I find it hard to accept that in a week leading up to the start of a new season that an alleged media partner would be producing a programme with the specific purpose of undermining the sport as a whole. No one is blinkered enough to think that everything in the garden is rosy, us more than most, but it annoys the hell out of me that on the day we launch the season eveyone is talking about the failure of superleague and how we are a bankrupt sport. Which sport sin`t !!!!
But did the BBC do an in depth story on Football or Union or Tennis or even netball ! the week before their season kicked off no of course not !
No one denies all clubs face a hard times irrespective of the Sport but the tone and timing can only have been done to undermine us a sport, yet again !!!!

Yes. The Beeb have never done any programmes damning football or any other sport. Ever. Nope, just RL. They hate us, y'see.

We're seen as fair game .
sport England dropped our funding by 1/3 due to less participation ,
There was the much reported difficulties encountered by Bradford ,before then Crusaders & Wakey. Our financial issues have added to this , Giving away Sponsorship for nothing last season , and this seasons admission that not Main Title sponsor has been found for the SL and Championship comps .
we don't do ourselves any favours.
and we don't control the flow of 'bad news ' , would the BBC consider launching an expose' on the accrued Debt of the Aviva Premiership clubs ? in the week leading up to the 6 Nations.

A quick delve into the published accounts of the main clubs will show , incumbent debt , usually offset by directorial loans.

Premiership Football clubs total debt Exceed 2.4 Billion
La Liga Football Debt is $4.61 Billion

Pretty much all sports live beyond their means , it just that other sports are more awash with billionaire benefactors & TV money it's seen as manageable .
When RL lives beyond it's means or as Garry Hetherington puts it ' poor management practices & and incompetance at club level '. there are less ' sugar daddies out there to bail us out .

Excellent post Middleman. Do you have figures handy? I think Sale for instance is 10% of the WHOLE RL debt. Be interesting if we found enough info for our own expose.

Think the comments were more about the timing than the content.

No one can argue the game needs investment but this isn't something that should be shown on launch day.

Bolton Wanderers on their are in debt to the tune of 136.5M , that's twice SL's supposed combined Debt , and that's just a middling footy club. rlBolton have revealed the clubs debtrl


did anyone notice this story about Wasps when we were being put through the mill in Dec ?
rlHard-up Wasps fail to pay players in the run-up to Christmasrl

the coment 'Wasps are far from the only Aviva Premiership club suffering financially' is telling' but no BBC hack would want to end his burgening career by taking on the greys at Twickers with a bad publicity story ..

rlChiefs aim for financial parityrl ' Despite this financial disadvantage, Exeter has posted a profit for the second year running and is one of only four Aviva Premiership clubs to not be operating in debt.'
in 2007/2008 Rugby Premiership clubs were reporting an annual combined loss of 10M a year . Like in SL there are clubs like Gloucester & Leicester that report a surplus , and the RFU are always keen to promote that.
trouble is with a bumper BT deal ( 152M ) for Heineken Cup games there is more money around to offset these debts than in SL.

I totally agree with you redhope. I logged on to the BBC website hoping to see positive news of our takeover but instead got this. The timing is awful and it is as though they want us to fail.

I think most sports have been it with hard times in the austerity that is taking place I was surprised when read the debt on super league website I thought it might have been higher than that so its better than expected