RFL and SL reunite

[Hela Wigmen]

23 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

The old saying goes the bigger you are the harder you fall, recognised by your very own Mr McManus when he was interviewed by BBC Northwest last week to comment on the 16M loan by the government.

Bigger businesses have higher costs than smaller businesses, we get that. 

[dboy]

8 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Bigger businesses have higher costs than smaller businesses, we get that. 

Do you also get that a larger amount of their income has disappeared also?

Higher fixed outgoings - lower than expected incomes = ???

[Angelic Cynic]

1 hour ago, Hela Wigmen said:

On the pitch, yes, the game improved. So much so, I’m pretty certain that more people attended games live in 2019 than 2018.

Off it, didn’t we sign new deals with Betfred to sponsor the game? Magic Weekend had its own sponsor, too, in Dacia. 
 

  Interesting.I don't think the attendances at St Helens,Wigan or Warrington improved - in fact I'm certain I read Wigan had a decrease.

   The sponsorship of Betfred and Dacia were first arranged with the RFL.

   Worryingly,I reckon the pandemic would have hit both of the sponsors so future sponsorship will be of concern.

[Hela Wigmen]

6 minutes ago, Angelic Cynic said:

  Interesting.I don't think the attendances at St Helens,Wigan or Warrington improved - in fact I'm certain I read Wigan had a decrease.

   The sponsorship of Betfred and Dacia were first arranged with the RFL.

   Worryingly,I reckon the pandemic would have hit both of the sponsors so future sponsorship will be of concern.

Saints went up from 11,478 to 11,910 and Warrington’s rose from 10,088 to 10,970. Wigan’s did decrease. Catalans*, Hull KR, Salford and Wakefield were the other clubs  who played in Super League in 2018 and ‘19 to see increases to their attendances increase. 

* Catalans’ 2019 figure included the 30k Camp Nou attendance, so this will have skewed their figure somewhat. That said, in the decrease column is Leeds, who had a smaller capacity due to ground work in 2019.

6/11 of the clubs showing an increase is a good figure. FWIW, Hull had the biggest decrease, Leeds aside. 

[Lowdesert]

19 hours ago, dboy said:

My favourite was the tins of DB in buckets, when  visiting Broncos.

Thats the next step up.

[Tommygilf]

18 hours ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Unequivocally, yes. 

I would say that as a Saints fan, perhaps but last year’s Super League was very good, IMO. 

Biased perhaps but we were excellent last year and Lachlan Coote made us a better side after the departure of the exciting, if not rounded performer of Ben Barba. At times we looked like the Saints of old, the sides of Long, Sculthorpe etc.

Salford finished 3rd and played some superb rugby at the back end of the year under a talented coach with the standout player in the competition in their ranks. If it hadn’t have been us in the Grand Final against them, I’d have been rooting for the Red Devils because of the way they played the game. Their performance at Wigan to get to Old Trafford was excellent and I’m saying that as a Rugby League fan, not a Saints fan.

The make up of the play-offs wasn’t sorted until, what, the penultimate weekend and even so, Hull only failed to get in the play-off’s based on points difference. Four sides were separated by two points.

The relegation battle was captivating and went right down to the wire with four sides still capable of relegation on the final day of the year. For the neutral, it was a great watch. 

London Broncos surprisingly come up and many “experts” and pundits compared them to their 2014 iteration that went down with a whimper. They beat Wigan at home on the first day of the season and were wrote off all year, beating Leeds and Saints x2 on the way to getting ten wins, which probably hadn’t been done too many times by teams that have come bottom. Their reputation as a club and individually for the likes of Danny Ward, Eddie Battye, Luke Yates etc went up significantly and Ward will be linked with jobs going forwards, including the vacant Hull job and deservedly so. 

On the pitch, yes, the game improved. So much so, I’m pretty certain that more people attended games live in 2019 than 2018.

Off it, didn’t we sign new deals with Betfred to sponsor the game? Magic Weekend had its own sponsor, too, in Dacia. 
 

For me its the presentation that has been infinitely better. Magazine show, an official podcast, season documentary, better branding, with a cooler vibe more generally. I think its reflecting on sky now too.

[Lowdesert]

19 hours ago, RP London said:

VB... Victoria Bitter.. the buckets were the way you could tell how close it was to the end of the match if the clock had broken.. the more on the heads of the fans the later in the game it was!

OK, never knew that.  I thought it was Design & Build bitter.

[Rupert Prince]

On 03/05/2020 at 04:47, Lowdesert said:

Announced in the DM.  Elstone 400k.  Plush offices and cannot duplicate roles.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyleague/article-8281071/Super-League-reunite-Rugby-Football-League-two-years-split.html

Self serving comments from 3 chairman. Plus I do not see that much if any overlap.

In terms of Football, they have the FA, but still have, originally the Football League, the later the Premier League and also the English Football League. These are semi (more than semi?) autonomous entities.

The overwhelmingly largest money making body in English RL is the Super League. 

[dboy]

On 04/05/2020 at 13:24, Hela Wigmen said:

What big clubs are more at risk than a “smaller” club?

 

On 04/05/2020 at 13:40, scotchy1 said:

Because they have a bigger turnover, more assets, etc.

A corner shop is losing less money than BA at the moment. It doesnt really tell us anything other than lower costs are lower. 

Also, why should the players subsidise this with lower wages? It's wrong to force the players to earn less to subsidise failing clubs 

Will You believe Hetherington (Yorkshire Post)?

“We will be applying,” revealed Hetherington. “As I said right at the outset, clubs like ours who have big, diverse businesses and a lot of employees, normally that would give you an advantage in sporting terms.

“But in the situation we are in now, we in many ways have got the biggest problem. Our problems probably contrast quite sharply to some other rugby league clubs and sport businesses.