McNamara blasts Huddersfield after IMG discussions

[Damien]

5 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

I was at the Dragons on Saturday and it was announced that IMG will be coming down to a match next month.

Knowing the Dragons they will ramp up the match day presentation and entertain the IMG delegation to a level not experienced before:)

It is well known in RL circles that 4 clubs in SL always vote against the Dragons and would love them kicked out (I am not going to name names however the clubs that are pro Dragons/Toulouse are:)

Leeds Rhinos

Hull FC 

Hull KR

Warrington Wolves

St Helens 

Wigan Warriors 

 

On another subject Warne Pearce was at the match on Saturday with his wife saw Sean Edwards to with his partner and children great day all on my French RL blog should be up tonight:)

Cheers 

 

Paul

So the big clubs, who have nothing to fear and who can look at the situation objectively, see the benefits and support Catalans. Others, that are merely concerned with preserving their own status, can't and its not really what is the best for the sport.

[Harry Stottle]

32 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Leigh’s increase in support when they went up is comparable to TO’s, to say TO have brought new fans to the game while saying Leigh didn’t is disingenuous.   I do really want Toulouse to stay up btw, more than I want anything else in club RL this year, but don’t think they are the golden chalice that some seem to. 

Leigh averaged 6,500 in '17, it will be interesting to see TO's end of season average.

[Dunbar]

4 minutes ago, Damien said:

Others, that are merely concerned with preserving their own status, can't and its not really what is the best for the sport.

People who are employed by or (more importantly) have spent a large proportion of their lives investing time (and often) money will of course want to protect that investment. 

How they do that can be open to question but the desire for preservation is a human one.

Impartiality allows us to look at the big picture.  Emotional and monetary investment does not and we need to recognise this.  To expect people to sacrifice something they have invested heavily in for 'the greater good' is a very big ask.

[Harry Stottle]

29 minutes ago, Damien said:

If anything sums up the corner shop mentality its some of the waffle I have read the last few pages to try and justify getting rid of Catalans.

Hopefully IMG take a higher level overview. The conversation should be about making the game more attractive commercially, attracting more higher value sponsors and increasing the value of future TV deals. Frankly whether someone buys a pie in a stadium or is only a fan/supporter if they live within 5 miles of a club shouldn't be part of the discussion. We certainly don't need IMG for that, it's the thinking that has dominated RL for 100+ years.

Who is it who is trying to justify getting rid of Catalan? Name names please I will personally go back through all the pages and quantify or otherwise what you say.

[Harry Stottle]

18 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

The people who want to get rid of the Catalans are those who fear them, Leigh, Huddersfield etc.

Its this insular thinking that will stop the game progressing on any scale in the NH.

Little wonder we have a reduced TV deal and lower sponsorships deals. We need to be a lot more eclectic than we are now to get a better TV deal and better sponsorship deals

There you go again, who from Leigh can you point to with postal evidence who says they want to get rid of Catalan?

[Scubby]

12 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Leigh averaged 6,500 in '17, it will be interesting to see TO's end of season average.

Why will it not be interesting to compare Leigh's second to last SL average with that of Wakefield? Isn't that more of a like for like given Toulouse went 2 years without a scheduled regular round league fixture?

[Damien]

6 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Who is it who is trying to justify getting rid of Catalan? Name names please I will personally go back through all the pages and quantify or otherwise what you say.

I'm not playing your games Harry and getting into a game of who said what. This thread has been going for 24 pages and you've been involved so you know as well as I do what has been said.

[Scubby]

3 minutes ago, Damien said:

I'm not playing your games Harry and getting into a game of who said what. This thread has been going for 24 pages and you've been involved so you know as well as I do what has been said.

What value? Away fans? Crowd average? Broadcast deal? Fans or real supporters? ........On no Mr IMG boss, we aint saying anything about Catalans or Toulouse. Who you want to be in SL is completely up to you

This is perhaps my favourite of all. Leigh fans spend more time in betting shops and eat mushy peas!! Case closed.

 

[RigbyLuger]

"We won the title 40 years ago" is taking the "Bradford should be in Super League because they were good 20 years ago" to extremes.

[Scubby]

3 minutes ago, RigbyLuger said:

"We won the title 40 years ago" is taking the "Bradford should be in Super League because they were good 20 years ago" to extremes.

Watch Broughton Rangers and Manningham start kicking off any minute! This is on!

