SL in 10 years

[Cerulean]

On 11/09/2020 at 04:48, Number 16 said:

SL in 2030?

Young boy to father... "Dad, who were Salford, Wakefield and Hull KR?" 

There’s a distinct possibility that in 10 years time, Super League will be a semi-professional sport. To maintain a decent-sized, fully-professional top division seems to need tens of millions each year in broadcasting money, and something like 60,000 customers per week paying £25 or so. A shrinking top division (retaining present customers is difficult, creating new ones seems to be even harder), accelerating changes in broadcasting, and in leisure spending, could make an uncertain future for a minority professional sport.

Semi-professional does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. With planning, and careful and unselfish management, it can work, can ensure that the sport survives. Won’t be able to take on the Australians, but so be it. A couple of teams will have the income to maintain full-time teams: perhaps they could apply for a place in the NRL.

[paul hicks]

On 10/09/2020 at 23:57, GUBRATS said:

You are familiar with how the academy system has been organised recently ?

Irrelevant what the distances are , Australia is Australia 

well actually it includes new Zealand which is quite a distance from Townsville.

that's without mentioning the PNG team in the Queensland cup or the Fijian team in the NSW cup  

[paul hicks]

On 11/09/2020 at 08:02, Harry Stottle said:

Hi Paul, quite obviously that is targeted at Leigh, but a big thing that you overlook is that the town of Leigh produces Professional player's, Leigh did have an academy but if you know anything about how that was structured and the fixtures formulated you will realise why we do not have one now.

Clubs such as your own, I assume you are a Leeds fan? Along with the likes of Wigan, Saints and Warrington are actually the beneficiaries of the towns who produce player's but do not have academies, do you honestly believe that all the kids those clubs sign come from within the confines of their own town boundaries? Off course not they have the money to attract all the very best the country can offer.

I will wager now with you that any 3 little towns with a pro club but devoid of an academy will produce more Professional player's in the next 20/30 years than the whole of North America, do you realise what it takes to formulate a structure from base clubs through advancement to centres of excellence for the best of the best to compete with each other, starting now, today, if North America began an infrastructure/grassroots it will be 3 generations at least for them to bear fruit of any numbers, I will leave you with this thought that in this country for every kid who picks up a rugby ball less than one in every hundred turns pro/semi pro and the figure who makes it to SL is a fraction of that!

North America can condense more than 120 years of infrastructure into 10 or so years as some people think they can, impossible.

it was not aimed in particular at leigh  indeed there are clubs still in super league who don't have an academy team and others who have in the past lip service to them  i mean hull and hull kr sharing an academy was a joke. as it happens i know a bit about the academy structures  and that yes player join clubs in areas away from were they live for sometimes money and other times because they see a better path than staying were they live . take a look at O'Neil at Castleford on that score comes from a small village outside of barrow. 

I do not expect Toronto or any other north American team to have juniors coming through for 20 years or so unless of course they were to take the route you have mentioned of showing the money to juniors in this country  to bring  half a dozen into an academy that would then be bulked out with local players to make the numbers up which already happens in England in that case they may find the odd Canadian junior  but just as with Melbourne storm they will rely mostly on brought in talent  as indeed a lot of English clubs rely on brining in players they did not produce . indeed if as i suspect you are a leigh fan do leigh not benefit from bringing in players from other clubs and i have no problem with that in the championship 

the whole point is that in professional sport to get established in a winning way to bring in spectators and sponsors you need success so especially new clubs need to bring in players for a number of years as you don't build a modern club from the roots you build it on success and then establish the roots. if not you start in league one and stay there for a long time before you get out .ask Newcastle/Gateshead about that its taken them over 20 years to get to the point were they may climb up a league and even then they needed a money man in the end

[Roy Haggerty]

Where will SL be in 20 years?

A semi-pro comp watched by dwindling numbers in which all good players quickly leave for the NRL or Union. Many of those shrinking numbers will continue to moan into their pints about why "The Greatest Game" isn't bigger/better funded/not dying on its ######, while simultaneously still working themselves up into a lather about previous outrageous suggestions that clubs should be allowed to play rugby league more than 20 miles from the nearest closed pit, followed by the thousandth circular conversation about how we need to grow "the heartlands" first.

That's where it'll be. The only chance of RL surviving as a professional sport is if an outside body - either SKY or similar, or perhaps the NRL trying to keep a feeder league alive - take it over. But as the owners of our clubs (and many of the fans) are suspicious to the point of hillbilly cliche about 'outsiders' then I think most will just choose to keep swimming in an ever shrinking pond until it finally dries up and they're left gasping on the parched ground.

 

 

[Cerulean]

9 hours ago, Roy Haggerty said:

.... still working themselves up into a lather about previous outrageous suggestions that clubs should be allowed to play rugby league more than 20 miles from the nearest closed pit, followed by the thousandth circular conversation about how we need to grow "the heartlands" first.
...... as the owners of our clubs (and many of the fans) are suspicious to the point of hillbilly cliche about 'outsiders' then I think most will just choose to keep swimming in an ever shrinking pond until it finally dries up and they're left gasping on the parched ground....

 

 

Parochialism is fundamental and integral to spectator sport. It should be embraced, encouraged and celebrated; and is, in other spectator sports. Blaming parochialism for the difficulties of RL is the equivalent of blaming breathing for the increase in greenhouse gases. In spite of protestations, the vast majority of fans would abandon the sport if their own team went out of existence. If the sport has problems, look elsewhere to place blame and to find solutions.

Without the driving enthusiasm of parochialism, expanding, maintaining, or even saving the game, means selling an enticing product at a reasonable price to as wide an audience as can be attracted. It may be that the game has been allowed to become less enticing than some think, is too expensive, and fails to understand where its audience could come from.

Blaming parochialism is too easy: it allows people to avoid more searching questions.