Quote: HXSparky "I don't see how that makes any difference? Under the current structure, if a current Championship team replaces Catalans in SL, then they'll have done that on merit by winning games in the 8's and maybe the MPG. For the next season they would be a SL club, and Catalans would be a Championship club. Sky will still pay to televise the SL games regardless of whether they're showing Catalans or not. I also don't see that the 30-50k viewers only watch on a Saturday just because it's Catalans that are playing - it's more than likely that viewing figures would be slightly higher as there would be more local interest from paying Sky subscribers.
I get the point about selling TV rights to foreign TV companies, but it all depends how well the deals are negotiated.'"
But there would be no games on the Saturday so we would lose 500,000 viewers a season. That would no doubt affect future TV deals and League sponsorship.
Can you imagine the RFL going to Sky in 2020, yep we have lost you 14 live games a season and half a million viewers. But its ok because we have replaced them with Leigh who will take 500 fans to Wakefield on a Friday night. How about an extra XX million our new broadcast deal!
They are also self sustainable club which is rare in our game.