I don't think that's the case.

The exceptionally high deal last time was to see off BT Sport. The new deal will be lower this time as BT sport aren't interested but it will still be a good deal.

When Lenegan spoke of it he said the deal would be split differently. If it isn't any more than £150M then the Championships won't be getting anything.

It wasn't EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH.

Koukash made that plain immediately.Lenagan stated his uncertainty after the deal was completed.

Lenagan got Elstone employed,on a deal,that he got a better broadcast deal.

That now seems certain to fail.

Agreed on the first part, 'value' is not just money, it it the intrinsic 'value' that the clubs that haven't won anything, still bring to the game. As an example Wakefield: they have won anything, but do produce 'some' decent young players (Johnstone), but also they do some excellent work in Wakefield and beyond with their Foundation. They even stretch as far as Bassetlaw (Worksop) with their support of a very good junior club with there endeavours. That work should be applauded. The value they bring to the game through that effort is incalculable.

However, they could do that as a part time club in the Championship and allow other clubs that bring more to the game, in terms of attendances, production of more top level players and of course finances, to improve SL. I am not picking on Wakefield, only using them as an example.

None of this is perfect, but we must assess where the game is going over the next five years, and we must do that NOW.

I know that some like to see shiny plastic seats but, we should be selling the product and not the "wrapper".
For example, the Cas v Saints play off game a few years ago was one of the most dramatic and compelling games of recent years.
NOBODY was looking at the lack of seating or the quality of the facilities.

RL scored a HUGE own goal by setting it's mythical 10,000 attendance figure, something which only 4/5 clubs can achieve.
It's absolutely right to try and push up standards on/off the field but, watching a decent game in a poor ground, beats watching a poor game in a half (or worse) empty ground all day long.

Strangely, Toronto's ground with it's psychedelic multisport pitch markings, was as bad as it gets but, "we" were pretty keen to get them into the comp.

It's utter nonsense to suggest that clubs like Trinity hold back the TV deal.
Do you really think that if they were playing out of a brand new 12,000 seater stadium, there would be, even one more penny on the TV deal

Of course everything looks better when the games are played to "sell out" crowds, although this seems very unlikely in the foreseeable future, for any club and there is no doubt that Trinity and others, need to make progress with their ground, least of all to open up additional revenue streams for themselves but, we still get back to the game of RL and using the Cas / Huddersfield analogy again, the game looks and sounds better from The Jungle than it ever has at Huddersfield but, you surely know this but, couldn't help having a pop at Trinity , again. It's like you think that they stole something which was yours ??

Martyn Sadler[i£200 Million is an awful lot of money, so when the RFLagreed a five year contract with BskyB for that amount, and persuaded the Superleague clubs to give their backing to it last wednesday most of them didn't need much persuading[/i

Koukash was funny about it I agree.but it was a big deal. Koukash was funny about all sorts, unilaterally demanding SL split fully from the RFL until he eventually left the game.

I must admit that this, coming from a Wakefield fan, as made me chuckle....

The scores might be close, but the product on the field is mediocre, because it's being held back by a lack of investment in youth development systems by some clubs and also a restrictive salary cap, which, bizarrely, many Yorkshire clubs were only recently proposing to cut even further.

Not sure here. If we want to expand "youth development" we need more kids playing the game, however numbers have gone down big style, and that is the case for Soccer as well?

If we increase the cap that would simply put the best players in the top six clubs and the bottom six would be easybeats??

you don't half talk some mining was a good honest living at the time which kept families warm giving them electric to serve the nation at cost of lives,
you care not to mention of the Bradford mill past dealings with the slave trade do you, Bradford is a dump the only good thing is the moors and don't come back telling I no nothing of Bradford as my family came from Bradford so for all yer ilkley ba tat I've seen enough of your flat caps and xenophobia to last me a life time

Fast forward 60 years and the bulls will be in the same boat having not won anything