Stopped reading after Canadian players should play for the Canadian teams. Isn't that what Catalans were supposed to be doing? I'm all for expansion, but in the right way.

Why? They don't in other major sports.

Don't what? Expand? Or my point about Catalans?

How do you think football became the global phenomenon that it is if someone somrwhere didn't take the game elsewhere? Football is expanding, just in a slightly different way, trying to promote womens football across the country. There's talk today of a shake up in the men's game here as well, introducing a new league.

There has been a professional rugby union league kicking off last month in the USA. If that takes off, it will increase the global interest of rugby union even further ahead of league.

Tennis and Formula 1 take their products around the world, adding new destinations each year. Cricket are promoting the T20 leagues and cups more than ever before.

That's just a few off the top of my head...

You misunderstand. My point was that it is not always necessary to have a team full of home-grown (locally or nationally) players to be successful. Man City, for instance, regularly only have one British player in their team. When they played Real Madrid recently Madrid had as many British players in their starting 11. Expanding sport nowadays is all about hype. Kids want to be associated with famous global brands, often irrespective of the quality of the offering or an understanding of the sport. See F1, union or T20 cricket. RL is the greatest sport on the planet but I can never see a time when it has the money behind it or access to the media to realise that potential. Also the Emperor's New Clothes approach just isn't our style (thankfully). Richard Lewis is an excellent leader - he was chair of the RFL & Sport England but it could be argued made less progress than the current bunch.

Are you for real ?

If the game expands further away from the heartlands, in France, Canada, London, Wales, of course fewer away fans will travel from these places to Yorkshire and Lancashire to watch their team play, it's just not possible.
It's not too bad making a once a season trip to France or "a big day out" in London once a year but, nobody can expect Catalan fans to travel to each and every game in England, it isn't going to happen and it's utterly wrong to deride their fans for not travelling.
The question is whether the game should include these clubs, primarily to try and help grow the game on the bigger stage.

There are 2 simple choices.

Keep the game in the North of England and constantly complain that we cant secure sponsorship and advertising etc or, try and raise the profile of the game and increase interest outside of the "heartlands".

Or

Expand into new areas and help grow the game globally

This will mean sacrificing something in terms of the domestic game, at least in the short term but, to move the game forward, surely it's worth it ?

Ah I see what you mean now, apologies. My point with regards to Catalans was aimed at Jeans audacity to make a statement that a Canadian club in 10 years time would be made up of Canadian players, just like Catalans were allegedly going to be.

Don't think it's wrong at all that we have overseas players, just needs to be regulated to encourage local participation and given young kids a dream of playing for their home club IMO. The quota is a good rule in my opinion and stops teams buying a load of Aussies.

Didn't the FA bring in some regs with regards to homegrown players recently?

That [i"suburb of Wigan"[/i you speak of must be Leigh.
The same Leigh that average attendance almost the same per season & often sometimes far better in a given round than both Salford & Wakefield Trinity Schoolgirls.
The same Leigh that pro rata of it's population is far better supported than Leeds Rhinos.
The same Leigh who's away fans travel in bigger numbers than Salford & Wakefield do in [iSuper Dooper League[/i
The same Leigh that does it week in week out with little to no away support to boost our home attendances.

Tell you what ....
let's go back to franchise & put London straight back in .....
their 403 [ihard-core fans[/i will surely bring huge benefits to other SL Clubs when their army descends en mass.

Or let's give that giant of a Club Wakefield 30 more years of dreary apathetic RL in SL.

Banish both Bradford *who have a better following than half of SL* & Halifax who would no doubt be better supported than Salford & Wakey to the lower reaches of the RL echelon.

Mind you, you would be saying what you did when it is most definitely [iTwitchy Bum Time[/i for your lot.

To a certain extent I agree with what you're saying but do we really need 2 extra Yorkshire teams in SL?

We need to expand the game and to do that we need to promote it further afield. The only way to do that is with cold hard cash to pay for marketing. We need someone to market the hell out of it like they have the darts. Look at how that sport has come from nowhere to where it is now.

I wouldn't want HKR to lose their place in SL but for the good of the game they along with a few others may have to.

The RFL shouldn't have shared the new TV money out the way they did. They should have taken a percentage and used it purely to market the game. I bet their current marketing budget wouldn't even cover Terry Campese's wages.

