League Express editor MARTYN SADLER admits that he is growing impatient waiting for the results of IMG’s apparent desire to re-imagine Rugby League and he gives them some pointers on where they might start to make some progress.
This article is taken from this week’s issue of League Express.
Two weeks ago in this newspaper one of our readers, David Johnson, wrote a column in this space headlined: “Where is the re-imagining?”
Of course he was referring to the re-imagining of the game that has supposedly been undertaken by IMG since they were unveiled as a consultant to the RFL and RL Commercial in May 2022.
That’s almost three years ago.
You might have thought that in that time they would have had plenty of time to formulate a strategy.
But where’s the evidence?
“From where I stand, as an interested observer, it’s hard to see what that re-imagination consists of,” wrote Mr Johnson.
I could hardly agree with him more.
Of course IMG have a twelve-year contract, which presumably therefore expires in 2034, so in their defence they may claim that they are taking their time before recommending too many changes.
Given what happened in London on Saturday, I wonder whether IMG would have had any inkling when they were first appointed that a new semi-professional club would spring up in the east Yorkshire town of Goole and in 2025 win their first professional game by heading to London to beat the Broncos.
Goole’s remarkable success in such a short space of time does reinforce the truism that not everything is imaginable.
But there are some things that should be much easier to imagine.
IMG’s imagination so far has been limited to the gradings system and to some apparent recommendations to the clubs to get rid of the loop fixtures, which the Super League clubs in their wisdom decided to ignore.
But what else might they re-imagine?
When you think about it, there are many things that could be considered.
Off the top of my head I can immediately think of ten broad topics that could be up for re-imagination.
Let me list them.
1 The way the game is governed.
I’ve long advocated for a governance system that puts the emphasis on the competition as the single entity whose interests override the interests of the clubs, with a governance model broadly based on that of the highly successful Major League Soccer competition in North America.
2 The length of the season.
In my view the season should be more or less played within the 31 weeks of British Summer Time, from late March to late October. I’ve long thought that playing matches in January is foolish, as we’ve seen with the state of many of the pitches for the weekend’s Challenge Cup matches.
3 The structure of the competitions.
I’ve long thought that the Challenge Cup should revert to being a straight knockout competition for the top 32 clubs in the game and that the Challenge Cup Final should be held the week before the Super League Grand Final to give a wonderful climax to the season. I also believe that the Super League competition should move as quickly as possible to 16 clubs to widen its appeal.
4 The scoring system.
The scoring system has changed radically over the years, whether that means changing the value of tries from three points to four, or reducing the value of a field-goal to one point from the previous two. The scoring system can be changed to try to encourage more of the sort of play we would all like to see. In my experience the vast majority of Rugby League fans love nothing more than to see tries scored over the full length of the field. So, as I’ve written before, I would love to see a rule change that would allocate five points to tries that originate from a play-the-ball in the try scorer’s own half of the field so that a converted try would secure seven points. If you think about it, that rule change might have been very helpful for Hull KR in last season’s Grand Final, which they lost 9-2.
5 Rugby League pitches.
How about putting some Rugby League branding on pitches. As they stand, when Rugby League is shown on TV the pitches look absolutely bare, with nothing to tell the viewer what they are watching. Contrast that with other major sports or even the NRL in Australasia.
6 Rugby League strips.
For a long time I’ve thought that the strips worn by clubs are an eclectic mix of colours, styles and sponsors’ names that tell us little about the branding of the game. All too often they are a mish-mash and they don’t even carry the colours that are supposedly associated with the clubs that bear their name. How about commissioning someone to completely rethink Rugby League strips to accentuate Super League branding, so that anyone switching on to the game is immediately aware of what they are watching, just as they are when they switch on an NFL game, for example.
7 Rugby League venues.
Back in 1998 I advised the then Super League (Europe) that they should take some games on the road, to broaden Super League’s geographic footstep. And in those days they actually took some notice, taking games to places like Edinburgh, Leicester, Northampton, Cardiff and other venues away from the M62. And they generated some decent crowds. But, as always with Rugby League, we implement something new and then abandon it. And yet to take one home loop fixtures per club to a partner venue would surely pay dividends in the long term. After all, who is to say that Hull KR, for example, might not want to take a game to Holland after their trip to Amsterdam at the weekend.
8 Financial issues.
The income derived by clubs from the broadcasting contract with Sky has almost halved since 2017. And yet the costs of running a Super League club haven’t changed. Salford are the club that is suffering the most, but every club in Super League is making heavy losses. How long can that be allowed to continue? In response to this financial crisis I’ve long advocated splitting the salary cap into two separate caps for home-grown and overseas players, both to cut costs and to encourage clubs to develop more players from their own resources.
9 Promotion and relegation.
In our most recent League Express Podcast, York Chairman Clint Goodchild makes it absolutely clear that the current system of promotion and relegation creates instability, primarily because a club relegated from Super League sees its central distribution reduced from around £1.25 million to £150,000 per annum. It’s hardly surprising that relegated clubs run into a financial crisis. Whereas promotion to Super League is hugely positive, relegation from it is a club killer. We need to devise a system that in some way preserves the former but does away with the latter. And if that means that Super League expands over the years, that is all to the good.
10 New forms of the game.
We have seen how some other sporting bodies have introduced new versions of their sports to appeal to wider audiences. We could do this very easily with Nines Rugby League, with tournaments played on midweek summer nights, perhaps involving those players who are on the fringe of Super League first-team squads.
So those are my ten topics and I could easily think of many more.
But then again, it isn’t me who is supposed to be doing the re-imagining.
In that case, however, I would echo what Mr Johnson said two weeks ago.
“Will whoever is actually in charge please identify themselves?
“Will they make themselves known to us and explain their vision, explain how we get to achieve it and by when.
“Anything short of that begins to resemble the band playing on the Titanic.”
I couldn’t agree more.
