I'm a new membern of the mb but have been reading it for years, and I have to say that I agree with starbug. Things don't look good for the championship clubs this season. There is nothing to get excited about for most clubs, and how many people do the rfl think are going to go looking for the thursday night games and 'happen' upon pay per view, more to the point in a stressed economical situation how many people do they expect to pay for each game?

People watch the thursday night fixtures because they ALREADY have sky sports and its a taster for the SL games etc, we both work full time and our one luxury is sky sports, there is no way we would pay extra to watch championship games if it wasn't our team playing, and for at least the next three years they won't be.

So, I honestly can't see the pay per view working. I can see it being dropped after next season.

Which leaves all clubs under SL vulnerable, because with no exploitation of the game at lower level it will impact on people wanting to join at amateur level.

The rfl have made a right mess I can't see getting fixed any time soon.

Looks like I'll be subscribing to Premier Sports

Money

Funny enough I agree with Starbug as well!!! I think some of the SL club fans who post on here and on TotalRL.com need to understand that this is not just this season that Championship and Championship 1 clubs have been asking for a fair deal from the RFL.

I can remember a couple of seasons back Blackpool and Workington fans asking for a meaningful fixture list in Ch 1 because they were getting 5 and 6 week gaps between home fixtures. They were pointing out that the NR Cup favours the Championship teams and very few Ch 1 clubs get past the group stages. This was part of the reason for gaps in fixture lists and clubs had 9 league games and 2 NR Cup games at home for a full season.

The introduction of an Anglo French Cu is for the top 4 Championship clubs plus four French but again these will no doubt be the same clubs that are still going strong in the NR Cup not Ch 1 clubs who will once again have big gaps whilst NR Cup Quater finals, semi-finals and Anglo-French Cup matches take place!!!!

We have had delays that could and should have been sorted long before now with a bit of planning and forethought but as far as the Championships go they are a mere afterthought all the time.. We have a Premier Sports "deal" introduced that brings no cash in for clubs other than "commission" on how many subscriptions clubs can sell but if they can't sell more than it costs to put on the games then - no payout.

As one poster has put on the other forum would SL fans agree to a similar scheme for their clubs with Sky, only getting "commission" for how many satelite dishes your club sells?

That's been the case since 1996. Before 1996, we had a semi-pro league and an amateur league, with massive gaps between them.

Except we are going to have clubs that were proffessional playing amateur , that's progress ? , basically we've got rid of what was NL 2 and put a couple of Heartland clubs into what was NL 3

Fantastic

All I will say is that it's IMPERATIVE Oxford get in, in my opinion. What with the University, it will help give rugby league the perfect platform to get on the big stage Varsity wise compared to Yawnion.

Very true. League is pretty much invisible to both town and gown there.

Any chance one of the mods could merge [url=http://viewtopic.php?f=43&t=507723this thread[/url, into this thread, please? For some reason it was started on the International Rugby League board. Thanks.

Gateshead have been bankrupt about 5 or 6 times. Skolars have a (relatively) rich backer prepared to subsidise them at this level.

The South Wales club are too weak and didn't finish RLCN.