RFL revenue in 2001
Healing the divisive and acrimonious rifts between SL, RFL & BARLA?

'"

Not impressed with Richard Lewis and Nigel wood at all, these two have fragmented the sport, lowered the game profile in world sport, reduced media coverage, reduced major sponsor support, and gone on an expansion program with little thought.

True we have more profit margin, but this was at the expense of dismantling great Britain so that funding could procurred from Sport England, the only thing Richard Lewis/Nigel Wood did was sign up to the deal to allow the monies to come in.

They have devalued the Challenge Cup and dumbed it down to a competition that hides between the superleague programme.

They have devalued the international scene by bedding into the SKY controllers, we are no further on in the reduction of overseas players to give home grown players a chance, you can still field half your team with overseas players.

Harlequins, Gateshead, Toulouse, Crusaders are car crashes and will never ever reach the heights of Wigan, Leeds etc. Yet the RFL still found funds to bankroll role them until most of them go into administration etc.

Marketing and Media Relations are very poor, Lottery funding is abysmal, I think Rugby Union has 60 times more lottery funding than Rugby League.

Other than that Lewis and Wood (The Care Takers) are doing a very good job...........

Lewis has done a brilliant job-The game is worlds apart from what it was 10 years ago.

The license system is great for the game and will only improve it-New stadiums, more UK players........

Maybe we could bring back Maureen from Wigan!! You would soon realise what a bent sport he presided over

Can I just point out to the author of this thread that the men in charge of our sport include women?

Clare Morrow is a non-executive Director.

Sally Bolton is the Director of Projects (including the World Cup)
Sue Allan is the Director of Finance

Details of the non-exec Directors are onlinehttp://www.therfl.co.uk/about_the_rfl/the_board_of_directors/the_boardrl

There's lots of public domain info on the RFL website... the CEO's statement and financial statements for last eyar, for example, are herehttp://www.therfl.co.uk/about_the_rfl/ceo_statementrl

Working in sports development, I can tell you that the RFL is considered a stand-out organisation. You only have to look at the shambles in the boardroom in the RFU by way of contrast.

Where is this recognition document sited, the only one I can find is a self analysis one by...............Nigel Wood.

That's about the only thing you've managed to get right.

I have absolutely no idea how old you are but in the 50 years that I've been involved in the sport, I can see major differences and the vast majority have been for the better.

Please feel free to expand on what should be happening, who should oversee the changes and more importantly, how you would secure the funding.

There is more money, sponsors, and TV coverage of the game than ever before, the game is played in more areas, by more people and more government funding than ever before.

No promotion/relegation.
Lower Attendances
Lower Referee Standards
Ever Increasing Overseas Players
Rule Changes Mid Season
Less Media Column Inches
Less Major National Sponsors
Harlequins/Crusaders/Gateshead/Toulouse
Less Rugby League Owned Stadia
Near Extinction of English Superleague Coaches
Dumbing down of the Challenge Cup
Late Fixture Changes
Salary Cap not competitive.
Nigel Wood Who Would You Like to Play Gimmickery
International Status.
Total Dependancy on SKY.

They have undoubtably had some successes , most notably at International level in dealings with Australia and financially turning round the large deficit after the 2000 WC , where they haven't done as well is dealing with the overly large number of overseas players and the I'll fated attempts at expansion

They are probably good at dealings with government funding depts and also with SKY

They have overseen largish expansion at grass roots level ( helped by massive govt funding )

Where they do fall down is with basic understanding of fans and the way they think about the sport and obviously from my point of view , how they see the lower tiers of the professional sport and how to make it grow

No promotion/relegation.-No boom and bust
Lower Attendances-Than when? Use Wilderspool/HJ as an example
Lower Referee Standards-Rubbish-how can professionals be worse-the game is miles faster and more skilled
Ever Increasing Overseas Players-what- SC/franchising is seeing to that
Rule Changes Mid Season-Such as
Less Media Column Inches-Than what
Less Major National Sponsors- Compared to what
Harlequins/Crusaders/Gateshead/Toulouse-past wales teams. Blackpool, Kent, Scarborough......
Less Rugby League Owned Stadia-But a hell of a lot better quality
Near Extinction of English Superleague Coaches-
Dumbing down of the Challenge Cup-By expanding the week in week out game- 80000 at Wire/Leeds
Late Fixture Changes-and
Salary Cap not competitive. Wigan domination not competitive
Nigel Wood Who Would You Like to Play Gimmickery
International Status. of what? GB- demise started long before wood/Lewis
Total Dependancy on SKY. rather than dependence on local businessmen struggling to prop clubs up

Good try all the same

So, an opinion only.

