The experts at the RFL came up with Licensing.This,like the earlier years,did not prevent clubs going bust.
It seems some clubs will be happy with the amount of money received from Sky.
After England failed to impress in the 2008 World Cup they came up with the idea of the Under 23's.
Someone more knowledgeable than you and I considers this latest change as nonsense rlInteresting Last Sentencerl

The Australians have increased their payments to players and are able to attract large attendances and now have free transport for their supporters - [i“I am pleased to announce another major initiative — that anyone with an NRL ticket will be able to travel free to all 27 games at ANZ Stadium this season,’’ he said.

“In other words, when you buy a ticket in advance for any game at ANZ you get the transport thrown in. And we have negotiated direct trains from Central to Olympic Park for every game at ANZ.’’[/i
rlSourcerl

I think we're a long way behind. But then you couldn't even be bothered to travel to see your side play on Thursday night.
Perhaps you ain't such a fan and lack any interest in the future of the game.
Enjoy your couch.

Your correct, I didn't go last Thursday and it's only the 7th away game I've missed in about 4 seasons. I went to Salford twice last season and twice took me an eternity to get away from the place. No way I was doing that on a Thursday night when I'm in work early on Friday morning.

Saying that, after my first two visits, I doubt I'll ever go again. Especially for a guaranteed easy 2 points. I might go when the doc had Sam burgess, Sam tomkins, SBW and billy slater in the team as it might be a close game.

Being serious, we gong round in circles so I'll leave you to it. Enjoyed the Debate and I'll see you lot at langtree.

Pretty sad but predictable to see clubs hiding behind youth development as a reason to reject a cap increase/marquee signing. Surely with this marvellous new TV deal and league sponsorship clubs can now afford to do both? Or are we saying the new deals are not all they are cracked up to be?

Also regarding the home grown rule, amusing to see Saints fans giving it large ones after poaching the likes of Amor, LMS and Turner, whilst making organic signings such as Walsh, Masoe, Hohia, Manu, Soliola and Laffranchi.

Serious? Out of the 35 squad members we have, having 19 as club trained isn't good enough? Or the 29 eligible for England? Okay, gimme a call when we've caught up to Salford.

As for the new tv deal not giving them money to "do both" - they most probably could - but there are 100 BETTER things a club could do with the money than 1 player, reducing their dependence on an owner, clearing long standing debts, marketing, stadium work, youth development (there's no such thing as an upper limit to cost/benefit ratio here) - no ones saying that the marquee rule might never be a viable option, but right now, I would rather teams worked on any one of these aims as opposed to putting their eggs into one basket.

And as for "hiding" can you explain to me how, after voting to remove 20 or so British players per club away, for a sum total of 30k - how can any team justify voting to spend x10 that on 1 (most probably not British) player? If it were a marquee for British trained players, I have less of a problem (given the new home grown rules, though I would tweak them.) - I would genuinely rather see Sam tomkins at Wigan than billy slater at saints.

Lomax, makinson, Percival, swift, wheeler, Roby, Josh jones, wellens are all first team regulars this season. We also have Walker, Greenwood, Richards, Thompson who played regular last year and part of our squad off this year. We clough who's out on Loan who's home grown.

The likes of Ade Gardner and Jon Wilkin came thru our youth system.

22 out of our 34 man squad are home grown.

We appear to have different numbers but the principle stands - so I'll put it another way!

Lomax*
Makinson* jones* Percival swift/foster
Eastmond** Smith+
Graham** Roby**+ Clough
Wilkin**+ Dixon
Walker*

* England knights/ Wales caps
** full England caps
+ grand final winner (I'm not sure whether graham was part of the 2006 team so ill air on the side of caution)

All saints club trained.

Again, now we have the best deal in the history of the sport, surely the clubs should be able to choose wether to 'put their eggs in one basket' or use this extra income as they see fit?

The previous under 20s vote is irrelevant really, as this was in the dark days before the fantastic new extra revenue streams were negotiated, which have single handedly safe guarded the sport (as long as you use the money on important matters such as painting the terracing).

Give it a f***ing rest will you . You've been told the options for parking a 5 or 15 minute walk and you're away - you're own fans have verified that.

If you drive onto the stadium car park you get held back while the pedestrians get away

You are getting just a tad boring now with your tedious comments - bet you're the life & soul in the pub!!

Clubs don't have the option of running a reserves team? Ergo can't be spent on whatever we want. And it should all be in moderation anyway. Clubs as a whole have proven time and again they can't be trusted with their own money. Giving them more, will just up the bill when they go boom. Unfortunately their are far too many stupid/ fan influenced/ poorly planners in clubs to be let loose on "whatever they see fit".

As I posted on the wigan forum, there's a strong argument for developing and keeping our own talent. For the record I don't believe a hybrid solution is infeasible.

My proposal would be the introduction of the home grown rule from next year, limited to 100k, with that dropped to 75k on first England knights appearance, and 50k from first full England cap. Further, any English world XIII player counts for 0 on anyone's cap, after first refusal is offered to the original club who trained him (so in the case of burgess, Bradford would of made an offer (or maybe not) after it was rejected, he was free market for all, with him not counting on the cap.) any full England international is limited to £250k, any u25 England knights (or higher) is limited to £300k (if the offers come from anyone other than their home club - where they're limited to £50k - £100k)

If koukash is serious with keeping the best talent we have, this should be a satisfactory to immediately chase success.

If McManus is serious about youth development the rules reward development in the medium turn.

That's such an embarrassing thing to say. Clearly a windup

The game is stagnating. The problem with league isn't that teams are spending too much money, it's that no one, bar maybe two or three clubs, is making any money. Until someone does something to invigorate the game so that it becomes more of a success in financial terms, it's only going to continue to get worse.

Chill mate, it's not my fault your stadium is as poor as your team.

It's funny all the Salford fans wasn't calling for this marquee rule last year.

And then when the NRL introduced their own, increased their salary cap and yet again enticed one of Super League's best players away from the UK people started to realise that maybe we do need it.

You could just as easily say that it's funny that Saints fans don't want it brought in when teams like Warrington and Wigan have looked significantly weaker on paper (and on the field so far) this season and Saints looking like they have their best team for a few years.