Yes, I thought the same when I watched the England national team. Or all the club teams get knocked out of Europe even though they are seeded in groups and should really make the quarter finals.
I think we are just about to see some further clubs gain success in RL. Hull FC and Warrington look set for a good tilt at becoming champions. In the past two years Hull KR and Cas have been in the cup final. I agree that we now need trophies to be spread more evenly, however scrapping the salary cap would surely mean an even smaller pool of clubs having the chance of success?

Just remind me what decade did GB/England last win a test series against Australia? The difference is regardless of England's continual failure since 66 and our clubs lack of success in Europe over the past few seasons football is still thriving financially.

Indeed. Football is thriving, but how many of the clubs are? Most are run at a massive loss and are always on the edge of collapse should a rich owner decide to walk away.

"Most are run at a massive loss and are always on the edge of collapse should a rich owner decide to walk away."
but they don't.

Let's ignore football as it is so embedded into the national way of thinking that no sport can compete .

RedShed does have a point: I do worry about this game. It needs people at the ground to provide income and atmosphere but going to a sports match (bar football) is in decline. The game is becoming slow (largely down to not policing tackles IMO). We do not have the status of |RU. At least we are not as badly off as cricket (bar T20).

I agree that rugby league has always and will always be a million miles behind football. The closest the sport came to football was probably around the 1930’s but over the past decade rugby league hasn’t progressed whilst football has grown at an epic pace.

The point I was making about Wigan from around the early 1980’s was how a few wealthy individuals helped transform a sport that was in decline. Wigan signed world class players from the NRL and union that put bums on seats home and away and raised the bar. The problem is If the bar isn’t being raised clubs then function within their financial comfort zone and the sport becomes more predictable and stagnant. If clubs (like at present) can operate at full cap with their existing income levels there becomes less need/urgency to go out and find new money/investors or market themselves and the sport much better. I just feel the game is crying out for a shake up because standing still with no new money coming into the game isn't going to promote growth.

It's a BIG question , & 1 with so many permutations .
both on a local - national level .

I don't think the sport is stale ,
maybe after 40 odd years of watching it , it's just me .

Issue is attracting new support & young fans , in a world when 6 yr old kids have smart phones ..

I don't disagree with your comments, however the cap should have been raised long before now, what was good for the game 20 years ago does not apply now, look how other sports have excelled, not one with restricted practices.
I also used to religiously attend the challenge cup final up to 2 years ago, this prestige competition is losing the neutral fan year on year, the rugby league can continue to massage the corporate seats as sold when the actual crowds are nearer 60,000 than the 100,000 of yesteryear.
Now I am not a fan of MK & the ongoing dispute is having such a negative effect on the club & its fans, season ticket holders are disillusioned & are no longer attending match, I have personally given up try to attract the casual fan.
Clearly MK was sold a lemon & promised the earth & looking from his prospective, if the only income he receives is the revenue from gate receipts & merchandise then the only way he can maybe grow the club is only by attracting a better package on the field, failure to do this will only leave him putting his hand in pocket season after season to prop up another failing club, surely this is not good for the game.

Finally the issue around the cap for me only goes to show how weak our sport is, clearly very few clubs can stand on there own two feet, not really a good endorsement!

Wigan didn't invest in the sport. They didn't even invest in Wigan. They just spent money they didn't have. Anyone can do that. And it nearly killed the sport.

The reason the sport is in the state it is now is because of the hugely short-sighted, short term decisions made in the 70's, 80's and early 90's.
Nobody invested in club facilities or infrastructure and nobody invested in the sport infrastructure. So when changes in society and the media happened we were left massively behind.

We don't need to spend on players. We aren't going to get the likes of Cameron Smith over here, it's not going to happen. It doesn't matter how much we pay because they want to play SOO.
The union players either aren't up to it or are the wrong type of player for League.

Instead of spending, we need to invest. In our sport, in our club infrastructure, in our marketing, in our community engagement and in our amateur game.
That is what will bring people through the doors, not spending millions of pounds we don't have for 10 years until we all go bust again.

Don't disagree with anything you have written but do you really think the present system is working! as a life long supporter who follows not only my local club but attends internationals, challenge cup finals, premiership finals really cannot be d anymore, unfortunately I am not alone, this does not look like a sport on the way up but going down.
I maybe in the minority but what is the Canadian project all about! for me we should be putting this money into the grassroots of our game. When I was in school in Salford in the 60s we played rugby in every school in Salford, your lucky if a school plays rugby! The rugby league have announced big profits, try putting it back into the development of the game.

I've listened to the argument for years about investing more in grass roots but what exactly will this achieve? For instance in junior football Fletcher Moss have produced some great kids like Rashford, Lingard, Wes Brown, Ravel Morrison etc but their facilities/coaching is no better than most amateur rugby league clubs. Is it lack of investment at grass roots or the fact most kids (especially in Manchester) simply prefer playing football? For me it's a numbers game and the playing pool is significantly smaller. History shows we are lucky if one or two decent Salford born kids come through every 10 years. I appreciate all the time and effort by the club over the past couple of decades working with local schools but unfortunately it doesn't appear to have bared much fruit. The club/foundation must have invested hundreds of thousands over the years and for what return?

I phoned the club to get a match ticket for my granddaughter they didn't know the price of the ticket and tried to put me through to ticket master,line was ringing for ages, gave up. Later I phoned the stadium, got through and purchased a ticket for £5 would of been £10 on the day at the stadium. Why £10 on the day don't they want future supporters.
Surely kids under 16 should be free to encourage future supporters. From memory there used to be a junior members club.

Sky only got interested because of the switch to Summer rugby that nicely filled the gap between soccer seasons. At the time of the switch the original plan was to amalgamate certain clubs and use the money to upgrade the stadium. Instead supporters rallied against this, the strict regulation of the stadia was dropped and all the investment subsequently went into players and agents pockets. Roll on twenty years and a club cannot now exist unless it has a wealthy backer.

Before Koukash we was spending money we didn't have and would have gone bust if he hadn't stepped in, the salary cap didn't prevent the financial mess?

Now we have an owner who has money to spend, but we cannot spend it!

There are no restrictions on spending for youth development, perhaps he could invest there?

There's a myth out there that Dr Koukash has not financed youth and community links and all we do is buy players. It is not true. But it allows VT regulars to rant about mercenaries (aka professionals).