So you're ok with Ian Lenagan subsidizing a struggling super league club (possibly because it's yours) but you're not ok with Super League clubs subsidizing championship clubs?



Yes it is a fact that Ian continued to financially support London after he was told to give up his shares by the RFL but he carried on financially supporting them because he has an agenda which is now becoming very clear. He will use the fact he financially assisted London and the RFL's opposition against it as a stick to whack them with.



And London averaged how many fans this year despite been in SL? Is it fair that your more than happy for Ian to subsidize London in the past (maybe present and future too) and not super league clubs subsidize championship clubs in the future?

Yep.....because if IL wants to plough cash into anything, it's up to him, but the RFL taking cash from SL clubs to pay Championship clubs because they can't ing generate revenue is a totally different thing.



You don't like him? Fine. In the 1980'S as a theatrical producer he'd done enough to buy a nice BMW.....he sold the BMW in 1984 so he could set up a new business...he pocketed 19,000,000 quid in 2011 for that company. I'd trust his business acumen over the RFL and a bitter mid-level Kiwi Rugby player turned jack of all trades at Doncaster.


3 times the Doncaster number...why?



Perfectly fair......IL will invest his cash wherever he wants, but he will not stand around and watch the RFL waste money he has helped them earn.

Put it this way, SL could survive (probably thrive) outside the RFL......the RFL would cease to exist pretty sharpish if SL left them taking the SKY TV deal with them.

And IL wanted to plough cash into the RFL otherwise he wouldn't have done so by now and stayed well away from rugby league as it wouldn't be worth it. Unless he saw that getting involved with rugby league in this country comes with collateral damage of paying taxes to the RFL. Well boo-hoo if Ian doesn't like a system that has improved things for the championship - think of the extensive Premier Sports coverage. Keep things going like this and who knows what improvements are in store for the championship thanks to RFL intervention.


The game is worth more than Ian Lenagans millions. For example Leeds Rhinos are owned by Paul Caddick who is worth well over £150,000,000 and doesn't appear to be backing Lenagan. I'd trust Caddick and Heatherington over Lenagan anyday. Nice try!

Caddicks other hobbie than rugby league is shooting and it's a shame he can't legally shoot Lenagan out of the game!




Whats to say Doncaster can't get that in SL?


It's only Ian Lengan who has wasted his money if he didn't want it going into the hands of the RFL. The RFL put that money into some good use for the whole game and not just where IL and his merry men want it (they clubs own back pocket).

Leeds Rhinos seem to be doing alright in Super League which is regarded as one of the best run clubs in the league. A breakaway will probably see things remain the same for a while with little improvement. Reguardless I look forward to seeing how all this pans out but hopefully for the best!

Extensive, coverage and Premier Sports are three words I have never seen together in the same sentence...





I said over the RFL and Carl Hall. The Guy at Leeds has neither come out in support nor has he said he's against IL and the other clubs....


are you 5yrs old?


Nothing.....the point is all SL clubs, including London need to be averaging 10k. Nothing to say that all the clubs in Britain couldn't get that average, but currently, Doncaster Rovers in the more popular code aren't even close to that number....


IL has not said he didn't want to give the RFL money.....he has said he wants to examine various key points as well as explore and identify why the RFL have failed to monatise the sport effectively. It's all well and good saying that in an ideal world, the sport could trickle down revenue through the leagues but in reality, without SKY TV and SL the game as a professional sport is ed.



Leeds and Wigan, with maybe FC and Wire are examples of how it should be done.....if we could find 8 more like them, then the whole issue of money for the lower leagues wouldn't matter as the game would be a lot wealthier. If the RFL really want to generate revenue they need to get the average attendances over 10k across the board.....

If there was a split, I can see it being a 10 team comp pretty much owned by the 10 clubs involved.

Well it's happened and Premier Sports introduction to rugby league through the championship surely got them involved with covering the RLWC2013.


Well how convenient that you forgot others who don't fit into your argument!