[bobbruce]

1 hour ago, WN83 said:

I'd hope IMG would look at the representatives of the clubs claiming the French bring nothing to the sport and realise that maybe, just maybe, they are the problem and not the French. 

Anybody from IMG following Beaumont on twitter last night must be wondering what they've let themselves in for. 

Spot on. I think it was @Tommygilf a few weeks ago who pointed out owners calling for clubs to be judged on what they bring to the party is probably not the best way to go. Once they get rid of the club they are targeting they might find they are next in line they may even find they are first in line. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by bobbruce

[Scubby]

Perhaps the most important thing IMG could suggest is an executive board to run the professional elite game and make big decisions like the NRL. Taking away petty club voting on important issues. 

Clubs shouldn't be voting like mates deciding on what take away to have when it comes to the future of our sport.

[binosh]

3700 at Toulouse against Salford

Forget wether Leigh should be in SL or not, it’s not Leigh’s fight now. Rugby League is is currently in its worst financial position for decades and that includes having the french teams in it.
Sky have already given us plenty Of notice it RL doesn’t come up with something different quickly there wont be enough money in the TV deal to gift each club 2M per year and Toulouse and Catalans will be scurrying off home with thee tail between their legs. Leigh and Featherstone will end up in there by default.

[ATLANTISMAN]

I would also like to add that if Wakefield managed to get huge investment + new stadium they do have the potential to be a really big club being the only major city in the UK without a pro soccer club.

Back to the Dragons though, they are night and day above anyone corporately with an average of 1000 attending the match day VIP do the maths around 13 home SL matches around Euros 2.6 Million with a margin of around 70% means that on hospitality alone the Dragons can pretty much reach the salary cap:)

 

Paul

[Scubby]

Just now, binosh said:

3700 at Toulouse against Salford

Forget wether Leigh should be in SL or not, it’s not Leigh’s fight now. Rugby League is is currently in its worst financial position for decades and that includes having the french teams in it.
Sky have already given us plenty Of notice it RL doesn’t come up with something different quickly there wont be enough money in the TV deal to gift each club 2M per year and Toulouse and Catalans will be scurrying off home with thee tail between their legs. Leigh and Featherstone will end up in there by default.

But Leigh's average is 2999 for their 8 league games and I think Featherstone is in the early 3000s. The only difference is those clubs relying on a few neighbours to bring away fans to local derbies. If they are rock bottom half way through next season then even the locals give up attending.

The game stays corner shop, the footprint stays miniscule and the Sky money eventually dwindles to pigeons fighting over scraps. The Challenge Cup final reverts to Elland Road or Etihad and that's it - done deal.

People really need to be careful what they wish for. It's 2022 not 1992. The Women's Euros is likely to have more spectators this summer than the 2021 RLWC. And that is with venues like Leigh SV and Rotherham. The competition is fierce for leisure money and sponsorship and sports that won't adapt will just wither into insignificance. 

[The Blues Ox]

Anyone mind keeping the thread updated with cliff notes please as its hard to keep track and just seems to be the usual suspects arguing.

From what I can gather so far:-

Steve Mcnamara for whatever reason decided to leak some information that he shouldn't have been either privy to or certainly been told to keep quiet over.

Derek Beaumont comes out and says it was not just Hudderfsfield and it were infact every representitive apart from one at the meeting that said that the 2 French teams bring nothing commercially to SL.

The usual suspects take this to mean that either Huddersfield do not want french teams in SL, or Derek Beaumont has lost the plot and is lying, or there should be 10 french teams in SL, or Championship clubs are the #### of the earth and should be abolished, or Wakefield need some fancy new dugouts, or that Fax fans think there is a conspiracy against them, or a combination of those.

If someone could keep it updated if anything important happens near the top of the page that would be great. 

Edited July 25, 2022 by The Blues Ox

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, The Blues Ox said:

Anyone mind keeping the thread updated with cliff notes please as its hard to keep track and just seems to be the usual suspects arguing.

From what I can gather so far:-

Steve Mcnamara for whatever reason decided to leak some information that he shouldn't have been either privy to or certainly been told to keep quiet over.

Derek Beaumont comes out and says it was not just Hudderfsfield and it were infact every representitive apart from one at the meeting that said that the 2 French teams bring nothing commercially to SL.

The usual suspects take this to mean that either Huddersfield do not want french teams in SL, or Derek Beaumont has lost the plot and is lying, or there should be 10 french teams in SL, or Championship clubs are the #### of the earth and should be abolished, or Wakefield need some fancy new dugouts, or a combination of those.

