The IMG Gradings Thread - Post all your IMG Gradings related questions or comments here

[Chrispmartha]

25 minutes ago, Zilla Budgie said:

I think you score as more points for having LED advertising boards and a deent sized social media following as for winning the challenge cup. Like I said, 'Clowns'.

here we go with the LED boards again.

Winning the CC should help with the Social Media grades wouldn't you have thought? and also maybe the price you can charge for advertising space.

Let's face it if your attitude is that IMG are 'clowns' then you are not going to change your mind are you, also if IMG are clowns then what do you think of the clubs for actually voting for what IMG proposed?

[Griff]

17 minutes ago, crashmon said:

OK I was using the offical Census numbers when I was looking at the figures.  That might not include under 18's

Census numbers don't include under 18s?

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

What social media is about is the snowball effect. It is far easier to grow on social media than by word of mouth. 

What is the actual growth you highlight Tommy, we have had SM for a good few years now how much has that influenced the growth of the sport in revenue- of any kind - or enticed people into the grounds? 

Tell me one club that would not prefer 5000 of my type to 5000 clickers.

[paul hicks]

4 hours ago, Leonard said:

Quite. Feels a lack of nuance. 

it's all bit of a nuisance 

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, JohnM said:

Philosophy is not really your strong point. Best avoided. 

There you go again, quite an obnoxious type aren't you.

[paul hicks]

4 hours ago, Leonard said:

Whitehaven and Workington

London and midland broncos. 

come on neither are in the heartlands so the catchment area is anything down there 

[Toby Chopra]

I fully back the gradings approach as a means to an end, but for the record I'd be happy to remove the catchment part as it isn't needed to achieve the desired goals and conflicts with the approach taken in the rest of the criteria.

I also agree some of the sections such as crowds and revenues could have the thresholds moved around a bit to reward more clearly the clubs that are making the most of their Superleague place as opposed to treading water.

But the results would be largely the same and isn't a dealbreaker for me.           

Edited October 27, 2023 by Toby Chopra

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, paul hicks said:

London and midland broncos. 

come on neither are in the heartlands so the catchment area is anything down there 

We have to catch something first. Currently it's just an area.

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, Dave T said:

I'm not sure of your point. You don't think this table is the thing that gets fans engaged do you? 

It depends in what capacity Dave, I know it fills a purpose for those passive supporters of the sport.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Harry Stottle

[Griff]

9 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

here we go with the LED boards again.

LED boards do nothing for Mrs Griff's epilepsy.

Nobody seems to think about folk with disabilities.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Griff said:

LED boards do nothing for Mrs Griff's epilepsy.

Do they genuinely cause issues?

EDIT

That's a genuine Q by the way. It's something I wondered about years ago but nobody seemed to think there was an issue.

Edited October 27, 2023 by gingerjon

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, Dave T said:

I'm not sure of your point. You don't think this table is the thing that gets fans engaged do you? 

Only as I said Dave for 'Anoraks like us'.

Did you see where last year in attendance at a couple of games I asked people what they thought of IMG's involvement and strategies that are due to come into the game 80/90% said Who!

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Harry Stottle said:

Only as I said Dave for 'Anoraks like us'.

Did you see where last year in attendance at a couple of games I asked people what they thought of IMG's involvement and strategies that are due to come into the game 80/90% said Who!

Every non-RL fan I have told has looked at me blankly when explained. Especially that London are already relegated .

It's a very RL initiative. Which either means it will be a ground breaking first or humiliating. 

 

[Chrispmartha]

14 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

What is the actual growth you highlight Tommy, we have had SM for a good few years now how much has that influenced the growth of the sport in revenue- of any kind - or enticed people into the grounds? 

Tell me one club that would not prefer 5000 of my type to 5000 clickers.

SM has rapidly changed the landscape of Sport even in the last 2 years.

