No, I don’t need Trip Advisor before flying to Kiev. I already know the lay of the land there. Trip Advisor is for Newbies, not for me. But if I had gone to Kharkiv to observe Ukrainian rugby league, I probably would have consulted Trip Advisor.

Union showing how its done again, 75k in Twickenham, live on Channel5 at prime time. And seems a decent game for once, a 30-30 draw.

Sky aren't stupid, and they know that they basically keep SL running as a full-time professional sport. They'll have done their sums and know what they need to pay to keep it that way. If they reduce funding, then they run the risk of further diluting the quality in SL. The alternative is that they don't bother to bid at all for a new deal, which would pretty much see a return to a semi-pro game across the board. I'd expect that one of the conditions they insist on in any new deal is that other games can't take place at the same time as a televised game. I'd also hope that they'll include one Championship game every week.

My daughter was there (again). She first went 7 years ago when her employer bought 100 tickets at a fiver a pop....... Her friends had such a fun time the following year they booked a restaurant for a prematch gathering, which becamme an anual event and this year 22 of them shared a box at TW2 Towers with a meal and drinks at £100 a pop. She has no interest in union AFAIK, but attends trailfinders a few times a year when he beloved chelsea are away............the trick was that she was on an email list that first time and quins immediately contacted her for feedback..... She was given 2-4-1 deals for any game at the stoop that year, an invite to the clubs open day the following season and when she booked for 15 people the next year she got a free quins bobble hat.......
.... Compare that with the RFL and the marketing of the challenge cup final.......... And im ashamed to say that even as a casual broncos fan, she gets no incetivised offers from trailfinders..... They just take her £25 and expect her to come back.... She spends more on 1 game at the bridge than a ST for london, but the club, like the RFL dont have a clue.

An excellent, pragmatic well thought out post. I only differ on your idea that "SKY don't bother to bid". Why an English Sports channlel would not renew the contract thus losing customers and disenfranchising a game British people do love and admire I can't think? It's their bread an butter to pickup sports like RL and it's worked for them for 24 years.

In 2006 Richard Lewis wasn't happy and thought we could be more than what we are and thus attract new audiences and expand the game to attract new broadcasters. This led to Les Catalans, Toulouse, Toronto Wolfpack and now New York, Ottawa, Timbuktoo etc. We've had 14 years of this stuff and nonsense so I would hope that with the new SKY TV deal we can just get back to basics and fortify the game back into what it's successfully been for 124 years - a Northern Rugby Union with a better set of rules that creates an alternative rugby in the sporting TV calendar.

The last deal is something we can't fairly expect again, as I don't feel we delivered that value anyway, but even a 25% reduced deal should secure us enough to carry on giving to the great British sporting public. That means giving them good old Northern Rugby league with the odd London appearance, a "basics" we must really now get back to concentrating on.

Pretty much my thoughts on it I think that the biggest negotiation it to get no exclusivity give sky a select bunch of games then auction off other packages to amazon bt bbc etc. I think that must be what the pe firms would be brought into do as that's the only real place for them yo make money on adding to any possible deal.

Disagree that they are teaching us a lesson, disagree with Axey as well. If we had as big a game as Union and were as strong in the capital as union I may agree if we didn't get the same deal, or attract the same number of fans, but we are not as big nor do we have anywhere near as much interest in the capital.

Judge us on how much we get for how little we are, not how much a much bigger game gets.

Can't argue much with that.

If you look at the 2 sports from 1996, then you will see how far behind they have left us. They had no tv deal to speak of and their shop window was 4 weeks in spring for the 5 nations. We had a new deal. With sky and FTA covwrage of the challenge cup..... The likes of saracens struggled to get 5k to a rented stadium as did wasps..... They culled london scottish and richmond, 2 big clubs at the time and traditional powerhoses like. Coventry and bedford were ignored..... If you mention castleford ground sharing with wakey you get stonewalled..... Wasps now own a nice ground and sarries get 60k to. Wembley...... As for london,..... Sarries and quins are 2 of 12......the rest are scattered south west, midlands and north.... As for help????? They are as reliant on wealthy owners and tv deals as we are.... But they polish their turd far better than us, so yeah.... We have a lot to learn from them.

Again I don't really agree with respect. I don't believe the best marketeers in Rugby league (and OK there may not be many) are missing a trick that Rugby Union are playing that would work just as good for us. I had a long conversation with a poster who strongly believed we were and he claimed marketing credentials but in the end he could not specifically tell me what actual tricks we are missing.

I think we did a great job creating the magic weekend and the Grand final, and I think that of course inevitably impacted on Wembley, but created an overall net increase in numbers and profit yet people berate the game for the demise of the Wembley cup final and wonder why people no longer travel a 400 mile round trip to see one match mainly featuring the same few clubs who win it in a now second rate competition that mainly throws up mismatches. Again that leads to threads about how useless we are for not selling Wembley out, but I would not go now even if I had free tickets and free air travel from Robin Hood Airport, but I go to Magic and Old Trafford.

I know Union is a bit of a mirror to league North/south and both games are reliant on rich owners but beyond that Union are by far far the bigger, richer, more played and watched game with heavy grass roots all over the UK, It would really take a true qualified and experienced marketing person to explain whether size for size against union we are somehow missing a trick or two? I don't think we are because I as a fan know myself what attracts me to the game and what doesn't.

Sounds great. Here's to another 100 years of a tiny sport played in the North. Fantastic.