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Shane Richardson Calls for Overhaul of British Rugby League


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2 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Wouldn't necessarily disagree with your views on private equity, I'm just saying it may take that sort of seismic financial event for the clubs to relinquish their power. 

And i'm in agreement with you, but it has to be the right deal (al la a Matchroom type arrangement), not just the first offer that comes along

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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1 hour ago, Wigan Riversider said:

Definitely agree that Matchroom not getting involved was a massive missed opportunity for the sport.

I dont understand why the RFL / SL do not look at what matchroom have done and try something similar, Robert Elstone was obviously just a yes man

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4 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:

Private Equity, certainly the kind recently turned down, is a false economy. These companies have absolutely no interest in the game, they just see it as an opportunity to make money for themselves. They dangle a cash carrot and hope enough people take the bait. Once they've got that they want out of the game they'll just walk away leaving the game in a worse state than before.

There have been past discussions for investment which on the face of it were fare more attractive than just a private equity deal. Its a pity nothing ever came from the discussions with Matchroom & the Hearn's. Their cash injection also came with a proven track record of promoting other sports and really turning them mainstream (such as darts & snooker). Both these sports saw a massive rise in popularity once Matchroom got involved, it was a win-win all round. The sports got their short term cash injection, and in return they got massive increase in TV & Media coverage, which in turn then led to increased cash coming into the sports from sponsors. I doubt your regular private equity company would put in this type of effort.

If a PE company could get the game to a level where it is worth selling on,that would be a success. Of course there needs to be due diligence but I fail to see why you are so certain a PE company would walk away, apart from having some sort of return during the course of there deal it has to be in the PE companies interest to have ahigher value sport at the end of the agreement. These companies are not all asset strippers

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Surely Matchroom and the Hearns family for all their strengths  built their reputation dealing individual sports - boxing, snooker, darts - and therefore directly with one on one situations. Have they ever seriously suggested an interest (other that in wild rumours) in team sports and dealing with boardroom politics,  local councils, sponsors and player contracts.  Just asking.

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Matchroom / The Hearns is the wrong answer to the wrong question,  as is any talk of restructures, 'pins in maps' teams or league formats. 

The sport doesn't need a "saviour" to ride in and come to the rescue. 

What the governing body and the clubs need to do is decide who it wants to be buying, watching and playing this sport in three, five and ten years time. Once they have decided that, work out what those people want, what would encourage them to buy/watch/play the sport and then deliver it in a way that makes it easy for them to buy/watch/play it. You don't need to sell out to Eddie Hearn to achieve that. 

Is that sort of thing likely to be easy? No. Is it likely to be cheap? Quite possibly not. But finding new supporters, new viewers and new players is literally the cost of doing business. 

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17 hours ago, Big Picture said:

In this video you can hear Phil Gould saying that most NRL clubs trade in a position of insolvency.

 

Let’s not be naive. Two relevant points here:

1. Phil Gould is a pure-bred Channel 9 / ARL man, and that media organisation does not want more teams in the comp. His comments come from that perspective 

2. All NRL clubs will spend 110%, 120% or whatever of their direct revenue streams because they WANT to, and in the main the ownership group can afford to. That’s the same now when turnover is $50-75m as it was when turnover was $15m. However they can dial that down when they want… but the key point is in that time, and in-part by “over investing” they’ve grown that top line hugely. If revenues were $15m and making a small loss, that’s c$15m of overhead $$$ flowing into the game (player wages, facilities, junior game coaches, marketing etc etc), if revenues are $50m and they spent 110% to lose money that’s c$50m flowing into the game! That’s a good thing. SuperLeague is the reverse, we were losing money before, and now we’re still losing money but on a lower base - that’s less junior coaches, less marketing spend, less-paid players (so talent drain), less customers (so vicious cycle) etc etc etc 

 

Sorry mate, but I’ve lived in Sydney for 4 years and been to clubs across the country - they are operating entirely at another level, which brings with it a resilience we can only dream of. Big, elite hitters invest in plugging their clubs losses because they want to ride the fun bus… we scrabble around to find a local mid-level businessman to save us from death. Quite the difference! 

Apparently this site says I "won the day" here on 23rd Jan, 19th Jan, 9th Jan also 13th December, whatever any of that means. Anyway, 4 times in a few weeks? The forum must be going to the dogs - you people need to seriously up your game. Where's Dutoni when you need him?

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17 hours ago, The Frying Scotsman said:

You are backing up your argument with facts, @Pulga however there are some individuals on here who actually want the NRL to fail. 

This despite it being the flagship competition in our game, and the entity that ensures the ongoing existence of the sport in about 4 countries.

They are the epitome of backward looking flat capped navel-gazers. Desperate for the NRL not to be the solution to our sport's problems simply because it is Australian, and different from the model they grew up with 40odd years ago, and which is now proving itself to be obsolete. 

 

I've never met anyone who has expressed a wish for the NRL to fail , but there are plenty on here , like myself who don't think their ' model ' will work here , and that many ' over there ' don't really understand our sporting culture , if that makes me a navel gazer ? I don't really care 

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2 hours ago, Rowan said:

Surely Matchroom and the Hearns family for all their strengths  built their reputation dealing individual sports - boxing, snooker, darts - and therefore directly with one on one situations. Have they ever seriously suggested an interest (other that in wild rumours) in team sports and dealing with boardroom politics,  local councils, sponsors and player contracts.  Just asking.