The answer to your question is they need both, they aren’t mutually exclusive and both feed into each other, the target audience for SM isn’t you or I Harry

[dead man inc]

On 25/10/2023 at 11:28, RP London said:

…The simple fact is that London have had a good season and got into Super League but off the field they are still a mess (as everyone points out and has done for years). They now have a document telling them where to improve. Read the document and you can see that there can be some quite big jumps made with investment in the right places, investment that can actually reap rewards that can then make you a much stronger club for when Super League comes a long (and not one that could bankrupt itself very easily)…

Agree with everything that you have said. The only issue I have with London’s score is the ‘catchment area’ issue - IMG bang on about London being a massive target area for growth, the RFL have all the ticket sale data from Challenge cup/London internationals to identify roughy the demographics where London based RL fans are, yet they use the catchment area of ‘Merton’ in the score calculation

[Chrispmartha]

19 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

What is the actual growth you highlight Tommy, we have had SM for a good few years now how much has that influenced the growth of the sport in revenue- of any kind - or enticed people into the grounds? 

Tell me one club that would not prefer 5000 of my type to 5000 clickers.

Also just to add, Rugby League is the perfect sport for short videos which are massive on Tin Tok and Instagram Reels, big hits and spectacular trys.

These short videos are watched by literally millions of people and they often get shown to you without you searching for them, to discount that kind of publicity is just madness, the clubs and the RFL should be all over things like this.

[crashmon]

26 minutes ago, PREPOSTEROUS said:

I feel catchment was introduced to boost the expansion clubs score  who perhaps do not benefit from having a foothold where the game is strongest. Naturally Bradford and Salford have also massively benefited from this. 

 

The catchment score is the iffy one and in effect could discourage clubs reaching outside of their city/district boundaries. Why restrict it on a line drawn on a map?

Trinity have fans in Barnsley, I'm sure Salford have fans in Manchester, Leeds have fans on Wakefield. Perhaps a 50 mile radius from the club would be a better parameter. That way the artificial score will still benefit the expansion clubs whilst not giving an unfair advantage to some traditional clubs over others.

 

This

When I used to go watch the Broncos, there was always a couple of people in the crowd with Leeds or Saints tops..  They watched London as its there local team, but the team of their youth was Leeds for example as they have moved down in the past from Yorkshire.

[Griff]

10 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Do they genuinely cause issues?

EDIT

That's a genuine Q by the way. It's something I wondered about years ago but nobody seemed to think there was an issue.

Yes - they're rapidly flashing lights.  We've left games early before now but we avoid the problem these days by not going to grounds with LED boards.   Not entirely what IMG were intending, of course......

[Tommygilf]

22 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

What is the actual growth you highlight Tommy, we have had SM for a good few years now how much has that influenced the growth of the sport in revenue- of any kind - or enticed people into the grounds? 

Tell me one club that would not prefer 5000 of my type to 5000 clickers.

That's a false dichotomy, and I don't really get what you are trying to prove?

[GUBRATS]

2 hours ago, Hopie said:

I'm against implementing this system choosing between the teams in 12th and 13th and giving them hugely different outcomes on a very minor difference in critieria that don't show to me a significant difference between clubs. I do not see how this system will improve the game other than the hope that clubs with a high enough grading will do something different... but I don't know what that is. 

I know grading will be part of a wider plan, but I don't know what that is, I can see the negatives but not really any positives, notr why the other steps wouldn't work with P+R and/or a fairer distribution of funding. Closing the shop weakens those outside it, and the therefore the game overall. It is just another step towards protectionism between a smaller and smaller number of the top English teams and diminishing TV revenue.

I also see the system as flawed when Hull FC get an A grade when there was a story earlier in the year about them being on the edge of their finances and not making it through the off season, Salford are the highest B but are selling their players to get back on budget. 

Good post 

[Tommygilf]

30 minutes ago, dkw said:

Am I reading it wrong or is he saying he wants the catchment area figures to only include people who who definitely watch RL?

Yeah it seems really daft tbh, along with being almost impossible to quantify.

[crashmon]

17 minutes ago, Leonard said:

We have to catch something first. Currently it's just an area.

the sad fact is this is soo True....

[crashmon]

Just now, Tommygilf said:

Yeah it seems really daft tbh, along with being almost impossible to quantify.

No my point is catchment area should not be a factor.  Its meaningless

[Tommygilf]

Just now, crashmon said:

No my point is catchment area should not be a factor.  Its meaningless

I don't think it is meaningless, its just a blunt instrument to illustrate a point.

[Chrispmartha]

3 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

That's a false dichotomy, and I don't really get what you are trying to prove?

He's proving he's not the demographic that SM is aimed at.