Am I reading this right...

Catalan away, Friday 1 August 2014?

You are, Sky covering the game according to the fixture list on our site. 9pm CET !!

Wouldn't surprise me that Sky are doing this as a backlash to Premier Sports and the World Cup.

Probably the best kick-off time considering the time of year and the likely temperature. Late finish, straight back to the Irish bar for celebratory sherberts

My main concern is the tough games just before the play off. There is the Challenge Cup Final (???) then Huddersfield, St Helens and Wigan. This is quite a run of big games and definitely not ideal.

Duffman Just PM you, do you want to check and get back to me.

Works fine in soccer when fans have much further to travel, bar the odd 'ex pat' driving to Wigan on a Thursday really isn't an issue, plus fixtures have been announced early enough to put in annual leave requests if you really want to be able to drink etc.

I seem to remember hearing all this a couple of years ago when we started with Monday night football however it didn't cause an issue. For many people Saturdays are a problem, especially in the summer when there are various other social engagements.

Maybe I am just used to it with going to a lot of Championship games though.

Sky have 4 utility sport channels to fill with product.

They have no (and never had) Europa League football games
They only show stuff like snooker and darts on a Thursday, and that's only in the "winter" months, just leaving live horse racing for summer. They have to fill their schedules with some live sport, or they'll end up looking like BT Sport does now, with very little UK based live sport, just imported stuff, padding out their schedules. So guess what, RL has to move. Given that SL is a highly watched product on their sports channels, it was only a matter of time before it happened. Punters are spending lots of money for Sky subscription. They're going to get peed off, if there's no live sport for them to watch on certain days. I'm surprised it's took them so long to go to change RL to Thursdays.

Without me bigging up Sky too much, we (as a sport) would be a lot poorer but for their injection of cash for the 1996 season, and every season since.
We wouldn't have been able to afford Langer, King, Morley, Briers etc. Most clubs would still be in "ramshackle" stadia IF (and it's a BIG IF) they'd survived some very bleak times.
Don't forget, Bradford are still on very dodgy ground despite nearly 20 years of Sky's money, and all the money generated by Bullmania

Yes, Sky may hack us off with their changing of live fixture days, but without their cash, our game would have been lost (to a large extent).

Looking at the fixtures, Sky really have "nailed their colours to the mast".
In the past, they've only named the first 3 months schedules, yet they've named fixtures up to the final weekly round. Brave call.

I'm fecking furious with Sky moving games to Thursday. I too will miss the Big 4 of Saints & Wigan home & away because of Sky.

I will miss at least 8 games this year because of Thursday & Friday games

I paid for my season tickets a few weeks ago (me,my son and grandson) and mentioned my dissapointment about last years fixtures with all the missed matches on evenings for my son and grandson, as my Grandson fell asleep when we took him to the first one last year.The club were sympathetic, but just made excuses.
I mentioned the fact that we were buying the tickets blind , before the fixtures were announced and would the club think about discounts,like I think Huddersfield proposed. Surprisingly the club official seemed hesitant to consider this , but said that she would mention it to the management.
I'm not expecting any announcements.

That's exactly what we should want. Go into the play offs battle hardened. If we are in the top 4 (highly likely), then we're likely to play at least one of those three teams again, at least once. It's much better preparation to have already played them than London, Castleford, Bradford...

I have no doubt that players will be rested/rotated prior to the play-offs but it's a shame this will have to happen against other top sides. Coaches and players do tend to value a rest rather than being "battle hardened". Few sides can play full-on and at their best for six or seven consecutive weeks. Thankfully the last few fixtures are tough for all the top teams ... thus adding to the excitement. This will be deliberate. Sky will be pleased.

The fixture list doesn't really affect me. My kids aren't interested in going to games, and I'm self employed so can easily ensure that I finish early or start late the following morning if necessary.

As we have improved and as Sky have continued to move games around it has become more and more likely that we will have 'awkward' fixtures. This is the price we pay for Sky's money and our success.

It is unfortunate (or deliberate?) that the fixtures are announced shortly after the deadline for renewing season ticket seats. Any season ticket deadlines should be after the fixture list is released and not before.