If someone could keep it updated if anything important happens near the top of the page that would be great. 

The meetings between Championship/L1 and SL were separate to my knowledge so DB and Hudds are talking about different meetings I think.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Scubby

[gittinsfan]

18 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

I absolutely agree that there is of course a place for clubs at every level, I suppose what IMG may be being asked is what level is best suited to funding. For example, what's the difference between Batley now and Batley paying League 1 wages?

Could Leeds, Huddersfield, Wigan, St Helens and Hull be granted specific "professional" responsibility over the game in certain areas as a result of this? Possibly.

It may well come to having areas demarcated with a limited number of club(s) in each. It may mean some clubs come under other clubs umbrella's for delivery and development. It hopefully won't mean that clubs are completely destroyed.

I would suggest that if Batley became under the umbrella of,say,Leeds, Huddersfield or Wakefield,then Batley as a club would be completely destroyed.

[Niels]

On Sky last week the commentators were talking about schools rugby and how Castleford had four of the five national finalists.

That's possibly a reason why there are 3 teams with a WF postcode. So this then becomes a positive. 

I think the point I am making is that there are factors we aren't always aware of when underestimating teams purely on what they have won. 

[The Blues Ox]

7 minutes ago, Scubby said:

The meetings between Championship/L1 and SL were separate to my knowledge so DB and Hudds are talking about different meetings I think.

I thought as much which basically means that out of all the SL clubs only 1 thought the 2 French teams offered anything commercially to SL. It does beg the question if 1 of the French teams voted against themselves or if they were not there though.

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

No, but you might pay, as an example, £150 for 13 games.

How much of that £10 or so per game is actual profit for the club once the costs of opening the stadium, switching on the power (etc) are included?

I'm genuinely interested in the economics of this.

Seriously John ? , I'm a bit worried that you've asked that ? 

What you've put there are fixed costs for running an event , or any business , they tend to stay the same ( stewarding perhaps ) wether you have 1 supporter or 10,000 supporters in a stadium ( or you sell one pint of beer or 10,000 pints of beer ) , but obviously you'll make a loss with the first and a profit on the latter 

That's why the more people you get through the gate , the better it is 

[Davo5]

10 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Anyone mind keeping the thread updated with cliff notes please as its hard to keep track and just seems to be the usual suspects arguing.

From what I can gather so far:-

Steve Mcnamara for whatever reason decided to leak some information that he shouldn't have been either privy to or certainly been told to keep quiet over.

Derek Beaumont comes out and says it was not just Hudderfsfield and it were infact every representitive apart from one at the meeting that said that the 2 French teams bring nothing commercially to SL.

The usual suspects take this to mean that either Huddersfield do not want french teams in SL, or Derek Beaumont has lost the plot and is lying, or there should be 10 french teams in SL, or Championship clubs are the #### of the earth and should be abolished, or Wakefield need some fancy new dugouts, or a combination of those.

If someone could keep it updated if anything important happens near the top of the page that would be great. 

I’m sure you can fit in how Fax are constantly the victim of a RFLplot to undermine them.

[gingerjon]

Just now, GUBRATS said:

Seriously John ? , I'm a bit worried that you've asked that ? 

What you've put there are fixed costs for running an event , or any business , they tend to stay the same ( stewarding perhaps ) wether you have 1 supporter or 10,000 supporters in a stadium ( or you sell one pint of beer or 10,000 pints of beer ) , but obviously you'll make a loss with the first and a profit on the latter 

That's why the more people you get through the gate , the better it is 

Yes, I get that. And I'm not arguing against needing more paying customers. I am wondering whether it should be our exclusive focus when other things may be equally or more valuable - or, if doing some other things well, may mean that we don't need quite so many seat buyers.

[Davo5]

5 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

I thought as much which basically means that out of all the SL clubs only 1 thought the 2 French teams offered anything commercially to SL. It does beg the question if 1 of the French teams voted against themselves or if they were not there though.

Or if Mr Beaumont wasn’t present at the Superleague clubs meeting,how does he know only 1 club thought they offered anything.

[mrfranco]

5 minutes ago, Davo5 said:

Or if Mr Beaumont wasn’t present at the Superleague clubs meeting,how does he know only 1 club thought they offered anything.

Or is DB talking about a meeting of SL chairmen last time he was one, so of the 11 SL clubs at the time, he reckons the only was supporting French involvement in SL was... from France...