I think Gutter speaks a lot of sense, though I don't agree with his Salford bashing. It's only those in cloud cuckooland who think British RL is thriving at pro/semi-pro levels. Factnot. It takes people from OUTSIDE the game to see the real issues.

Not seeing anybody on here who has said the game is "thriving". Nor people saying the RFL is amazing or Nigel Wood is fantastic. But because some of us don't bash the game in every single post on every thread we comment on we must "think that the game is in brilliant condition". Or alternatively we know the game's issues but some people on here go so OTT in their bashing of the sport (and on a repeated regular basis) that we level it up with a bit of balance.

Presumably because some of the payment to clubs will be based on the number of their supporters that sign up, so a club with 7,000 supporters is likely to generate more revenue than a club with 3,000 supporters.

Be interested to know what Catalans think of this deal.

Spot on. Under no illusions that the game is struggling and some decision I'm strongly against. But its pathetic how some just post negative posts ALL the time even when the RFL do something good such as the outstanding WC we still see posts such as "all tickets were a fiver" when in fact a tiny tiny percentage may have been £5. They also fail to mention other sports do the same. They just lose all credibility when they lost constant dross

Fans in the UK might be interested

I am active in 1 thread on the VT currently, in what you deem as a negative way. This one, which is discussing the "hybrid" naming rights deal and in which I have questioned the RFL's ability to put together decent deals, but has now also been drifted (by others) to include my assertion that the PR department at the RFL couldn't find their with both hands at the same time as well as to include some whining from a handful of posters unhappy that anyone dares to question the direction the sport is being led.
The RFL's desire to grab headlines and pat themselves on the back when attendances go up is to be applauded, but don't dare ask what they are doing 12 months later when the attendances have dropped back down? Don't question the exact nature of this naming tights deal which is, at the very best (if you want to believe its 750k cash a year go ahead) close to 40% down on the last one we got paid for. Don't ever be seen to question anything.....it's all ing wonderful

Finally, the penny drops

Bottom line here is it has taken the RFL 3 Years to replace Engage with a new naming sponsor who is prepared to put up some cash.....40% less than Engage if you believe that this is a straight 750k a year deal, considerable less if you accept that it is a "hybrid" deal that will benefit some clubs more than others, including Catalans.

As for the attendances of SL and how they are handled by the press office, I believe that the RFL opened the door when they bigged themselves up as being in charge of an ever increasingly bigger competition when in fact, the hike had little to do with their expertise. As such, when it drops, they are fair game to be ridiculed and questioned...especially as it dropped to a 2009 level!
St Helens and Salford moving into new stadiums boosted the attendances in 2012 and rather than discuss how they'd ed up with the stobart deal and that it looked like they had no sponsor lined up for 2013, they decided to jump on the good news generated with little if any input from them.

The RFL at nearly every turn in recent years have made bad decisions. No, I don't expect them to publicise these ups.....I expect them to sort out the mess of their making and whilst doing so, I don't expect them to jump on any good news story related to the game and wrap it up in a "aren't we at the RFL clever' blanket. I know it's hard for someone of Nigel's stature to keep his head down and get on with it, but that's exactly what needs doing.

Has it been seen? How? Have the full details been leaked? Or just a few twitter grumbles and people on here like yourself telling us the full details of a deal you don't actually know the details about. You've guessed, you might be wrong you might be right. It could be better it could even be worst.

Can you two stop pulling hair and get back to the topic?

So what do you think of the branding and will we see a new SL logo?

When people are comparing the deal with First Utilities with engage, they do realise they're comparing two completely different deals? One was for title sponsorship, the other was for everything (refs, post pads, shirt sleeves, etc). There's still money to come in yet.

Engage paid more but engage got more. We'll see what else comes out in the next few weeks. But I'd rather wait in curiosity than wait in hope of failure to prove my negative self right for some sad way of self satisfaction.

Cant see why people are knocking the deal, other than the fact that numbers haven't been made public.
Whichever direction you look at this, it is a marked improvement on where we have been for 3 years.

Lets hope that it works well for the new sponsor and that we can progress further next time around.

The REAL challange is whether the deal provides what both the sponsor and SL want out of it.
For one I don't care who sponsors SL, because my interest in SL and F.Ut is minimal and that will apply to an awful lot of people in this country.
It may work for the benefit of both organisations and good if it does.
History, and past experiences, show certain things happen which benefit neither side. For this to work to mutual benefit then both SL and F.Ut will need to implement a hard work ethic to reap the expected rewards. That I know is anathema to some, just take and hope.