www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/28 ... from-brian

www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/28 ... from-brian

I dont mind Barwick and I think his experience will be a benefit to RL , he needs to have a bit of a clean up though and get rid of Wood.

I get what he is driving at and it's something I have said before.

From the all the clubs going bust, to attendances, everything gets levelled at the RFL.

But actually it's the club that are responsible for this.

The RFL loaned vast sums to the Bulls, but they were not stupid and secured this against the lease of the ground, knowing that if the bulls folded, so would their loan and the lease of the ground.

Yet by doing this the RFL got pounded for almost stealing the ground from the bulls and taking their only viable asset.

Basically if they help, they get it in the neck, if they don't they get it in the neck. But in the end all those debts built up where not built up by the RFL they were built up by the clubs.

Also the rules. The RFL can only advise on a structure in the end the clubs again hold sway and pick the structure that they want. Yet the RFL get called weak for not enforcing the structure, when actually they have no power to enforce this or any power to take power away from the clubs.

The biggest problem for the RFL is the headline sponsor, particularly the Stobart debarcle. I've no issue with having no headline sponsor if the collective sponsors can bring in more money, it makes more sense to not hold all your eggs in one basket. But we needs those eggs to be good eggs. Or at least to have some eggs.

An interesting read, let’s see how things progress, or not!

Back to basics should be the answer.

conveluted league structures, matches all over the place, grandiose aspirations really need to go in the bin.

Back to basics, get those right then move onwards and upwards.

Have the new Bradford owners been able to buy the ground back?

Some good points. Obviously we're all critical about the lack of main sponsor for the league and I, for one, have been calling for the RFL to demand emergency renegotaitions with SKY in the face of the NRL situation, but if our clubs were able to do rlthis sort of thingrl then we's all be sitting much more comfortably.

Very true.

But then that is a shirt and ground sponsor.

I've no idea what our deals with Typhoo and Langtree are worth.
If Langtree knocked a few million off the build price it could be just as big.

You would suspect not as it's that kind of announcement that would generate other commercial interest.
In the end though whilst sponsorship is part of the answer, the other part is having clubs that manage costs. Everyone can do simple maths, when you look at the cost of a SL squad, it can never top £1.6million.

At £200 a throw thats 8000 season tickets.
But you had clubs doing £99 season tickets. So then you are talking 16000 season tickets and no-one has ever got close to that.
Clubs have to be selfsufficient and have to charge the going rate, or have very very deep pockets, for a sustained period.

interesting reply from League Freak.

Don't read if offended by foul language.

It's not the language that offends. It's the lack of any real critical points in the article. He uses swearing to make a point rather than actually making a point.

I could write a foul mouthed tirade, it does not mean I have anything useful or insightful to say.

But in the new journalism, just getting noticed is the key, maybe this is the real intention rather than a critical analysis of the letter.

He even goes on about the ....... from tennis.

It's not hard to remember Richard Lewis' name, if he could not manage that he could at least show some journalist credibility and Google it. Maybe it is just me, but most people are of a good opinion of Richard Lewis. He pulled the RFL back from the brink of financial collapse and did what the RFL could to put in place rules around finance to improve the clubs.

But none of that matters as the key is self publicity.

Hmmm. It's early days yet but Barwick doesn't really say anything apart from he likes the sport and is looking at ways his expertise helps.
They should put him on the negotiating team next time the TV deal comes up.

With regards to the maths we need to add in the £1.28M p.a. that the clubs get from sky ( a bad deal very undervalued in my opinion).
As the top SL club exceed £5M in income and as the SC is £1.6M it doesn't look hard to actually make at least a small profit.