Fantastic interview on Wigan TV (superb value at £35) where IL rubbishes the speculation around League's finances.

Basically we "pick on ourselves" when RU and Football League are in states of dissaray:

"When London Welsh are getting 1,500 at Oxford does anyone publicise that? Does that get three pages of tabloid/broadsheet newspaper? No it doesnt Because they manage the news well. We are a soft target because we are categorised at thick northerners"

"Bradley Wiggins says we have the best sport he's ever seen, I think he's more right than some BBC Northern Correspondent"

Then he has a massive go at the RFL and their marketing/commercial work.

I like Ian Lenegan I think he's brought a lot of passion and integrity to the role and certainly he presents a much better image of Wigan RL to outsiders than Maurice did.

One point I would make to him here though is that in union, and football, the media coverage is bigger for both positive AND negative stories. The Gareth Hock situation was a big negative for Wigan RL but it barely made a ripple in the national media. Imagine if at Man United, Wayne Rooney had acted up like this refusing to play for the club and Fergie or the chairman given him a blast in the official statement like Lenegan did. That would have been a huge story that didn't die down for weeks.

If rugby league had the profile of football, then the press hacks would just relentlessly write stories about "Wane on the verge of exit" till his position became untenable, like they did Roberto Di Matteo.

And also if England end up getting smashed by the Aussies in this World Cup, be thankful that the national media barely notices it. Compare that to the slating England football get, or England RU in the 2011 World Cup, when the press hounded Martin Johnson out by giving massive coverage to the off field behaviour of the England rugby players.

These other sports have bigger profiles in the media yes, but there is no way you can say they media manage the sports to get positive stories. I follow football and RU and there are negative stories all the time. "Bloodgate" in RU when they had the issue of deliberately cutting a player to get a bloodbin interchange, was a real problem for the game and hung around for ages.

I don't think that the sport is run fantastically, there is always room for improvement, and I know that there are clubs losing money some heavily, I just wonder about this type of programme from BBC when there is little mention of it at any other time.

actually i think you're wrong there, George Riley is a pain the aris as he's a Whino supporter & takes every opportunity to mention them whenever RL comes up on 5Live. But I seriously doubt this set out as any hatchet-job.
It was simply a poor piece, given a time-slot when most of the target audience really wouldn't be bothered about RL (how many One Show fans do you know who can spell RFL?).

The real crime is that the BBC commissioning editors were not prepared to give this any more than a 5 minute talking-head slot with a shed load of sound-bites that to the already prejudiced (soccer or RU) eye would seem worthy or newsworthy.

You are missing the point he tried to make (probably because you have not seen the interview). He knows as well as anyone if a high profile footballer did what Hock did it would be all over the press. That isn't the kind of publicity he was on about.

What he was on about was he reckons RL tends to shoot itself in the foot PR-wise over more mundane stuff such as the games finances, crowd sizes and other issues. He reckons RL itself has tended to focus on the negative and so when programs broadcast stuff as was in BBC program this thread refers to he basically thinks RL hasn't managed the media properly with respect to things like that. He gave examples of what would be negative publicity in both soccer and RU that if they happened in RL would be headline news but just are not in the other sports. Swindon going into administration was one and London Welsh playing in front of 1500 was another but you just don't really hear much about such events. Instead the PR machine of both these sports has the media lapping up all the positives and not focusing on the negatives whereas he contends the opposite is true in RL where for example London get slated for gates of 3000 in comparison to London Welsh where their crowd figures in Oxford of 1500 are never headline news.

I think he was rather annoyed with BBC for coming commissioning the story but also feels RL is at fault for not providing enough of an alternative and more positive picture.

You would have to watch the complete interview to get the proper gist of what he was saying but hopefully you get the picture.

I don't agree with everything he said in the interview as he mentioned that last season when the Stobart deal occurred crowds and TV viewing figures were up but despite that the deal was slated. I think linking the two as he did is stretching things a bit too far in terms of putting a positive spin on things but overall he had a good point to make I think.

If you want to sum his position up is he is annoyed when the BBC do a piece on RL looking at the sport off field it was a very negative one and there are few if any positive ones made whereas while other sports have their problems they tend to be buried under far more positive pieces. He thinks the RFL PR machine is partly to blame for that but I also got the impression he thinks there is a bias that needs to be overcome (the media view us as thick northerners was one comment).

At the pre season dinner IL mentioned that this coming season would be his 6th in charge.
Of the five gone Wigan RL have made a profit in the last three and won trophies in those years. As far as sporting clubs are concerned making a profit and winning trophies at the same time is viewed as almost impossible. Yet IL has done it but no mention there of sporting financial success.
He also gave a lot of credit to the marketing guys and spoke about Geoff Warburton saying that the numbers at the dinner was the largest ever as we have more club sponsors and partners than ever.
Selective reporting perhaps?

There's no money in the game because Nigel Wood spent it on pies

"The Gareth Hock situation was a big negative for Wigan RL but it barely made a ripple in the national media. Imagine if at Man United, Wayne Rooney had acted up like this refusing to play for the club and Fergie or the chairman given him a blast in the official statement like Lenegan did. That would have been a huge story that didn't die down for weeks."

Sure that happened a couple of years ago with Rooney saying Utd lacked appeal and that they where going backwards, was banded around news for a couple of weeks, but then he got a £50k pay rise and shut up funny that.

We need a sport for us thick northerners to watch, football is full of prima-donners who are more worried about what tat they can buy with their money - Balotellis camo Bentley anyone - and acting like big shots when they really don't do much to help anyone but themselves.

Then there is RU a derivative of RL that is mostly kicking goals or penalties, rolling around on the floor interspersed by the odd try.

Then we have RL a funny game that is mostly played along the M62 right in the middle of us thick northerners, joining Lancashire and Yorkshire, and being one of the greatest spectacles of blood, sweat and tears i have ever seen.

We need someone who can turn it into the game they watch and love in Australia, with the publicity, appeal and making even the most unlikely player a household name but i really cant see that ever happening.

The Aussie game doesn't just have marketing and PR though, it has world class players all over the place.

Maurice Lindsay was fantastic for both Wigan RLFC and RL in genera.

Until he plunged us into debt of course.

You just wouldn't let it lie!

This could run and run now!

Keeps me entertained.

Some astonishingly deluded posts on this thread. RL has seen a number of its top flight clubs go bust in the last few years. Clubs are losing money despite paying player wages which are salary capped at a level which in real terms is at least 30 per cent lower than at the outset of the cap.

How anyone can suggest things are ok in RL is beyond me.