Interesting....

[fredm]

Update from Mark Campbell on the Fev message board. Looks like the RFL not exactly acting with any urgency. Will have to see what tomorrow brings.

[Blind side johnny]

17 hours ago, fredm said:

Update from Mark Campbell on the Fev message board. Looks like the RFL not exactly acting with any urgency. Will have to see what tomorrow brings.

A simple question Fred: would you want your club to play behind closed doors?

[silverback]

yes,have got some step ladders,off marchy,

[Keep The Faith]

As Craig Lingard said on radio Leeds he can’t see season starting as 95% of the players have jobs outside the game that are still working and employers won’t want players making contact with other people outside work & household 

the game can’t also be played behind closed doors as they can’t afford the wages etc 

[DOGFATHER]

Losing the revenue from playing behind closed doors is bad enough, but adding approx. £5000 cost required to test the players before every game, and I honestly cannot see how teams could afford to play again this season.

 

[fredm]

6 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

A simple question Fred: would you want your club to play behind closed doors?

France are looking at allowing crowds of 5000 into football grounds very shortly.

with social distancing now lowered the crowd that would attend at MP could easily be allowed, plus the majority would be standing in the open air, which even the scientists say carries very little risk.

with regard to the costs of testing, Mark Campbell doesn't agree with that figure. Is it being used just to justify not playing?

[Blind side johnny]

18 hours ago, fredm said:

France are looking at allowing crowds of 5000 into football grounds very shortly.

with social distancing now lowered the crowd that would attend at MP could easily be allowed, plus the majority would be standing in the open air, which even the scientists say carries very little risk.

with regard to the costs of testing, Mark Campbell doesn't agree with that figure. Is it being used just to justify not playing?

You should be in Parliament Fred. Obviously you can't answer my question.

As far as I am aware the decisions on distancing and crowds at sports grounds failed to take Mount Pleasant's unique attributes into account, which is a real surprise.

[DOGFATHER]

7 hours ago, fredm said:

France are looking at allowing crowds of 5000 into football grounds very shortly.

with social distancing now lowered the crowd that would attend at MP could easily be allowed, plus the majority would be standing in the open air, which even the scientists say carries very little risk.

with regard to the costs of testing, Mark Campbell doesn't agree with that figure. Is it being used just to justify not playing?

Reading Campbell's statement, it seems that Fev are likely to lose lots of money if the season is written off, far more than if it resumed at a later date. 

Maybe his statement has been written to suit his own agenda, perhaps?

It is funny that the two clubs that have a tendency to overspend, are the ones that are most desperate and vociferous to get the season started again.

In contrast, I haven't heard much from the more well run clubs regarding any such urgency to start playing again. Surely, if the rest of clubs were looking down the barrel of losing "significantly more money" by writing the season off, as Campbell states, the other clubs would be just as desperate to get going again, yet they all seem pretty quiet, and the bits that have been published seem to indicate that they are resigned to the fact the season will not resume, so are now planning for a fresh start in 2021.

I also read Michael Carter's insight  

Here 

which paints a pretty bleak picture. I was fairly certain the lower divisions would not see anything from the new TV deal in terms of funding. After reading that, it makes you wonder how anyone in the lower divisions will survive the next couple of seasons, especially once funding is cut.

[Piggy's mate]

It's a spectator sport! There is your answer!

[fredm]

The thing is BSJ, if the RFL and the clubs do not make any attempt to play again until sometime next spring do you think that there will be a game to watch?  Will the players who will not receive any money from contracts after October and who have not done any organised training since March be in the mood to continue in the game?  They - and their families - will have got used to being at home and, now lockdown has been altered, doing different things amongst themselves.  Will they want to go back to the old regime and be earning what presumably will be considerably less money?  There is no doubt money will be far tighter next year, the Sky deal looks as if it will be less and the number of spectators through the gate will probably be less, given the natural fall off of people not being used to going to a game and the probable effect of the unemployment rate going up. Also we will have to get used to the "new normal" - social distancing to get in the grounds; tickets having to be purchased prior to the match so clubs have contact details of all people in the ground etc; people being restricted to a certain area of the ground dependent upon their ticket and not being permitted to change places at half time etc.

To me it seems as if the RFL and clubs are just meandering along with a "it'l be all right on the night" attitude. Let's have a meeting to arrange a date for the next meeting.

It would appear that football is looking at a 25% of capacity for fans to be in the ground initially so that would mean, I think, 750 in MP.  Using all the ground would mean 100 in the two seated stands, 200 on each of the terraces behind the posts and 75 in the two terraces alongside the short stand.  That would easily allow for social distancing? Do you not think this is feasible.

[Blind side johnny]

1 hour ago, fredm said:

The thing is BSJ, if the RFL and the clubs do not make any attempt to play again until sometime next spring do you think that there will be a game to watch?  Will the players who will not receive any money from contracts after October and who have not done any organised training since March be in the mood to continue in the game?  They - and their families - will have got used to being at home and, now lockdown has been altered, doing different things amongst themselves.  Will they want to go back to the old regime and be earning what presumably will be considerably less money?  There is no doubt money will be far tighter next year, the Sky deal looks as if it will be less and the number of spectators through the gate will probably be less, given the natural fall off of people not being used to going to a game and the probable effect of the unemployment rate going up. Also we will have to get used to the "new normal" - social distancing to get in the grounds; tickets having to be purchased prior to the match so clubs have contact details of all people in the ground etc; people being restricted to a certain area of the ground dependent upon their ticket and not being permitted to change places at half time etc.

To me it seems as if the RFL and clubs are just meandering along with a "it'l be all right on the night" attitude. Let's have a meeting to arrange a date for the next meeting.

It would appear that football is looking at a 25% of capacity for fans to be in the ground initially so that would mean, I think, 750 in MP.  Using all the ground would mean 100 in the two seated stands, 200 on each of the terraces behind the posts and 75 in the two terraces alongside the short stand.  That would easily allow for social distancing? Do you not think this is feasible.

Lots of question Fred, many of which I can't answer and nor can anyone else.

As far as my club is concerned I do know that contracts are paid monthly across 12 months so, despite furloughing which many are facing, nothing is different. Talks are already being held with players about new contracts and those who aren't being offered one are in no different a position to waht they would have faced anyway. (You may have noticed your coach saying that they are facing a lower budget next year with a probable reduction of five members of the playing staff.)

I do't see this as meandering along but of trying to make to correct decisions for the players, the spectators and the sport as a whole. You can talk all that you will about the hypothetical size of crowds - until the government say that sporting events can run again in front of spectators it is all just pie in the sky. The RFL can do nothing to influeence this.