Quote: Saddened! "It's inevitable that Rugby League will dwindle IMO. It'll be back to the pre-Super League days over the next ten years. The decline we're seeing now will continue and we'll see a reduced TV deal from now on.
The main problem the sport has is that it's bankrolled by Sky. Sky don't give a damn about anything other than football, hence the incredibly poor presentation they do of Super League. But Sky itself is probably in serious trouble, it's whole business model is being scrutinised and the vultures are circling. The likes of Amazon, Netflix, Facebook and Youtube are going to make a move into broadcasting sports very soon. Once they do, if they price it right, Sky haven't got a chance, they'll lose Premier League football and subscription numbers will plummet. With such a small fan base, Super League would be lucky to get a deal at all.'"
Sky do give a damn about other things than football.
Formula 1 is one of the main reasons we went from having the hour Backchat show on a Tuesday, the hour long Boots’N’All on a Wednesday, an hour long Superstars show before a Championship game on a Thursday, a SL game on a Friday, an NRL game on a Saturday morning, a SL game on a Saturday evening and an hour long highlights show on a Sunday night.
Then they got the Sky F1 channel and we lost Backchat, Boots’N’All, Superstars, the Championship, we lost NRL a while before (but now have it back and more!) and the Saturday evening slot (which was always my favourite time for a game!) moved to a Thursday.
I sent emails to Sky complaining about what happened to the coverage of RL on Sky.
We have it a bit better now though (not because of my emails, im sure) as we now have THREE NRL games a week, we’ve never had that before. We have Catalans on a Saturday evening (have done for four years now but we never had that third SL game before), as well as the Thursday and Friday slots for games.
That’s five or six games of RL on Sky every week. We’ve actually never had that before.
If SL can keep pushing the Salary Cap up and keep attracting better players to stay in SL or to come to SL, there’s no reason why we won’t get a better deal from Sky (or someone else). It’s in the club’s and the RFL’s hands to do so. Make it seem like we’re too good not to have.
The RFL have persuaded the BBC to put all games for the 2021 World Cup live on the BBC (we’ve never had that before! we have been consigned to Premier Sports for the last two WCs outside England games and the finals). So it’s up to them to start making a fist of getting interest in SL out there too. And, for me, that is by getting better teams for those who can afford it. Nobody cares if they watch City beat Watford 6-0 in the PL. So why does it matter that they see Wire beat Salford 54-6 in SL, if we get almost NRL standard games between Wire and Hull, Saints and Leeds, Toronto and Wigan... THAT’s what is going to sell the game to the TV companies, not getting good mid table sides because the Salary Cap has evened out the sport from the middle out.
Also if we have these star studded teams, more fans are going to turn up to watch. I’ve noticed in the last five years that Union has left us behind with attendances. Their grounds are full (other than Sale). In SL you’re hard pushed to ever see a ground outside Headingley and the Jungle anywhere near full. Wigan’s attendances have hit a mud slide in the last five years. Wire and Saints never fill the seated areas in their grounds. Get better teams across the board and I’d bet you’d see better attendances to go with it and the interest to broadcast games that have full houses will be greater.