Quote Ruddy Duck="Ruddy Duck"I am sorry having to say this but it comes as no surprise that Sky Sports are offering less money when our game when it no longer attracts the top players from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa like it use to do before Rugby Union sold its sole and became fully professional in the mid nighties. As a result, Rugby Union has become more attractive in the eyes of the television media companies like Sky Sports and BT while Rugby League has now become less attractive to the television media companies..
Supporters, prior to the mid nighties were used to watching many of the top players from not only from Rugby Union, especially South Wales, but also top players at their peak from down under which is no longer the case due to the NRL in New South Wales and Queensland becoming like Premiership Football in our country.
The only way to improve the situation in order to attract better offer from Sky Sports or even BT who are the two biggest companies in sports media coverage is for some clubs to merge and form bigger and financially stronger clubs to create a better, bigger and financially stronger professional game in our country.
As long as some supporters want to cling to the past and have the same number of small clubs along the M62 corridor, where attendances are nothing like they were years ago, our game will continue to struggle as a major sport and will perhaps end up again as a part time sport, but unlike in the past, now living in the shadow of Rugby Union which is now a far bigger game in the eyes of the television companies like Sky Sports and BT.
The idea that the league game should be put out to tender is a non starter as Sky Sports and BT have the most money where the coverage of team sports is concerned as illustrated by the massive multi million pound contacts to the Premiership in Football and more recently, Rugby Union with its Premiership and European Cup Competitions.
The financial future of the game is bleak unless the RFL follow the example of the game in Australia of a few years ago and take some similar draconian measures to rectify the situation, even if upsets some clubs and its supporters.'"
The mergers might have worked when Mo Lindsay suggested them back in the early days of SL. Cumbria, Humberside, Manchester and central Yorkshire would have been perfect zones for it to happen. Even the like of Wigan / Saints, Bradford / Leeds and Warrington / Widnes could have looked at it, but only the emergence of super teams in other big cities would have made it worthwhile for our bigger clubs, and there was never any sign of that.
I still think that a combined Cumbria team could have worked, along with combined Manchester and central Yorkshire teams, but if you look at the situation now, the potential advantages aren't as evident.
Even if the Cumbrian clubs were willing, most of them would bring nothing to the table. Instead of having two or three ineffective Cumbrian clubs, we'd have one. Likewise the teams in Manchester: Salford would simply consume Oldham, Rochdale etc and gain little from it.
It might work in central Yorkshire and on Humberside, but it's impossible to imagine Cas, Wakey, FC and KR agreeing to it. Besides, if we did that, we'd be reducing the numbers of our viable clubs even more, and there aren't many of those to start with.
I'm not sure what other mergers we could even consider. Wigan and Leigh? Why would either agree? Wigan would gain nothing from it and Leigh would just disappear. It would be the same with Wire and Widnes.