[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoncasterAccording to the 2011 census, the estimated population of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster is 302,400[/url so who are you to say Doncaster can't have a well attended rugby league club if the people had a top team to support? For starters Doncaster is nearer the rugby league heartland than London is so has the potential to become the number one sporting night in the area. London Broncos on the other hand are competing with popular football and rugby union clubs.

Ian Lenagan as shown with London would rather back a dead horse when it comes to sport. I'm not saying rugby league is dead in the capital but professionally it seems on it's deathbed. Doncaster



By the looks of things IL and the other breakaway chairmen want the RFL to be a revolving door where money goes out of the pockets into the RFL then back into the pockets of chairmen.

The game has got a lot wealthier with the introduction of Marwan Koukash (he too isn't above the RFL) who I'm sure won't be the last wealthy businessman to enter rugby league..

Regarding your views of how the split would end up working your probably correct but hopefully it won't happen for the good of the game.

Premier Sport is access TV that if you're a Virgin customer, you can't actually access


I didn't forget anyone, I said Carl Hall and the RFL.
Doncaster RLFC would do well to average 6k.
Professional RL in London is 99.9% sure to disappear this winter unless there are a lot of rule changes. This is not speculation BTW.
SL generates the lions share of the RFL turn over and therefore, if the SL chairmen are concerned about how that money is being spent, they have every right to speak up.
The Good Dr certainly talks a good game and I wish him and Salford well, but let's discuss them in a couple of years, because if the fans don't flock and the trophies don't get won, I suspect he'll be offski!
RL is a rich mans hobby. David Hughes, Ken Davy etc have ploughed Millions into the game with little hope of ever seeing a penny back. Not saying we won't see more like them, but they certainly don't grow on trees!
I don't see a 10 team SOOPER DOOPER LEAGUE comp as a bad thing for the game. The 10 club owners working for a common goal of more money would essentially raise the profile of the game.
One thing is for sure....we can't stay as we are!

In todays news we find out Damo is still an Idiot despite the pleas for forgiveness and new career path as a site columnist.

Anybody who tries to blame London predicament on IL either knows nothing or have a biased personal opinion against IL, think your the latter but not sure Damo.

But don't worry championship clubs your being represented by a modern day Robin Hood in Damo lol

If they think a breakaway league of 6 or 7 clubs can continue to attract the crowds, Sky coverage and viewer ratings and fill Old Trafford each year , all this minus the Wembley Final and any money from the BBC, then good luck to them.

As to the RFL, if they break away, I say what don't kill you makes you stronger and i don't think the loss of the magnificient 7 will kill the rest of the game. seriously harm it maybe but not kill it

Dead right. What worries me about some RL fans and officials is the hatred of the success IL has achieved. There seems to be a default viewpoint that being better at something than others is a terrible thing. I also cannot understand the feeling of entitlement that feeds the view that well organised, successful clubs who put the effort in should then give the fruits of their labour to those who are failures....

Ian Lenagan has twice the IQ of anyone at the RFL headquarters.
Ian Lenagan is a more succcessful businessman outside the sport than anyone else in rugby league.
Ian Lenagan is the most fan oriented and fan sensitive chairman of a club whom I have ever seen. That was as true at London as it is at Wigan.

The owner of Doncaster might do well to think about how he might recruit a few thousand more fans to his club's games before he goes out to criticise one of the most succesful club chairmen that rugby league has ever known.

Sounds like the game could do without the likes of 'Damo-Leeds' so it can move forward and prosper. Too may eeeeayeup types and introverted lot in RL that keeps the game confined to ex-mining towns and large social housing suburbs/slums.

If you can't be successful at the biggest, most successful club the game has ever known for the last 100 years then you aren't very good at business.

A better test would be for the said Chairman to take over Doncaster or Sheffield or even Castleford. If he did that and made any one of them as successful or even half as successful as Wigan then I would second the accolades you are bestowing upon him.

Being a successful chairman at Wigan does not really have much degree of difficulty to it.

It's kind of like being Michael jordan's coach.