Abolsutely no facts or statistics to back up your bat[is[/ihit loony opinions then?

Carry on

Like someone said previously, look at the debacle in the RFU and compare it with ours. Considering the participation of the Code-That-Must-Not-Be-Named compared to ours and the shambles its in

We dont do badly.

I didn't cite a recognition document, I mentioned my own experience in sports development. I'll give you an example - I was in an NGB meeting in Bristol with the County Sports Partnership. The CSP were outlining their new framework for performance development programmes for governing bodies. The sport they cited as an example of best practice was Rugby League. This was just after Vinny Webb got the UK Coach Educator of the Year award.

I can cite that award for youhttp://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/16098rl

I drew a comparison with the RFU. I can cite their circumstances rl]ad nauseumrl], if you like, but here's one exampletp://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jul/10/martin-johnson-england-manager-rfurl

[i"Blackett's panel, which included two independents, concluded that the RFU's board needed to be replaced, having failed to provide good governance. Blackett was said to be appalled that the consequence of three weeks of exhaustive inquiry, which took in 65 witnesses, more than 90 media articles and hundreds of RFU documents, was the board remaining in place after a defeated vote of no confidence, apart from two members who had served their four-year terms, and Thomas more entrenched than ever."[/i

Of course you may perfer we were goverened by this lot at the FAhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1355211/Premier-League-chief-Sir-Dave-Richards-rejects-Lord-Triesmans-bullying-claims.htmlrl

...or their friends in the international gamehttp://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16002436rl

Some sports - eg cycling, swimming - are very well run. Others struggle. Given our pro game is all-but confined to a corridor along the M62, we punch massively above our weight in media coverage, tv rights and sponsorship. Our NGB makes a profit, is the best funded sport-per-participant at Sport England, and runs all amnner of imaginative, innovative programmes that other sports copy (video refs, sin bins, play off to decide champions, magic, club call, licencing). We are the only sport to have its premier student league competition televised. We've just been given recognition for the work done with LGBT communities. We are a Sport England priority sport, generally regarded as one of the top 4 sports in the country (with soccer, union and cricket). I would say imagine how big we'd be if we were national, but the Championship Review process is dealing with that... might have several more pro clubs outside the heartlands before the decade is out. Oh, and there's the World Cup, which will be a huge event in 2013.

I am delighted, I have to say, at how many positive posts there are in this thread. Not everyone is a flatcapper, naysayer, doom monger. Some people actually realise we're doing pretty well.

So basically Joe , they do loads of good stuff nobody knows about , but stuff up all the high profile stuff that involves the fans who pay to watch ?

I was born & bred in Hull, played my rugby in Hull and apart from the last two years, refereed from Hull. I've either played at or offiated at most of the "heartland clubs". McLaren Field was a sh[ii[/ithole, as was Mount Pleasant, Craven Park (both of them), The Boulevard, Knowsley Road, Headingley and yes, even Central Park was a crap hole.

They were clubs that started as major parts of communities, they grew along with their communities. Then things changed. People had cars, they found entertainment without going beyond their front door, just by switching on a television. Rugby League soon cottoned on to that, even Bill Fallowfield (who I think epitomises everything that is wrong with our game), knew the benefits and went for them.

Then we get to Maurice Lindsay: After nearly bankrupting one of the mainstays and certainly most known names of the game, we let him loose on the game as a whole. That resulted in the 2000 RLWC £2 millions deficit.

I simply refuse to accept any criticism of how RL is administered from any Wigan fan, especialy ones so blinkered that they cannot accept where they came from