although that club's problems are much wider and include apparently disastrous salary cap management).

I think Salford council would come after them for every penny they owe if they left the council area.

We need stadia appropriate to the size of the club. Huddersfield and other clubs were marked down for their stadia being too big relative to their support as one of the old licencing criteria and it is a genuine factor. There is very little for the sport to gain from clubs playing in vast empty stadia, in fact we know Sky specifically don't like it. Apart from some weird fetish amongst certain fans it's not something that should be encouraged because we can also be pretty certain that it dissuades people from attending too. None of which is to say that clubs shouldn't be ambitious about growing their crowds. But they also need to be realistic about how important stadium layout and size and atmosphere is to people attending. And like it or not the A J Bell is a failure on several fronts. I would expect Salford crowds to grow if and when they are playing in a ground which is more suitable to the size of their support.

On the other hand it would be less appreciated by the people we actually pay to play the sport on the pitch. Which is why I think what Wakefield are doing is misguided. But maintaining a top quality grass or grass-based pitch is an expensive business.

Look at Hull, Huddersfeild, Wigan Huddersfield are a different case as they have, at least for now, an element of ownership and control. Hull and Wigan though, exactly - two of what should be our strongest clubs have major issues one way or another.

Ownership isn't important in itself. Being able to exploit the full commercial opportunities of the stadium is however. And that generally comes with ownership or long leasehold (as many of the financially struggling Super League clubs who rent their stadia and have little control will confirm.)

I'd be amused/amazed even if a club was by poor luck the victim of an HMRC call if they tried to do some revenue or VAT proof in total (based on figures they'd struggle to find anyway). Even then you'd just say "ah that's rubbish we just put out for PR purposes, here's the real list."

Publishing a crowd figure has no impact on the amount of tax payable.

I didn't realise commenting on the poor standard of Hull's pack wasn't allowed on here.

Unfortunately going to Hull FC is a downgrade so that's not looking great for him. I'm genuinely upset by Gale leaving Leeds. From everything I've heard from the club he was still integral to their plans next year and his departure was not planned. Not least because he had only a relatively small amount of salary cap value so his departure doesn't really strategically achieve much.

Warrington having a Parramatta year.

Two year deal.

This is BS. Gale was poor and disrupted by injuries in 2021. But go back and look at that Challenge Cup semi final against Wigan last year and you'll see a player dictating things and implementing a game plan to perfection. Without Gale Leeds would not have won the cup in 2020.

If there's anything other than an all-white, able bodied cast some people are going to be triggered by it. It's the way of the modern world unfortunately.

As a Leeds fan I'll be pretty angry if the club released Gale. Him, Sezer and Austin in the halves was supposed to robustly cover all eventualities next year. It would be madness to release him now.

This will really, really hurt both clubs. The economics of the stadium assume regular test match cricket. Yorkshire suspended from hosting England matches

Yup, I was going to say were Fax/Fax fans not somewhat underwhelmed? I mean not Lam-levels of underwhelmment but still not great.

Whilst true one has to ask if you saw any of Wigan the last six months? If my club appointed the man who oversaw that I'd be appalled.

Do we need to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to reset you?

The https://emeraldheadingleystadium/ website has been taken down. This is/was the entry point for all non-sporting events at the stadium. So for now this thing is directly affecting the Rugby League club in a negative way.

Now this one is just as, if not even more complicated - Tetley's are the beer sponsors for both clubs, easy enough to exit the YCCC bit. But those deals are tied in with the stadium-wide alcohol supply arrangement which is presumably why they need more negotiations to achieve their aims. I hope Hetherington wasn't planning on enjoying a bit of close-season down-time!

A little bit more info from Peter Smith here - Leeds Rhinos to meet stadium sponsors after Emerald end Headingley naming deal over Yorkshire racism row

This is a very significant cancellation of a sponsorship deal worth around £1m a year of which a large part, if not half (no idea how they split it), is revenue for an RL club. The discussion is relevant and newsworthy. If you don't like the concept of an internet forum then you're probably in the wrong place.

The statement itself confirms commitment to Leeds -