The government have now given the green light to resume sports on 1st June on wards behind closed doors. It does seem a bit odd that Rugby League in the UK isn’t supposedly back until August, surely the players will resume training at their respective clubs soon?

rlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/52862637rl

The RFL really need to be putting some plans in place and provide some guidance on the restructuring of the fixture list also, am sure some clubs would prefer to wait until October/November in allowing the furlough scheme to be utilised for as long as possible. It may be that the government will allow part-time furloughing or extend it further. Then there is also question marks around all the games being televised by Sky or if the BBC will take a few games like they have done with Premier League.

The lateness for Rugby league start seems to be purely based on getting fans in the grounds. That's what it looks like anyway as it's all they seem to bang on about. It does show how fragile we are as a sport

SL being on TV alone doesn't give us enough money it's the gate money we need.Further down the line of 2020 the better for all SL clubs getting people back in. NRL rely more on TV money than gate money hence why they can restart. To be honest I think smaller crowds could go to watch. People who have had Covid won't feel as vulnerable and people who just want to go watch our great game.
Raffle kind of approach for ST holders idea as well.

So are you suggesting that ,even if you are a season ticket holder you are not guaranteed entry,but must go through a ballot procedure. I must say, i think that would tip me over the edge against future ST purchases. I had to question my sanity & logic over buying a ticket for this season ,following last season's let down.
Perhaps an idea would be for all clubs to show home games over the internet, free for ST holders & say £10/£15 for non season ticket holders. You could even "attend" all away games by the same system & it might even create more revenue for clubs because now there is a definite lack of physical away support for most clubs. That could fill a gap. Obviously,some games would clash with sky coverage, but club broadcast would be at a lower standard than sky,without replays from all angles & more like club shop available matches.

The last I heard was for games behind closed doors to start in August, and crowds allowed in October. I can't see us being allowed in for ages yet.

I meant a raffle type approach initially when they say no one in. That way the people who are happy to go can maybe go . I know supporters who don't want to go even later in the year because they are worried whereas I would go tomorrow if i could.

The vulnerable category being allowed out before time and before the Government’s own Covid Alert level has been dropped to the relevant level to allow it.

Be back at the HJ before we know it at this rate.

I think the August start date might be more due to Sky TV dictating that with PL football getting blanket TV coverage in June & July, they'd not be willing/able to make any room in their broadcast schedule for RL until August.

The August restart is to allow clubs to take maximum advantage of furlough scheme which tapers at end of July and to avoid direct competition with soccer

Correct.

Also if we start in August Sky will pay their full installment of 2020 TV monies, although I believe in 2021 clubs will receive £300k less (which explains some clubs wanting to drop the cap next year) .

The August start point is deemed the best mix between getting the benefit of Furlough, guaranteeing 2020 Sky income and having the possibility of supporters at the back end of the season. I would also suggest rugby leaque players will need some form of mini preseason to prepare them for the rest of the year which would also explain a later start than some other sports - the 'flexi-furlough' may help with this.

Surely basing the choice of start date on these factors is missing the big factor which is risk of coronavirus at the time we reopen. We locked down in a week when there were 500 deaths in the week across the UK due to coronavirus, but 2 weeks ago (the most recent data) there were 2,500 deaths in the week, and this was after two months of lockdown. As other things start to open up again you would expect the virus to start circulating more so we will still be faced with the same situation: will it be safe for fans to turn up? How do players train effectively with social distancing and what happens if someone in a squad gets coronavirus and it starts to circulate through a team. Will teams be penalised with points if they are unable to fulfil fixtures due to squad members sick or isolating?

Playing rugby league doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do when there's a risk of a serious highly contagious disease and there are a lot of carriers who don't show symptoms. Players will be put at risk of catching it and spreading it to their families, we also don't yet know enough about the long term effects. Already there are lots of people who were infected in March who are showing chronic symptoms and suffering severe fatigue, blood clots. For some players, even if their risk of death is low, getting it could put them out of action for an extended period of time, it could be the equivalent of a broken leg or torn ACL etc.

I think there's a lot of "wishing the virus away" going on.