TOUGH LUCK, YOU’RE OLD?
The Rugby League World Cup tickets offer reminds me of investigations when I was at junior school into ‘kidnapping’ by a certain religious order – “Recruit a child before it turns seven and it will be ours for life.”
My coterie applauds any interest in attracting fans under sixteen and surely even younger ones should not be forgotten. For some of us, Rugby League initiation rites began with school trips and a wonderful adventure to Wembley for the 1957 Cup Final hooked us.
We are still hooked after more than sixty years, and how are we rewarded?
The World Cup organiser, RLWC2021, tells us that: “After lengthy and protracted research” there will be no ticket concessions for us older, loyal fans. Why might extensive research have led them to that decision? Answer: “You lot aren’t going to be around for much longer, so why should we care?”
In other words, RLWC2021 is slip-streaming the ticketing for Wembley and the Grand Final at Old Trafford, assuming that a minority will moan but the majority will still pay up. Oh no we won’t; not this time around!
Our message to the RLCWC 2021 planning team: “Most of you will get to our age one day and, like us, suffer the consequences of a meagre pension in your pockets.”
Bernie Eccleston, Thirsk
WELL BLOW ME DOWN
Is it just me, or is Dave Woods channelling his inner Eddie Waring?
The whole tone of the BBC coverage is coming across as jokey; a sort of laddish banter, as if Rugby League is the comedy cousin of ‘real rugger’.
‘Jiffy’ (Jonathan Davies OBE) is a bit past his sell-by date, ‘Nobby’ (Brian Noble) is slipping into the comedy, matey routine and although John Wilkin does a good enough job, the whole thing needs a shake-up.
Even Clare Balding took our game more seriously than this current bunch.
Anton Grashion, Edinburgh
CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME
If there is any doubt at all about the application by Carlo LiVolsi to take over running Toronto Wolfpack, why do Elstone and Rimmer delay the decision, leaving the former players still in financial limbo?
The decision should be a resounding no. Martyn Sadler’s plea for them to be re-admitted was over the top.
Championship and League 1 clubs have had no income since March; the Super League clubs are playing (and look like having to play) with no supporters for some considerable time. Why does Martyn seem concerned about a Canadian club that cannot play for the first months of the year due to weather conditions and has only being going for a few years, rather than for clubs here, many of which have existed for over a hundred years?
Some of our lower league clubs must be struggling already, and with the upcoming Sky renewal likely to be lower than before, all lower league clubs could be facing a bleak future. Let’s put our energy and money-making schemes into helping our existing clubs.
As Garry Schofield says, let’s say goodbye Toronto.
Ian Haskey, Castleford
Unless ‘Supergreed’ excludes the Toronto Wolfpack; unless they hand power back to the Rugby Football League and create a fourteen-team league, it looks like it’s time to watch the lower leagues instead.
If they can obtain a television deal, that is. Even a modest deal would compete with the scraps from Super League. The threat of a breakaway might even focus a few Super League minds, although I suspect they would be happy to rid themselves of the burden of the lower leagues. But where would their players come from then?
Contempt from ‘across the pond’ for the M62 and heritage teams is stunning. Without us, Toronto would not have a league to play in, nor Ottawa a team without former Widnes players. The Championship should not be a dumping ground for failed Super League experiments. Don’t send them here again please, they are not welcome.
The Catalans Dragons are moaning about the cost of private air travel, and Toronto Wolfpack now want central funding, but where is the money to come from?
I am all for expansion, but let’s focus on Cumbria, Wales, London, Scotland and only let in teams with a robust business model. I am not convinced the new Toronto will pay their players, fulfil their fixture list, provide any Canadian players or stop slagging off the M62 teams.
Nor, it seems, is Mr Elstone but, ‘The new Toronto’s gonna be just awesome’ I hear them say.
Aye, right!
Davie Roberts, Glasgow</
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