I noted some time ago that Mr. Lenegan & Co, and not the RFL were negotiating the new TV deal with SKY.

Martyn Sadler says that Robert Elstone will report back to SL clubs this week on the negotiations so far and Sadler says anyone who thinks it will be £200M again is living in "cloud cuckoo land". Sadler also says the deal may be around £150M for five years at the very most. This ties in with earlier pieces on the negotiations when Lenegan also mentioned £150M.

At that time he not only mentioned the figure, he said if that was the deal there would be nothing for the Championship clubs. A big fat zero which Mr, Sadler notes and then warns that SL clubs will "have to tighten their belts" but most worryingly "Non super league clubs will have to find new sources of income"

I don't know how championship club coffers have suffered this year 2020, and will suffer maybe next season (2021) due to covid, But It can't be good, and will be even worse if the SKY tap is turned off. The question here is just how many championship clubs are going to survive the SKY money being switched off on top of the problems this year and maybe into next year??

Maybe the game is going easy on Toronto and Ottawa as they may be needed to make up a viable championship come 2022?? Maybe they could attract the venture capitalists that are hovering around (albeit Sadler says plenty of RU clubs now regret the deal they did - not that any such deal is on the table for RL).

All this ties in with Lenegan's plans last year or so that were voted on (and out) to have a two tier SL 1 & 2 of 10 clubs each. and leave the rest to the dogs.

All this is going to put mergers fairly and squarely back on the agenda, expect Hull FC and HKR to be one of the first to ponder the unthinkable especially if there is any connection with the greatly reduced SKY deal and HKR's Hudgell pulling out his investments.

Although in reality there wouldn't be mergers, just one bigger club absorbing another.

F.C might swallow up K.R but F.C won't gain 6,000 to 7,000 K.R fans, they might be lucky & convert 500. Wigan might swallow up Leigh & gain 200 fans if lucky, Leeds absorb Fev, Cas absorb Wakey ? It just won't happen, Clubs will just go to the wall, Super League in their greed will kill the game to keep a bigger slice of pie but long term they will be biting their own hands off !!!

Short sightedness is the order of the day.

Or the championship cluba could go and source their own deal from somewhere rather than rely on the big boys to do all the work?

correct I'd rather spoon my eyes out than support cas

I doubt RL is like football and places like Widnes are full of Wigan fans or York is full of Leeds fans that ultimately kills the local football club, so get out into the town/area and get fans down. Too many clubs in our game (including some in the top flight) are happy to sit back and get money for nothing.

Indeed

It's not going to happen and I'm certain that Cas fans would say the same in reverse
On the subject of N. American clubs in a new, covid affected, cash strapped environment, there really seems little point in continuing with the N .American experiment.
Perhaps it's time for them to withdraw and work on a plan for starting some junior / amateur clubs. You know, with all those American Footballers that cant make it in their no 1 sport, something that was supposed to happen with Toronto.

Championship & below could form their own Leagues outside of the RFL, rid themselves of some of the rules set by the RFL & ultimately attempt to sell a slightly different game with a view to becoming a better product. It's a very long shot, maybe achievable, maybe not.

Having pointed out for years right from the start that even Perez said expansion was about more players and more TV money it's a pleasure to read your open minded comment and agree with that entirely. If they put Doncaster in Superleague at least you would see some more kids playing RL there, and more Donny people buying SKY subs to watch the team in Superleague.

However if you took Wakefield out to accommodate that then I guess interest in playing RL in Wakey, and watching Trinity on TV would fall. Never understood this "Expansion thing", always though it was more like substitution?

Now if the new SKY deal did lead to a 10 club SL would that be contraction?

I guess Lenegan will call in "Consolidation"......

Yay, another anti expansion thread, just dressed up differently.

Over the years I have anecdotally picked up on a number of fans who were from "small clubs" areas who would travel to watch the Professional game aka Superleague. That included a few from York who liked watching Superleague live, but just a few...

Exactly, a few. There won't be thousands like you may have thousands of Liverpool.fans in places like Hull or Plymouth

There is a huge difference in the marketing between PL and SL, and the experience of a PL game and SL game, even on the TV.

Mergers - No, there are very, very few fans that would want to support the merged clubs

As for 2 x 10 club, SL 1 & 2, not a hope in hell.

Assuming that the rumours about a reduced TV deal are correct, we may be lucky to sustain a single 10 club SL.
Howe on earth that gets to 20 clubs, quite frankly, seems ludicrous.

Re branding the Championship as SL 2 may sugar the pill when just about all of the funding for the lower leagues is removed.
Any talk of 2 x 10 is coded speak for reducing SL to 10 clubs - how could it be anything else.

Of course there is, but that isn't my point. My point is that if you're a RL fan living in Featherstone say you will probably support Fev or be inclined to do so if the club gave you the incentive to attend. You won't see thousands of Wigan fans living in Fev and setting off fireworks if we win the league.

In football, the smaller clubs lose their target audience because most people take the easy option of supporting the big 4 regardless of where they live or whether they have a local club they could support.

So the Championship clubs can't use that as an excuse for not going out into the community and finding those fans that don't normally attend but may do so in the future. The schools won't be full of Wigan or Saints fans but might be full of kids that will go to watch live sport given the chance.

We were never going to get anywhere near the last deal. No one cares about rugby league anymore. It’s a minority sport due to being held back by 75% of the clubs in SL