Nothing wrong about speaking with Hearn

That's all it is right now.

Did Wigan go to Australia for the benefit of European SL or for the benefit of Wigan?

Why not both?

If Wigan (and Hull and Leeds for that matter) generated a return from their trips to Australia, if they engaged new audiences and commercial partners, then that is potentially beneficial to their clubs. The stronger our leading clubs are, the higher the standard gets set and stronger that should make our competition as other clubs strive to reach that standard.

Do the other nine Super League clubs see an immediate direct benefit? No, but why should they? They weren't the ones who found a backer, took the risk, jumped on the plane and put in the effort.

So nothing centrally coordinated for the benefit of the game. Just add hoc short term arrangement's that may bring small benefits to some.

See why we need something central.

I'm not disputing that there needs to be a central vision. My argument is that without actually having a way to enforce a level of standards, any central strategy is doomed to fail because ultimately, we have 12 individual businesses with 12 individual owners, 12 individual business plans, 12 individual budgets and 12 different mindsets.

What we currently have is a series of ad-hoc club-led initiatives precisely because we don't have a joined-up approach that every club is equally bought into. We have a centralised brand, we have the RFL doing some decent work on digital media, but different clubs then go off and do their own thing to different degrees. Some see that there are opportunities out there to tap into, whilst some see marketing or media relations as an expense to be controlled, and others either don't know how or can't be bothered to capitalise on such opportunities.

If Wigan wants to partner with the NSW Tourism Board, plaster 'Visit Sydney' across their shirts and go to the expense of flying their playing squad to Australia, then they should be allowed to do that. But they shouldn't be expected to share the fruits of that labour with a club that thinks "marketing" is simply updating the fixtures board outside the ground and whose vision is to see everything on the balance sheet as a cost centre that needs to be controlled, rather than an investment that delivers a return.

You can have as many centralised plans and goals as you like, but the fundamental issue is that the clubs will never work equally towards that goal. That is one thing that any so-called "saviour" cannot fix.

All it's ever likely to be IMO. Can't see Hearn taking on the sport if he doesn't have control but no way I see him being given it. Boxing, snooker and darts are a little different as most stakeholders are individuals whereas all ours are businesses.

hearn didnt have control when he had leyton orient football club, that was the f.a . so he knows how it works with the r.f.l

Those 12 people can't sell a product to others, if the manufacturing is rubbish in the first place. The product needs to be entertaining, exciting and enthralling and there needs to be excitement about the sport before the marketing teams can do a good job.

You wouldn't expect 12 sales reps to sell loads of tickets to a theatre show, or for chocolate bars if the reviews were rubbish, or there was no interest around it at all.

The RFL need to get off there backside and show some professionalism. They should be selling the game whilst the clubs are producing the product, there is no working model for the clubs and thats why we have Wigan and Hull arranging a UK domestic league game over in another continent, not for the benefit of super league but purely for financial gain.

Its very difficult for individual clubs to "up the auntie" when the RFL are lowering the standard of our profile and stature, individual clubs can only promote and market locally towards there fan base, the RFL need to promote the game nationally outside the heartlands, the marketing team in the RFL are failing on all fronts.

The Hearn interest appears to be a publicity exercise, we will have to wait and see if it has legs, so we need to watch this space.

1. Currently, Leeds, Wigan, Hull, Warrington and St Helens deliver 60% of the crowds attending SL games. The other 7 clubs are the ones holding us back in terms of attendance and this is one of the areas that Hearn sees the game "on its knees".
2. Then there's the TV "spectacle'......it's all well and good taking SKY's cash and scurrying away with no care for production values of scheduling, but watch any other sport on TV and compare their production and "razzamataz' and we look like a sport for pigeon fanciers from the north......Gabby Yorath or Clare Balding....even throaty Powers need to be introduced, there needs to be wall to wall SKY TV promotion...there needs to be a build up to the games and then during the game get a commentator to call the game and analysis occasionally but none of the wittering drivel we get now.
Stop trying to reinvent the wheel with gimmick graphics etc, RL is a simple game so keep it simple and generate excitement through production.
3. Scheduling is a tougher call, but we need to engage broadcasters now in terms of the next deal.....FTA coverage is key, as is a highlights show at a reasonable time
4. Customer Relations......not just marketing. I haven't received an Email from the London Broncos for 2 years now and yet I have a long history of spending a lot in their on-line shop........it's not brain surgery, but so many clubs just don't do the basics right.
5. Commercial Partners. Collectively we are stronger than individually, so I would have a central Kit supplier across all 12 sides. We would be attractive to mainstream kit suppliers like Adidas or Canterbury and could negotiate a better deal.........

Hear may or may not be the answer but the last time we as a sport were seen to be doing OK was when we had a tennis administrator at the helm and what we don't need is another rugby league person running the sport, because there is no such thing as an impartial RL person.....Hearn has no baggage and would be 1005 about the dollar and that is what the sport needs.

Obviously we don't know what Hearn has in mind but we need someone to bang the on the door of the TV companies.
I know we complain about the quality of Sky coverage they give us quite a few matches each week.
The coverage on terrestrial TV is abysmal.
The Super League Show on BBC gets shoved around at silly times.
Ok RL fans are going to find if but it's harshly going to expose us to any new fans.
We need to educate the rest of the country that there are two codes of rugby. We need to get our star players in the public limelight.
We need better promotional videos than that painful offering for this season. The part-clip that Sky used didn't even use the players names.

The governing body is again tinkering with the format for next year but it doesn't matter what they do if we continue to "hide our light under a bushell"

The first question is what do the RFL want? Growth, stability, promotion, recognition, bigger sponsors, more money, a strong game in the heartlands, national success, global domination?

There's no continuous plan and no goal to work towards. It's just a series of experimental ideas, gimmicks, tinkering and tampering. How does a club go about marketing a sport which in the last two decades has had multiple different league formats, play-off structures, end of season outcomes, and rule changes? Maybe if the RFL could come up with a long term plan for the game, and stick to it, the clubs might be more inclined to do their bit.

For a game that's been around for over a century, it couldn't be more in its infancy.

You'll have to explain that one coz i'm puzzled what extra money ?????????

...He's a Bulls fan. Extra Money always confuses them, especially when they have to PAY IT BACK

Its pretty plain that the sport needs a circuit breaker to be able to fundamentally change things for the better. Nobody, including Hearn, would be able to do much if all we are doing is going to Sky, sponsors etc and basically just presenting a rebadged SL. You might get a short-term blip upwards, but the longer term decline will continue.

That's why IMO if we are to make a change we might as well go boots and all, and to me the possible circuit breaker is expansion. Going back to sponsors with two French clubs, at least one in London and even one or more in North America would give someone like Hearn something to sell. But if we go that route there needs to be a plan, and some straight talking about what this might mean, including - horror of horrors - that some clubs would lose out.

Blaming smaller clubs isn't the issue though - we've seen plenty of times one or more of the supposed bigger clubs back moves that in the long run have hurt the sport. At Leeds we've seen Hetherington helping block increases to the salary cap and scrapping reserve grade without a proper feeder system to replace it, both of which have damaged the sport IMO. Some smaller clubs have undoubtedly help hold the game back, but I don't think any club is blameless for the current state of the game.