Pretty sure we're not going to sell out of our North Stand allocation, I got 2 from the club shop at about 18:30 last night no problem?

So was it our last 6 league games on sky plus a CC semi on BBC which is hardly an incentive for fans who have already got sky sports to get off their bootys & go along in the flesh to watch the boys. Unfortunately,like so many other sports in this country, RL has sold its soul to sky & become nothing more than a slot in sky's tv schedules. Once fans are sat at home watching from armchairs it is difficult to get them back on the terraces.

I think I would probably agree with most of that Nine, except for the Faust bit about selling our soul to the devil. Unfortunately if we didn't have the Sky money I think we would be an amateur game with a much reduced number of clubs.

Undoubtedly there wouldn't be so much money in the game if not for Sky but can you honestly say the game has gained entertainment value ? Sure the players are bigger and fitter but are they any more skilful ? It seems to me the game is more about biff bash and brute force rather than the traditional skills which attracted most of us to the game in the first place...The wrestling tactics are strangling the game as a spectacle and is rapidly becoming more boring by the week. I'm taking a sabbatical, not having been to a single live game all season. I wasn't prepared so sit in the North Stand any longer being bored out of my mind...I'll see you again when the powers that be get a grip of Wrestlemania.

Spot on, and to think Rogues wants to bring back contested scrums

In my opinion the game would be far better without Sky Sports, as would most others.

Yes, the players would be getting paid less and most would be semi-pro, but why would that be a problem for the paying supporter? It was the case for a century of the sport pre-Super League, and it managed to exist then and would continue to do so.

The first thing pro-Sky campaigners will say is that all the players will go to Australia or rugby union, but we seem to lose the absolute elite players to them now anyway, and ultimately there are only so many NRL and RFU contracts to go round. The NRL won't suddenly sign up half of SL, and not all league players are suited to union or would command contracts ahead of the lads who have played that game their whole lives. Plenty would still want to play in Super League and if we were watching them at a lower cost than we currently pay to get in with 90% of games kicking off at 3pm on a Sunday then I would personally be a lot happier and I suspect some others would be too.

TBH i was thinking about bringing back contested scrums ,allowing the marker to strike at the play the ball & doing away with the six tackle rule which should reduce the number of handling errors & kicks out of hand that we have today. The kick down field that invariably goes dead is turning us into a less affluent version of Union. We need to get back to the slick passing the game was renowned for .

I was too generous. They were being offered out this morning.

"She said its not a problem for tomorrow night, sounds like there's loads of tickets left"

2 refs will sort out a lot of problems


Just need to find some decent ones now.

"as would most others" or "personally be a lot happier and I suspect some others would be too"....Make your mind up.

I don't have Sky Sports, but, thank goodness it's available IMO as I attend most games but can't on Friday but will find it on somewhere in a pub or would you expect me and other displaced species to be happy listening on a wireless somewhere?

Depending upon your average ticket price to maintain the same income clubs would have to generate quite a few thousand fans every week and as you alluded to earlier there isn't a massive total walk up to the HJ even though we have been playing great RL, or do you seriously think that fans would be encouraged to flock every other week by a standard KO time and a semi pro game?

Sky Sports is not the root of all evil, you're a football fan do you want to see a return to the days of Gerald Sinstatd and Brian Moore with coverage limited to a highlights programme and the odd live game?

Gerald Sinstadt, there's a blast from the past

The first part referred to most other sports, not most other rugby league fans.

'"

No, I want it to cost less than £45 to get into a match. It's funny how in both football and rugby league, admission prices are considerably higher now than they were before clubs main source of revenue was TV money. Really you'd think that wouldn't be the case, but it definitely is.

As for watching matches in pubs, unless you live in an RL town then good luck finding one that will show our games because in my experience it isn't easy.'"

Definitely isn't easy to watch a game in a pub in a non RL area.

In London I've been asked some random questions either by bar staff when asking or random people when watching or some strange statements.

"Is this the Heineken Cup?"
"Is this the Aviva Premiership?"
"Oh they showing 2nd division now I don't know these 2 teams"
"I thought rugby league was domestic and union was international, didn't know they were 2 different sports?"
"This is the council estate rugby"
"This is the rugby for guys not good enough to make union teams"
"Have they had men sent off?"
"If only England nion] could play this fast" not realising it's 2 different codes.
"I prefer union it's not stop start, these league lot are not as fit"
"There are more tries in league because you can't tackle properly"
"It can't be league if you're playing a French team no one plays it outside the north"
"I wish football had a commentator like this guy [stevo]"
"This is the good rugby [football fans]"
"Why don't they push in the scrum?"

Love living down here :-/

You don't have to go as far as London to hear things like that. I put our match on one of the tellies at work a few weeks ago and a lad who lives walking distance from Salford's ground asked, "Are Sale Sharks in this league?" I was also asked by someone who wanted to change the channel, "Are you REALLY watching this?" because he couldn't believe anyone actually was.

Half the grounds in Super League are within about 25 miles of here!