How does that work? Come on RLR, give us some substance rather than just racking up the pointless posts. Nothing even humorous to boot. Boring!

Go on then. Give us your clubs who are going to make up this fantasy league. Remember to use your own criteria though; dilapidated grounds, small clubs, best run clubs, and underperforming clubs.

I’m curious, who actually ‘owns’ rugby league? I assume it is run by a committee of people who then appoint a CEO and board of directors to the RFL.

What is the competence of these people?

I’m no expert on business and the structure of organisations and companies but it seems to me that the businessmen want to get greater control to maximise the revenue streams for SL which in turn would increase the revenue streams for the rest of the sport.

I struggle to see how this is a bad thing.

I'm with you here.
The RFL have steered the ship as well as they could, trying to balance the need for SL and its TV revenues whilst also ensuring that they govern fairly and don't ignore the clubs further down the food chain. The problem is that now the sport is 100% about money and whilst the SKY money helps, the top clubs need to find a further £2,200,000 a year to break even and the clubs that are doing this are finding themselves held back by the clubs that aren't......I am all for a restructure so long as there is still revenue trickling down to the lower division clubs. The only way to ensure this is to negotiate with this break away group......because if they leave and pull up the drawbridge, then the sport will crumble outside of the top flight.

As has been shown in this thread, the idea of "merged" super clubs at the top level with the original clubs still playing at a second level has been rejected with the usual "not in my lifetime.....40 years a fan" claptrap....either we want to remain a vable professional sport or we don't. If we do, then we need to adjust and adapt!

Sky need to up their money or the game stagnates. Players get the majority of the money. Other than entertain, do they offer anything in return? Players wouldn't give a sh*t if the game died or went back to semi-pro, they'll be off to yawnion...

Could you give us a breakdown of how the £4M is being spent by the top clubs, CMg? Please cite "vable" sources and please inculpate as many as possible. Granted, those tea ladies and volunteers don't come cheap!

I have seen the detailed accounts of the then Harlequins RL 2009-2012 and can confirm that 4 million is the minimum required. The HKR chairman was on record a few years back saying he needed 10k averages to ensure he didn't have to make up the 500k shortfall each year on a 3.5 million turn over.
10,000 paying punters at an average of £15 a pop allowing for concessions, kids and season tickets delivers 1.5, the SLY cash delivers 1.8, so you've only then got to find 700k......shirts, beer, food, sponsors etc......

Outgoings are salary cap + marquee player, transport and accommodation, training facilities, backroom and boot room staff, insurance, club vehicles, laundry, equipment....

A reasoned response to Elstones opening statement
Personally it has to be a " no deal is better than a bad deal " option
If we eventually see a raised bridge , then I'd be happy to see a genuine split rather than begging for crumbs

The ' Super Rugby ' option requires as has been suggested , a massive up front investment , probably 3/4 times what SKY currently offer per season
It also requires 2 separate seasons

So it isn't going to happen

There are very few businessmen whose competencies can be spread across massively different industries. An oil trader (taking a non-random example) owning a rugby league club might meet the definition of "successful businessman" but does he know about the business of getting fans through the gates? No.

This is demonstrated in the performance of clubs whose "businessmen" owners have injected themselves into the running of the clubs - Wigan most notably.

The best people to run RL clubs are professional RL or sports administrators, and they don't grow on trees. The most succesful model is the investor sitting behind and letting the administrator come in and run the business (e.g. Leeds) or the investor actually being a sports administrator (e.g. Hull). But some investors just can't help but think they know best and I'm struggling to think of an SL example where it has worked out particularly well in terms of revenue or attendance growth. And then they displace the blame onto the RFL because...

Isn’t that what Elstone is?

It is, but in many ways much more direct impact can be made at the club level rather than at head office. If only more of them were properly run by proper sports administrators rather than by local businessmen done good but in entirely different industries.

Spot on mate. If only more people could grasp this concept, especially those involved with the game's leadership.