Boxers are contracted to TV deals as well as to other fighters/boxing companys

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7 hours ago, Saint Toppy said:

Private Equity, certainly the kind recently turned down, is a false economy. These companies have absolutely no interest in the game, they just see it as an opportunity to make money for themselves. They dangle a cash carrot and hope enough people take the bait. Once they've got that they want out of the game they'll just walk away leaving the game in a worse state than before.

There have been past discussions for investment which on the face of it were fare more attractive than just a private equity deal. Its a pity nothing ever came from the discussions with Matchroom & the Hearn's. Their cash injection also came with a proven track record of promoting other sports and really turning them mainstream (such as darts & snooker). Both these sports saw a massive rise in popularity once Matchroom got involved, it was a win-win all round. The sports got their short term cash injection, and in return they got massive increase in TV & Media coverage, which in turn then led to increased cash coming into the sports from sponsors. I doubt your regular private equity company would put in this type of effort.

Snooker and darts production costs are tiny compared to an outside team sport , at Darts , how many actual players do they have to pay ? , 20 ? , 30 tops , Snooker ? , Again 20 ? , 30 tops , it's completely different , their record at team sport isn't very good 

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2 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

They are great at sports where the infrastructure costs are zero and the rest is someone elses expense 

Exactly , rent a room for a day or week , cheap internal production set up cost , short term contracts for stewards or security , completely different to team sports 

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10 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

They are great at sports where the infrastructure costs are zero and the rest is someone elses expense 

Hearn’s decade at Leyton Orient was hardly a roaring success.

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31 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

He then sold with zero background checks to some italian who promptly destroyed the club and took them out of FL.  Hearn's are no answer. 

The background checks aren’t his job or any chairman’s. That’s the incompetence of the Football League. 

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18 hours ago, Rowan said:

Surely Matchroom and the Hearns family for all their strengths  built their reputation dealing individual sports - boxing, snooker, darts - and therefore directly with one on one situations. Have they ever seriously suggested an interest (other that in wild rumours) in team sports and dealing with boardroom politics,  local councils, sponsors and player contracts.  Just asking.

Lets face it, RFL Administration after administration have done a pretty poor job of things so something has to change. They may be individual instead of team sports but they still have a proven track record of success, more than we currently have in the game.  

St.Helens - The Home of record breaking Rugby Champions

 

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1 minute ago, westlondonfan said:

The reason for the feeling of pessimism in the game amongst some fans in my view is what happened to Toronto Wolfpack. 

Definitely not. Most people could see what was happening and what was going to happen to them having been a Rugby League fan for a long time. The pessimism is deeper ingrained into Rugby League than Toronto Wolfpack. 

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1 minute ago, westlondonfan said:

The reason for the feeling of pessimism in the game amongst some fans in my view is what happened to Toronto Wolfpack. 

and some others will be Thursday games, some others the same clubs collecting the pots, some others admission charges, some others COVID related, some others the player drain to NRL, some others the lack of Internationals etc etc

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1 minute ago, sweaty craiq said:

and some others will be Thursday games, some others the same clubs collecting the pots, some others admission charges, some others COVID related, some others the player drain to NRL, some others the lack of Internationals etc etc

The lack of internationals is a big disappointment to me . The Four Nations was developing nicely with the fourth team being surprisingly competitive and then they scrapped it. 

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18 hours ago, Hull Kingston Bronco said:

Sorry mate, but I’ve lived in Sydney for 4 years and been to clubs across the country - they are operating entirely at another level, which brings with it a resilience we can only dream of. Big, elite hitters invest in plugging their clubs losses because they want to ride the fun bus… we scrabble around to find a local mid-level businessman to save us from death. Quite the difference! 

Major corporates and global players want their name/brand associated with the best. In Australia that means NRL in the 2 big states. In the UK Soccer swallows up most then RU then Cricket grabs a bit, we are left with whatever is left or a true RL man made good eg Fred Done or Ken Davey. When we get some new upstart we drive them away as the mob lights their torches and prepares the rope.

RL fans, the media still left and the clueless leadership are the biggest threats to our sport.

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4 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Definitely not. Most people could see what was happening and what was going to happen to them having been a Rugby League fan for a long time. The pessimism is deeper ingrained into Rugby League than Toronto Wolfpack. 

I was disappointed in the post Lewis era with what happened to Wales and London, etc but although i was very sceptical at first i had started to think Toronto really were going to make it as a big SL club. I was very disappointed. It wasn’t a unanimous decision either with some of the most successful clubs voting to keep them in. I hope Toulouse go up and are successful if we dont go up but when will RL get another opportunity like Toronto again? Possibly never.

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1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

Lets face it, RFL Administration after administration have done a pretty poor job of things

This is repeated so often that it's frankly starting to get a bit lazy.

Perhaps, just maybe, Rugby League is a really difficult sport to administer?

I'm not saying they do everything right by any means, few sports could say that, but RL has such a lot of really specific, almost unique challenges that a lot of the time there simply isn't a good, right answer to lots of them.

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