All the games should kick off at same time. How dramatic would that be with three games of top 8 potential. But this sport seems to be killing drama and instead opts for a scenario that could mean that if Rovers and Bradford both loses earlier in the day, Wakefield will play Salford at a neutral venue in a dead duck contest. Awful!

disgrace and a total joke. Boycott needed...on the terrace and on the sofa.

Bad stuff from Sky. I do however think that the people who own the stadium would rather a Sale game there as the crowd will be significantly more and more people equals more money. Plus the game is against the Champions of 2010 so ESPN will have made it the game to watch for Union fans. Season tickets have sold well for Sale and there should be some Sarries fans making the trip too.

Salford fans will feel very aggrieved and rightly so. I do think that advantage does still lie with Salford as it isnt too far away and they will train there many times this week i think. Sky pay the money the clubs need to survive so sometimes they do have to bow to the money man.

It strikes me that complaints directed at Sky, Salford or sale are wide of the mark.

Sky have a contract to show games. Presumably, given the lack of prior public comment, that contract gives them the right to choose which final round games they show after the penultimate round is completed, the games are being shown in their 'usual' slots Friday & Saturday evening. If the clubs/RFL/SLE want to have the right to choose which game(s) are televised they need to negotiate this in advance and accept the financial consequences.

The RFL/SLE, through the entry criteria for the competition, choose to prioritise playing the vast majority of games in higher quality stadia over the guarantee of availability. Indeed the operational rules can be read as anticipating and accepting occurrences such as this one, sayingEach Club must satisfy the Primacy of Tenure requirements either at its Ground or by using an
Alternative Ground which must be registered with the RFL and which must meet the Facility
Standards which apply to the Competitions in which the Clubs plays (save where appropriate
dispensation has been granted by the Board).[/i

Any criticism, should it be warranted, would imho be more accurately directed at licence criteria which incentivise clubs such as Salford, Wigan, Hull and London(maybe Wakefield in the future) to play at grounds they will occasionally be unable to use over 'inferior' grounds whose availability they could guarantee.

The change of date is a bind, but the venue is probably irrelevant to most Wakey fans - personally, I was looking forward to seeing Salford's new stadium, but it's hardly a deal-breaker.

Got to feel for Salford though - surely there's some form of compensation available to them for the loss of revenue?

Approx £1.2m per annum.

I had a feeling someone might say that.

Can a club reasonably expect to take this kind of financial hit though, or will it be a genuine bolt from the blue? I have no idea of the content of the agreement with SLE and the terms it may (or may not) contain in respect of Sky monies, so it's a genuine question.

For me, purely on a moral basis, it seems like a giant and unneccesary kick in the knackers for Salford.

Going back to my earlier post, I heard no advance complaint that matches for the final round hadn't been selected so it seems fair to assume the TV contract provides for a decision after the penultimate round. That being the case it seems to me that a club should certainly expect that this could happen and plan for it. Wouldn't all clubs playing at home in the final round know they may be selected for TV and as such could reasonably expect that would be Friday or Saturday evening? If this results in a financial hit I would simply suggest the root cause is not Sky's decision to televise the game.

I wouldn't argue that this will not be a real pain for salford & their fans, I just don't see Sky as the bad guys in this.

He who pays the piper plays the tune and without sky rugby league and maybe union and football would be dead

Pretty much nail on head, I think also with a fairly healthy following from Wakefield this will be like a home game for them as I fear some of our season ticket holders will turn up (those without other saturday plans) but thats about it.

Also after we sold Smith to Wigan the rest of the team put the cue on the rack, even Vievers has said he only wants players who are with him next term that in itself speaks volumes, so i'd have my money on a Wakey win. This also impacts Bradfords trip to the south of France for mine they may as well not bother.

It doesn't rain for us it just pours....

I'm not saying it's alright, but why is anyone shocked? It's nothing new and has happened for years.

Rugby League, Football, Union, whatever, it's a TV programme in as much as Coronation Street or University Challenge is. The TV company pays a fortune for it so they get the final say on when and what they show.

Do people really walk around, heads in the sand, thinking this game might not have been moved to be on TV? As soon as it was fairly obvious it could decide a play-off place a bit of common sense needs to be used.

Sadly, the money from Sky is probably worth more than that taken through the gate by those who'll walk away from the game. And really, does a few fixtures moves during a season cause people to stop watching, or a poor team on the field/badly run off the field? Fairly sure what the reason was at Wakefield.

While it is a pretty bad situation for Salford fans, there really isn't an alternative solution. SKY effectively fund SL, they pay millions fot the broadcast rights. Rugby league isn't big enough ti say "no you can't show that game at that time"

From SKY's point of view Wigan v.s Saints is the main fixture and gets the Friday night primetime, also as the Saints/Wigan fans mentioned they've sold 17,000 tickets for tha game.

The 8th spot race is the ony meaningful games SKY has left to show. They can't change the Bulls/Catalns fixture as obviously peoples flights and hotels come into that.

They could have maybe just shown the Catalans/Bulls game on Saturday evening and not bothered showing the Salford game, but as said earlier, SKY millions to fund the games they want to and we're not big enough to turn round and say no.

It is incredibly harsh on the Salford fans though.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Someone along the line either at Sky or the RFL has dropped a major clanger, whoever it was ought to dragged into a dark room and be beaten up.