IMG Grading System (Many Merged Threads)

[Fevrover]

47 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Best post for a long time.

Try telling some of them on main forum, it's a case of 'Iam alright Jack'

[Worzel]

Most importanly though, we only need another 23 more comments before this thread breaks the 400 page mark. Will there be any fireworks?

[JonM]

3 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Fine, but if that's the case, it "doesn't need" to have a quarter of its elite league within a 5-mile radius of Haydock Park racecourse, so which two out of Wigan, Leigh and St Helens shall we work to remove from SL?

Quite a densely populated part of the country though - the WA and WN postcode areas have a combined population approaching 1 million people. I'd expect all 4 of the SL clubs in that area to achieve higher average attendances this year than any of the clubs in the WF postcode area.

Edited February 20 by JonM

[JohnM]

33 minutes ago, Worzel said:

Most importanly though, we only need another 23 more comments before this thread breaks the 400 page mark. Will there be any fireworks?

well, its been pretty quiet for  400 pages so far......

[PREPOSTEROUS]

At the risk of being unbearable, the content coming out of the club these days is superb, and the link below is fantastic. I can envisage this is exactly what IMG were looking for when they devised the push for social media interactions. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGVSSI5sH7-/?igsh=MjhldXVtbzh2MnR0

[Worzel]

1 hour ago, PREPOSTEROUS said:

At the risk of being unbearable, the content coming out of the club these days is superb, and the link below is fantastic. I can envisage this is exactly what IMG were looking for when they devised the push for social media interactions. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGVSSI5sH7-/?igsh=MjhldXVtbzh2MnR0

Quality content that

[Wakefield Ram]

On 20/02/2025 at 12:14, Worzel said:

Yes in truth I wholly understand this perspective from a Rovers fan. I'd probably only use Featherstone as an example of "look at a club that threw the kitchen sink at the old model, and still didn't get into Super League" in the context of people saying the new IMG system removes the ability for new clubs to get in (the old system didn't have guarantees either, as Rovers have shown)

I know this feels unfair, as the "third" club, but we should be honest: Rugby league doesn't need to have a quarter of it's elite league in the area of Wakefield. That's why the catchment area scoring exists. It's not the only factor in club selection, may not even be the most important one, but it is a factor and there's no point pretending otherwise. That might be unfair, but this isn't about fairness, it's about getting the best collection of clubs for our only elite, monetisable product.

Bradford, for all their recent failings including archaic facilities, offer at least the potential of a club that can generate 15-20,000 crowds. They've done it before. That's not to say I'd have them in now, but it is a reason why they'd rank above Featherstone. In precisely the same way that the NRL would rather have a new club in Perth or New Zealand before adding another one in Sydney.

I know you'll disagree, and I wouldn't flippantly dismiss what you say at all, but I do think this is our reality as a sport now. 

Then it's not really a sport, it's just a business. The problem with businesses that are static, same clubs playing the same clubs every year and only a handful with any realistic possibility of ever winning anyway is that over time, SL will stagnate. It will become nearly impossible for any Championship team to score more points than a SL club. 

If all that matters is how many fans you might bring to an away game, then be honest about it. But that just sums up the small town mentality like forcing Catalans to pay travel costs because they're not on the M62, the lack of an international programme, the salary cap with multiple dispensations designed to maintain an unequal playing field, they very opposite of what it should do.

And an IMG-based distribution of funding which just further increases the inequality.

[Taffy Tiger]

2 hours ago, PREPOSTEROUS said:

At the risk of being unbearable, the content coming out of the club these days is superb, and the link below is fantastic. I can envisage this is exactly what IMG were looking for when they devised the push for social media interactions. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGVSSI5sH7-/?igsh=MjhldXVtbzh2MnR0

sooo unbearable !! 

[Worzel]

34 minutes ago, Wakefield Ram said:

Then it's not really a sport, it's just a business. The problem with businesses that are static, same clubs playing the same clubs every year and only a handful with any realistic possibility of ever winning anyway is that over time, SL will stagnate. It will become nearly impossible for any Championship team to score more points than a SL club. 

If all that matters is how many fans you might bring to an away game, then be honest about it. But that just sums up the small town mentality like forcing Catalans to pay travel costs because they're not on the M62, the lack of an international programme, the salary cap with multiple dispensations designed to maintain an unequal playing field, they very opposite of what it should do.

And an IMG-based distribution of funding which just further increases the inequality.

Professional sport is a business. If you don't want it to be a business, then in rugby league we have other competitions clubs can play in. The revenues are what pay the players, support the pathways, and (if we can ever get back to having enough money) is what can support the non-professional community game. 

It isn't about Championship clubs being able to score more points than Super League clubs. That looks at this through the wrong lens. It is about growing the revenues of the sport, enabling us to have MORE clubs in the elite league. A 14 team league is a far batter pathway for Championship teams than promotion & relegation. That's how the NRL does it. That's how pretty every sport on earth that isn't the behemoth that is football does it. 

I agree with you on the international game, and Catalans travel costs, and that away fans are not what clubs should focus on. You'd find IMG agree with you too. It's the less progressive, pessimistic, lowest-common-denominator clubs who aren't on the same page on those things. 

Edited February 21 by Worzel
Typo

[Worzel]

Yet more new business investor engagement at Hull KR. Interestingly this time two former players, now succesful entrepreneurs, joining the board. Good to see. 

https://hullkr.co.uk/news/jack-and-sam-latus-join-hull-kr-s-board-of-directors