How would you invest a billion pounds into RL?

[daz39]

1 minute ago, Gomersall said:

You’d have to extend the M62 to Hull first

I'd go round it, it's too near as it is ....

[Gerrumonside ref]

I’d try to get as many as possible learning/understanding, watching and playing men’s, women’s and wheelchair rugby league across the UK.

Basically I’d focus on the grassroots to try and increase participation.

Of course there would have to be some focus on the elite competition, but I’d want to consult across a wide spectrum of people involved in the sport.

[daz39]

Or maybe.....pay for everyone who slags and abuses ref's to go on a course and learn how to do it them bloody selves!!!!

[Snowys Backside]

I would give every single penny to grass roots and cement the foundations of the game. 
 

The RFL and SL wouldn’t get a penny of it !

[Mumby Magic]

Despite more and more players entering our game being African born or of African heritage I'd invest there.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

You’d have to extend the M62 to Hull first

Got in there before me! Yeah it stops at a village called North Cave maybe about 10 miles or so out of the city. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Obviously it goes without saying that Castleford would NOT get a new ground. 

[bigbaldnmad]

Fill in Odslum...

[Derwent Parker]

2 hours ago, Snowys Backside said:

I would give every single penny to grass roots and cement the foundations of the game. 
 

The RFL and SL wouldn’t get a penny of it !

I wouldn't give it to RFL as they would give every penny of it to SL - cos that's all that matters to RFL

Let SL keep the SKY money and go their own way.

Considering L1 clubs get 15k approx. 1% of the £1.5Million each SL teams get - I would start by reversing that maybe 15m for every team outside SL

Just to Let the SL teams see how that feels

Unfortunate to include Leigh in this cos they are there thanks to DB not CF

Edited September 2, 2023 by Derwent Parker
mistake

[Gomersall]

3 hours ago, daz39 said:

I'd go round it, it's too near as it is ....

That works both ways

[Damien]

Thr crazy thing is if you had £1 billion you could stick it in a bank and simply spend the £60 million in interest you would get every year on bettering RL or spend £100 million each year and lose very little once it keeps getting topped up with interest.

[Damien]

4 hours ago, bobbruce said:

I’d buy a huge estate somewhere that I would look after in my own time and at the man of steel presentation night could be held there. I would then spend a few years travelling round exotic islands looking for the perfect one to buy. Once I find it again I would be prepared to look after it in my own time. Then the MOS winner would win 10 days  there. I may also look at giving the Lance Todd and Harry Sunderland trophy winner a week there. I hope my pitch is acceptable please make the cheque payable to Bob Bruce. Thanks. 

It seems like you are only interested in getting big, burly, atheletic RL players to spend nights in your house. Each to their own I guess

[Damien]

Oh I'd buy Sale Sharks too, rename them to Sale Cuckoos and take them on a nomadic existence of playing at RL grounds and paying exorbitant rent. Think of it as a transfer of RU funding to RL.

First up they can play at Fev so Tarquin and Co can sample that unique local hospitality.

[Big Picture]

With that amount of capital my plan for a new transatlantic, intercontinental and multinational league would be moving forward rapidly for launch no more than 2 years from now.

[Damien]

9 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

With that amount of capital my plan for a new transatlantic, intercontinental and multinational league would be moving forward rapidly for launch no more than 2 years from now.

Have you still not got a meeting to discuss that plan with that billionaire friend of a friend yet?

[Big Picture]

43 minutes ago, Damien said:

Have you still not got a meeting to discuss that plan with that billionaire friend of a friend yet?

I was working on lining something up with a well-connected person in Toronto but wasn't able to finalize anything before leaving the country on an extended trip.  I'll pick up where I left of after I return to Canada. 

In the meantime I've been able to get some good market research down done here, so there has been some modest progress.  Time will tell though.

[fighting irish]

1 hour ago, Big Picture said:

I was working on lining something up with a well-connected person in Toronto but wasn't able to finalize anything before leaving the country on an extended trip.  I'll pick up where I left of after I return to Canada. 

In the meantime I've been able to get some good market research down done here, so there has been some modest progress.  Time will tell though.

Please keep us informed of progress. Good luck. 

[Dunbar]

Asking for a friend.

Who is auditing how you spend this £billion and do they take this task very seriously and are they incorruptible would you say?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

5 hours ago, Dunbar said:

Asking for a friend.

Who is auditing how you spend this £billion and do they take this task very seriously and are they incorruptible would you say?

Fabio down the pub said he'll do the auditing after I explained to him what the word meant. And yes, I would say Fabio is incorruptible because if he is tempted by corruption, well, let's just say I know some people... 

[17 stone giant]

I'd try and do an equivalent of the cricket Hundred. Pick maybe 8 major cities/areas and fund a team in them for an annual event lasting (initially at least) a month or so. Something that doesn't interfere too much with the current season. London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, etc. One game a day, all on the BBC. Probably June or July, so I can use football stadiums. The aim being to give a large number of people a window into the sport, by giving them a team that represents them - even if only for one month a year initially.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

On 01/09/2023 at 22:49, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Over on the football thread, @Damien posted that under Chelsea's current chairman they have spent 1 billion pounds on players. That is one single football club. The money in football is earth shattering.

It got me wondering how I would invest 1 billion pounds into rugby league.

So that's what I'd like us all to have a bit of a dream about, how would you lot invest that sum of money into our sport? 

New England RL stadium (multi use) in Luton 

Development and schools officers country wide

Centres of excellence country wide 

Marketing division 

Coaching for players / coaches to manage their social media presence.....and stop saying boring things in interviews 

20 Millon pound a year player, coaching and marketing budget for London Broncos 

[sentoffagain2]

        Pay Hull FC supporters for keep turning up.

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

21 hours ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Fill in Odslum...

With bank notes?

[Dunbar]

On a serious note (after my last post), if someone had this theoretical £1B to spend in Rugby League, what you cannot do is build something that needs a sustainable income or funding stream without providing it.

The thing to remember is that when you get into capital expenditure projects, money does not stretch far... even £1B.  If we built a Tottenham type stadium then that is the whole lot spent with the challenge of creating an income stream for running and maintenance costs.

You would need to think very carefully about which parts of the spending could have a positive long term effect without causing more problems in the long term when the money dries up... the Lotto effect of spend like there is no tomorrow and realise tomorrow arrives.

Personally, I would look at grass roots Rugby League across several countries - some established, some greenfield  - and put into place the infrastructure for long term growth... playing fields, club houses etc and then fund development efforts around junior (girls and boys RL) with development officers and schools outreach and men's and women's sides over a 30 to 40 year period which would hopefully not be required in a longer time after we have generational foundations.