As noted by Him, that was the year provision was made for the one off HMRC issue (somewhere in the region of £525k by my estimate).


He's achieved more in the sport than any other administrator in the past 30 years.

Regarding ideas that will increase revenues - I like what Wigan are doing regarding making the match available on Wigan TV as a "bolt-on" to your season ticket.

Another way of reducing costs is to pay for a match day programme as view only on the clubs website - I don't know if anyone is doing this yet.

Title sponsorship is key. A good name next to the Super League could do wonders for the game. It was wrong to turn down the betting company for Stobart as the title sponsors but time has moved on and i have seen precisely 0 stories about who the new title sponsors may be. Looking at companies that have recently pulled out of sponsoring other sports you get names like Aviva and DHL. DHL sponsored Manchester United's warmup kit for £40m quid! Aviva sponsored Athletics for £8m a year. We should be attracting these companies that have been in the market. It's unlikely that we are going to get companies like Emirates etc to be title sponsors but lets not put ourselves down.

There are elements of our game that can also be sold. Going to the Irn Bru replay, going to the Heinz Big Soup big screen even the (sponsors name) sin bin! We have touch judges and referees that can be sponsored, corner flags etc etc. I know it is a lot to ask of companies to fork out money for this but someone, somewhere must be wanting to invest. Ive no problem with sponsors like Irn Bru and Heinz because at least theyre putting money in.

Its a slow process but surely they have to get it right sometime?!

Im not sure of the legalities of that kind of thing, I know there are restrictions on adverts and sponsorships during programmes, but if we can do it, look at the IPL and see how much they can sell, they sell pretty much everything.

The only way to increase income in the long term is to make the game part of of the fabric of peoples social life. by that I mean have families, groups of friends turning out by habit. Going to the game must be just what you do every weekend. In the far mists of time as a school kid we went into Hull every saturday to watch Rugby same bus, same time, every week, you did not have to think we just did it. To get back to that we have to get back to fixtures that dont change at the last minute, you dont have to buy tickets in advance, you just go to the game pay & watch. & finaly you get rid of groups of chanting youths full of drink & make it plesant for family groups to attend (I wont take my grand kids to hear the language in the crowds now). It is not rocket science but it needs a conviction from the clubs to make it happen.

Like the Love Rugby League video referee...

I'm a pioneer!

This is my idea and before i start i know this idea will never happen and is completely idealistic which will annoy some people and i am also aware that some people will also say that this idea "makes the game to artificial" but anyway it's my idea and i would like to share it.

It's based around teams playing in an arenas as opposed to a stadium, playing in a 10,000 -18,000 seat arena on an ipitch, you would always have good playing conditions, which is 1 benefit.

This bit is where teams would need to have the local councils involved. Around the arena, there are shops, bars, bowling alley, cinema McDs etc, i'm not talking about trafford centre size, but something that people can come to 7 days a week and not just when team is playing, imagine xscape at Castleford with an arena in the middle. The club owns the arena, and the eating franchises around it.

Commercial rental property in shopping centres such as meadowhall and trafford centre usually have quite good rental yields, which can attract some big blue chip investors and may encourage them to invest in the clubs as well.

But you could turn match day into a whole family day out, and if the wife doesn't like sport, she can still come with, go shopping catch a film with the kids etc whilst you watch the game. The clubs could do certain offers with season tickets, so you get discounts at the cinema, bowling alley could increase season ticket sales as people who catch 6 - 7 home games a season decide to get a season ticket because they will make use of the other benefits of having one.

Places like this need lots of staff, so that means lots of new jobs in the local area opening up.

Another benefit of an arena with an artificial pitch, could be the fact you could have live music on, the season may have finished and no rugby to watch, but it's ok, we have Muse, Snow Patrol and JLS performing over next couple of months, oh yea and that season ticket I've got means i get a 25% discount on the tickets.



It's just a thought, will never happen but I think it should.

Give the sport to a terrestrial TV company for "free" but with some big name sponsor behind the game who then get effective free TV exposure.

TV get a cheap product that the entire UK can watch and the sponsor potentially get lots of TV exposure and pay the RFL for it, plus club level sponsors.

Which "Terrestrial" company would want it (and I assume you just mean the main 5 channels not offshoots like BBC3 or ITV4). Bar possibly Channel 5 do not think any of the 4 channels would want it even if you paid them to show matches.

Saying that getting Crusaders and Scorpions games back on S4C is a possible avenue to get them more exposure and as S4C can be watched through Sky not just in Wales. Nationally can not see a way for your idea to work.

First two ideas are nicked from the NFL.

Sell internet subscriptions for viewing non-Sky games live. Got to get a start on this now because it's going to be a bigger and bigger factor. Now, I pay £100 or so a year for an NFL subscription. This should be a worldwide offering, with particular attention on Australia and NZ.

One round of SL should be a heritage round, played in old style shirts. Put a bit of marketing around that round and encourage fans to attend in old gear, bring old people and drink old drinks etc. Hopefully it pushes up attendance for that round but also sells extra replica shirts of those being played in. Change the year we're going back to each season.

Find more non-match day income. If we can do "League clubs" great. If not, each club needs their own cafe/pub/bar themed to that club, selling kit and with almost constant guest appearances by club players and staff.

More matchday income - earlier start and later finish. Get some kind of entertainment on before and after and encourage people to stay around & buy beer and food. Too often our games see everyone rush in 10 mins before kickoff and clear out 5 mins after the end (of often 5 mins before the end! )

apart from the artificial pitch sounds like penrith in oz been their they have cinema and restaurants and golf and pony and trap racing

Like the cafe/pub/bar idea especially for clubs like Huddersfield, Wigan and Hull and don't really have a social focal point in the way they would have had at their old grounds.

You can only have some many ad's in an hour and trust me Sky already use that up during half time.

Not really an idea to increase revenue but I'd like to see the presentation of SL freshened up, that would include replacing the likes of Eddie and Stevo. The same people saying the same things hardly adds to the game.

Also during the weeks when the football is in its off season play more games in their usual 3pm Saturday kick off time for possible better attendances. Try to have only the Sky game on a Friday night and not 3/4 fixtures, losing viewers figures if fans who would watch the game on tv are at their own teams game instead.