There is quite a lot of people throwing hands up saying the RFL or Chairmen are letting down the game of RL or they are underselling it.

But I've heard little in the way of actual ideas that could translate to better revenues, just lots of hopeless THEY must do better.

So does anyone have an idea that could be implemented that could actually increase our revenues given our game being as it is today, not some idealised version of it.

My current off the wall idea is TV ads. If we could allow SKY more TV ads, then SKY could pay us more, regardless of the fact that the TV deal is undervalued as we see it already. If we could double the TV deal, would fans go for a mini-break around the 20min mark.

I would not want teams off the pitch, but a longdrinks break around the 20 minute mark. 15-25 mins would be an acceptable window. Either following a try, penalty, 20 m restart. The TV company signals to ref, long drinks break and a 1-2 min window for ads, drink and maybe even a timeout style team talk for coaches.

Surely more ads means more money. Cricket and Darts can do this, the nature of our game does not allow for long breaks and any break whilst the game plays on, may lose viewers. So a mini pause, could it work?

Like I say ideas that could generate real revenue?

Leagues clubs, with bingo, hot pot and slot machines.

Simple, work harder.
Its the same for all businesses in hard times.
The strong businesses will be clever in managing their costs and looking after their customers properly.
So for SL and Championship clubs alike, they need to be realistic in how they market S/T's and keep knocking on doors of local businesses
that may be sympathetic to their cause.
There is no magic solution or easy answer, just plain hard graft.

Yes I'm sure that if with a few more adds we could double our sky income we would definitely take it. That's a pretty massive 'if' though. There's no way we'd get anything like that. Sky pay us because a lot of people subscribe to sky so they can watch the rugby, they don't pay us because they think rugby league fans are great targets for advertising - dont' believe me? take a look at our sponsors (Irn bru, heinz big soup), and compare them to the blue chip companies which advertise on sports such as football, rugby union, cricket, etc.

If you want the chairmen to get ideas how to improve revenue, they should pay Gary Hetherington to teach the other chairmen a thing or two. Obviously Leeds is a big city with a successful team so he has an advantage, but imo there's no reason clubs like Hull and Wigan shouldn't be turning over a similar amount, not less than half as much as Leeds they currently turnover.

OK I accept the double is OTT, but lets say a significant increase. Also if the TV deal is based on subscriptions then surely others like ESPN and BT vision would be more competitive when bidding. Did anyone bid other than SKY last time?

Meaningful competitive regular season games

This!!

Seems strange that we werent turning people away at the doors when we had the champions decided by the top of the table then really doesnt it.

Meaningful games does not seam to be the issue, though. We have bigger attendances than when SL started. Yet our revenues in real terms are falling.

Saints had more fans than ever last year, despite a lot of people at Saints fans saying it was a very dull year to watch.

I'd like a more meaningful league or a disparity between league and playoffs, but how that would effect £'s in the pockets of SL clubs does not seam to be that direct a link.

So what happened in 2010 when you posted a pre-tax loss of 40K on the back of £11.2m sales and a Challenge Cup final appearance?
Leeds also happens to be the biggest metropolitan area in the North bar Manchester with many other smaller towns close by, the fanbase is huge.
Wigan does very well and has traditionally drawn a wider fan base than the town of Wigan itself, Hull whilst the city itself is fairly populous is in one of the most sply populated areas of England.
The turnover also reflects the fact that both Hull & Wigan lease their tenure.
Hull FC made a profit 6 years on the trot until year end 2010 on the back of 2 & 3rd from last in the league 2008/9, going out of the CC at the first round several times and getting past the first round of the play-offs once in that 6 year period.
We don't want to learn anything from Hetherington, he's an underhanded scab worse than Maurice Lindsay.

you dont pay much tax on a loss, if you could maybe move some of your profit from your profit making arm to your loss making arm you might do

Rugby League is a small mostly northern based sport, we get very little in the way of publicity from the papers, in years gone by we had plenty of sponsors, but they most came from brewery's and smoking, such as the silk cut challenge cup & the john player, tetlys & john smiths, now that you cannot get sponsorship from cigarettes, we have struggled to attract much in the way of sponsorship, at the end of the day we are in no position to pick and chews, we had a alternative to stobarts, but for some reason the people who run the game thought being sponsors by bookmakers was bellow us and we turned them down, if the football premiership are not too proud to take there cash, why can't we.

it must take effort to be that bitter.
Leeds recorded a £39k loss in 2010 primarily because provision was made in that year for the HMRC issue and it was Leeds worst season for a while in the middle of a recession. There were also a few redundancies made during that year which would bear fruit the next year when Leeds made a £596k profit. Leeds are also owed £1.4m on a loan to the union team, plus an increase in assets of over £1.2m and over £2m sat in the bank account.
But go ahead and take the mick if you want