Brilliant post, you may want to go back and see just how well Leigh were supported last time they were in the top flight


The main problem that you have, is that you have all of the arrogance of a big club but, you are just a small town on the outskirts of Wigan and using the same logic that you are trying to apply to Wakefield and Salford, Leigh would not offer anything to SL either.

You might want to see just how few of your fans were interested last time you played in the big league and while you are at it take a peek at Halifax's crowd numbers (they were less then yours).
Of all the clubs in the Championship, only Bradford can generate decent crowds, when things are going well. None of the rest would offer any improvement on what we currently have.

Where is it?

As someone who loves watching the darts, I think I know what you think you mean, but in fact, they have done and are doing exactly what most on here seem to be railing against.

Darts has to make any money it does from stuff like broadcasters and sponsors. That is because they have no crowds to speak of. Even in a world championship, at the Lakeside, the capacity is maybe 1,000. Now, bear in mind that is the TOTAL people watching live darts that day. As the games are only in one venue.

The average UK wage is £26,500. There are hardly more than 50 darts players IN THE WORLD earning (gross) appreciably more than that.

This is why darts has tried to go international, and get games in places where frankly there is no darts at all, or not as we know it. Their international circuit is huge, but most of those places it is very much a novelty.

And, for what they are trying to do, it works. If selling a fair few seats to a few hundred bums, and getting some airtime on limited TV is the criterion.

Basically there is the darting international circuit where a fairly tidy income is available to the elite, and then there is ... nothing. Amateur / club darts. I'm struggling to see any sensible comparison for us.

[iNeither would I[/i

Here's how I would restructure if going down the licensing route.

SL1 + SL2, 2x Leagues of 10 with no real cache in being in 1 over 2.

Mix them up a bit so something like

[iSL 1[/i

Catalan
Leeds
Bradford *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Halifax
Warrington
Widnes
Wakefield *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Castleford *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Toronto
Vancouver/Any given Canadian Club.

[iSL 2[/i

Wigan
St Helens
Salford
Leigh
Toulouse Olympique
2nd *French* Club
London *insert current name as applicable*
Cardiff
Hull FC
Hull KR

Endon of season - No P&R *not required*

Top 4 from SL1 & SL2 play 2x semi finals & 1 Final *based on League Position in their own Group then ....

SL1 Champions v SL2 Champions for the title of *& for a laugh* let's call it [iGrande Campione[/i

Bottom 6 of both SL1 & SL2 play off for a minor Comp prize.

Top 4 of both SL 1 & SL 2 get a monetary award on a sliding scale based on placings with Grande Campione receiving a further sum for being good eggs.

All monetary awards are 'bound' solely to be spent on Academy & Affiliate Clubs
*for Leigh these would be Leigh Miners & Leigh East*
*for Wigan Ince Rose Bridge etc*

Affiliate Clubs to become feeders to Parent Clubs *just as they do in Oz*.

An arbitrary/nominal/moderate increase to Salary Cap in SL 1 & 2 up to £2m increasing to £2.4m over 5 year period, (£2m year 1 then + £100k p/a over next 4).

Significant increase to Salary Cap for new Championship member Clubs *with conditions* & new expansion Clubs to be blooded via Championship & Championship 1.

Edit.

Room for Cumbrian RL Club & Featherstone or Batley + Sheffield + 1 A.N.Other RL Club to join at later date following restructuring & development at a later juncture if sustainable.

[iLet's see who's heads explode !!![/i

The only exposure Darts had was the yearly BDO world championship. Now they get very healthy crowds on a weekly basis for premier league Darts. It takes the SS1 primetime slot on a Thursday while RL gets SS3 or 4 so they must be doing something right.

I see a lot to compare between the sports. Only their elite players get press and tv coverage just like our elite players. However their elite players get prime time TV slots on a weekly basis and a generally good coverage in the press. Our elite players get a couple of games a week on whichever channel Sky can be bothered to put it on and virtually no press outside the M62 corridor.

It is through their marketing that Phil the Power Taylor and MVG are names known outside their sport. Until recently, one of the best players of the SL era (Kevin Sinfield) wasn't hardly known to anyone outside RL

er so its pretty clear you are talking about the BDO which is an utter mess when it comes to making money.

bit strange that you basically ignored the PDC. anyone would think the PDC doesnt exist from reading this post.

you and I both know that the PDC is doing remarkably well, huge crowds, lots of sponsors, multiple TV contracts and players getting paid great money.

premier league crowds are off the charts.