BBC Programme about Rugby League Monday... Inside Out



Might be worth viewing...

bet you they say RL is skint

Which is all the more reason Neil and Rob have given TL time to put up or shut up!!!!

Should be interesting, I'll look out for it.



A point nh made at the forum was that it suits the strong or rich clubs for their competitors to struggle, to some extent. If, hypothetically, we suddenly became a wealthy club, it'd be interesting to see how or if it changed our perspective.



Another point he made was about the disparate agendas of different sized clubs and how it prevents change. You could get shut of Nigel Wood, but I think that is the more fundamental problem.

Iirc it needed a 75% vote to make any changes to the rfl .

The program is on at 7.30 which makes a good change from the gone 11pm rugby league usually gets

Good points by Hudgell. It's hard to solve the puzzle when so many aspects of the game commercially are up the creek.

Not enough quality players to go round 14 teams

A salary cap entirely uncompetitive vs NRL, making the latter a realistic and compelling option for the top 5-10% of homegrown players

A non-existent international platform, which even many diehard RL supporters are ambivalent about

Few teams averaging 10k attendances, with CC gates extremely low.



Going back 10 years, we still have a great product, but how far has the game really come? I'd say plenty of cash wasted but not sure what I'd have done differently, Stobart deal apart. Would the game be managed more professionally if Lenegan was chairman? Sounds like it might be a possibility. It also sounds barking mad IMO.

The loss of the sporting drama that was promotion and relegation, and a drift from licensing to out and out franchising with feeder/partner clubs has been the big controversy of the last few years, IMO. The old model had been coming apart at the seams, though, as the gap between sl and the rest became entrenched.



11 of 14 to pass a vote is less than ideal, certainly.

Given what happened the last time a Wigan Chairman took charge of the RFL, I bloody well hope not. Thankfully Richard Lewis came on board and helped turn things around

And to quote Mike Smith 'It's like Turkeys voting for christmas............It isn't going to happen'.

Now I know he didn't coin that phrase but he is right.

11 needed and I cannot see the likes of wakey, Cas, Salford and Widnes voting to agree to them possibly being kicked out on their ears.

In what way...????

Too many to list but:



The RFL was over £2m in debt following the World Cup disaster of 2000 - Lewis turned that around



Lewis also saw the reunification of the RFL & BARLA after nearly 30 years



Also don't forget, before Lindsay joined the RFL, he oversaw Wigan having to sell Central Park to Tesco in order to survive.



Whatever you may think about the state of our game now, it's in a far better condition than it was in 2002

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/21211330Super League clubs are facing combined debts of £68.5m, a BBC Inside Out investigation alleges...[/url



Geez, how bad was it in 2002?