Being quite geographically disconnected from the ‘heartlands’ of Rugby League and without any connections whatsoever in the higher echelons of the sport, I cannot comment with any authority whatsoever on whether the behaviour of the senior staff at the RFL is ‘good and honourable’. Therefore I decline to vote

Although, having said that, I usually find that a good rule of thumb on these matters is to take whatever Saddened! says and the opposite is normally true

The only worthwhile and accurate comment so far.

Saddeneds speech, no matter how passionate, shows the greatest lack of understanding I've read in a long time. He seems to think that Richard Lewis pulls all the strings, makes the clubs overspend, can force sponsors to come to the table with billions, and make Sky give us a massive increase every season.

However, in the real world Richard Lewis is the Chairman. He delegates jobs to other members of the board - this is what the Chairman of any oganisation does. I'm sure some of the blame can be laid at his door, but to claim he's the sole cause is laughable. Similarly, it's the clubs themselves that spend the money, not the RFL.
Sure, if the sponsors were fighting over the rights to sponsor RL there would be more money in the game to cover some of these debts, but the simple fact remains that this situation only exists in the minds of fantasists like Saddened who believe that we have the most in demand product in the world. I hate to bring this news to you all.... we don't. RL is still very much a niche product, and doesn't have any great commercial potential.
Similarly, Sky may get better value from us in terms of viewing figures than they do from the RU, but that isn't what counts - what counts is the amount of money Sky can get from advertisers during our games. The last I was aware, the RU games shown on Sky were of a much higher commercial value than those watching RL. Why is this? Quite simply because the game isn't seen as being followed by fans with as much spending money as RU.
It's not because Sky are ripping us off, it's what their commercial department will be telling them we're worth.


Oh, hang on..... I'm wrong.

It's Richard Lewis' fault after all.



Sigh.

When you look at where the game was in 1995, crumbling stadiums, woeful crowds, almost at deaths door, the progress to what we have today is amazing. Yes, the Skye deal has been huge but careful stewardship from the RFL especially since Lewis came on board,has seen the Skye contract renewed, attendances skyrocket in SL, player development come on in leaps and bounds, the 4 nations and world cups slowly recussitating the inernational game. The geographical spread of the game via the summer conference is also amazing. I have issues with the RFLs ringfencing of super league and the neglect of the championships but, in recent times they seem to have some plan for the future and the expansion of the championships. There have been some hiccups, Crusaders, Paris, Wakefield and Bradford come to mind and the refusal to give Keighley their rightful place in SL at the very beggining also annoyed me greatly but the overall graph of RL progress, despite some minor dips has been a gradual incline upwards. I think next years World Cup could be a massive catalyst to further positive progress for the game in this country and the way the RFL are going about organising it is more planned and structured than the four team excuse for a competiton which took place in my youthful years. I think the RFL are doing an excellent job for the most part.

They're doing a largely excellent job, unlike some of our clubs chairmen and owners.

Whatever the right answer is, my non-heartland friends who are also sport enthusiasts have no interest in the game because it all seems a bizarre carry on to them

Gradually the RFL will de generate our game into one of insignificance with very little marketing and media presence. Richard Lewis did the same thing with British Tennis around 2003 were he turned the sport into 3rd world status.
The RFL are very good at changing the rules to sweep things under the carpet, the franchise system is basically a "glossy brochure" with deep problems under the surface.
What the "voiced clubs" are concerned about is how are they supposed to generate backers and sponsorship when the RFL themselves cannot market the game and increase media stature. The Stobart deal promising (Wood) benefits to the game of £2.5 million is just make believe.

Daren't tell you what the Tri-Nations and then 4 Nations sponsorship was sold to Gillette for then.......


RL commands 5%-10% of the sports pages at best and gets a couple for 250k-300k viewed programmes in the UK and then gets about 1,000,000 pairs of eyes fro the CC final...once a year.
750k for sponsorship of the main division would be about right......

BTW...Manly may well have got 750k from Pepsi a decade a go........it's 750k more than cronulla have managed to nail down this year....

I voted (a) to be controversial. OOOOoooOOOooOOoooOOooOOO

It's amazing to see how many of you have your heads in the sand.

Tthe sport is now in a really precarious position. The 14 club Super League is clearly unsustainable and the Championship clubs are either struggling through every season hoping for a better future that isn't coming or being bankrolled by benefactor's who's passing or loss of interest will see the end of the club.

Would you have us return to the pre-SKYTV money days? Fine by me....London had about 1,000 less fans but at least we were competative in out league

Let's go back to pre-Lewis then. It was a far better time. I believe the year was 2001. There hadn't been relegation for a few years also. The World Cup had just cost the game millions, sending it nearly bankrupt. Two expansion sides were forced to merge with heartlands sides. The game had failed in France. The international team were still crap. The media coverage was less existent than now. The Sky deal had been reduced in money. We got knack-all from sponsors even then. Players were still going to RU such as Robinson and Harris.

Was Lewis the reason for all of them as well?