Well put, Ghost. Reeks of desperation on Lenagan's part and although the additional cash won't remotely address his shortfall it's slightly less ludicrous than his masterstroke of playing home games at Millwall.

As much as it pains me to say it being a Bradford fan, but if RL in this country had been run the way Leeds Rhinos have for the last 20 years, the sport would be in a much stronger position today.

SL chairmen, in the main, can barely run their own clubs. But yet they expect the rest of the sport to cheer as they take over the running of the sport?

Doesn't sound sensible to me. Especially when Lenighan's definition of West Yorkshire seems to include places like Newcastle, York, London and Cumbria

ghost, what a fantastic post. most of these chairmen can't even run there own clubs properly.

Very good posts "The Ghost of '99"

I would add that Elstone appears to have been backtracking ever since his original, pretty disastrous, introduction. The latest concession was that the lower divisions wouldn't get a smaller amount of cash than they do now if the next TV deal is the same or larger. Now that could be an admission that he thinks he won't get a better deal (but yet his buddy Lenagan says the old deal was crap??) but still, he's quickly realised that he has lost control of the situation and become identified with some/a pretty toxic individual(s), in RL terms and in the view of the wider RL family.

SL have brought in a quality adminstrator who has significantly more commercial nouce than the rest of them put together.

Rob Elstone is a very clever man and an experienced sports adminstrator who has operated on a different level to anyone currently operating in RL.

These pronouncements make very good sense if you actually take the time to listen to him - sadly no one on here can be bothered to listen to his point of view/logic before actually slating his ideas.

What choice did the clubs have and how did they end up that situation?


Probably because the leadership coming from the RFL - predominently sponsored by GH were way out of their depth and quite frankly bone-idol - no wonder the clubs don't want this to happen again. Elstone wont be the push over Wood was.

He needs to be allowed to negotiate the next deal free from the likes Ralf Rimmer sticking his nose in. Listen to him and his tactics they are way ahead of anything currently trotting around in RL.

The new is unlikely to be as good because the the RFL and the likes of GH have nutured and progressed the product/game. It is now a worse offering devoid of star players and credible sponsors - but hey Featherstone and Batley get a load of cash so that's OK

When the sport has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator via a salary cap that hasnt really moved in 20 years and if the likes of GH had his way it would have actually regressed to a level affordable by the worst club. These are facts - something has to change.

Listen to him and you will see what you have put above is clap trap - all they ever said was that the clubs that generate all the revenues should get a a bigger share - not an unreasonable stance. They have never said the championship clubs should not get any money. Elstone has never changed his point of view on this.

In which case Widnes, Wakefield, Salford etc should get a reduced share ala the Championship clubs.

Not true - in the original press conference and subsequent interviews he said he felt the Championship clubs got too much money. In the most recent interview(s) he has said it will remain the same both for the duration of this deal (which was a given anyway as it couldn't be changed despite Lenagan's demands) AND for future deals at an absolute level, assuming there is a contract increase.
Now we can assume if there is an increase it won't be huge so the %s heading down the game will not reduce much and it is therefore a clear concession and an evolution from the original position.

"How did they end up in that situation"??? What are you talking about?

The situation where Sky came to them after two years of a five year deal and offered them more money, including cash up front but with a tight deadline? Sky are smart people and they know that most SL club owners are two-bit businessmen whose clubs are so badly run that every thing is hand-to-mouth (or handout-to-mouth) who would grasp such a deal if offered. And the RFL couldn't exactly not pass the offer on to the clubs, despite coming completely outside the negotiating cycle.

Call bull all you want mate, but I know different.. and direct from inside Sky.

The sport has the remainder of this contract to get things right. I'll say no more on the subject. Carry on believing what you will.

Yeah I'm sure you do. 4.5751953125:5