I still enjoy the old UFC's when Rorion Gracie and Art Davies was in charge, they were good days to discover and then get into this new sport but tbh after a few events the Country and some people in power really turned against it and it was never going to be considered a 'sport' until it had proper sanctioned rules, that didn't involve, headbutting, groin strikes, gouging and weight classes etc - it made it look to the average guy like a cockfight. Rorion and Art only had the company till about UFC 5 where they sold it to SEG.

I remember at the time of UFC 1/2 I was teaching kickboxing and one of my students lent me the videos, I thought it was the craziest thing I'd ever seem (who can forget Keith Hackney literally pummelling some dude in the nuts one fight, the most painful thing I've seen, tbh couldn't have happened to a nicer dude in Joe Son, now doing time for some awful crimes. A Boxer competing with one glove on, high-level karate guys getting demolished by this skinny Brazillian, even a Sumo wrestler turned up. in those days as much fun it was to watch it was definitely a bit of a joke. Saying that it what was the thing that eventually made me seek out BJJ classes, as hard it was to find a place in the mid-'90s. Interestingly although Royce won those early events, he was considered the weakest of all the brothers and their father wanted Rickson to compete.

Yeah, those old days were fun and new but they'd become a bit boring and tbf it wasn't until when the Fertitas bought it and especially Lorenzo Fertitta, because he'd been a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and knew his way around that side of the game, it what that which really made the sport legit in the US and the thing it is now, whether you like it or preferred it when it was more underground, It's crazy though that even with the success that New York until recent wouldn't even sanction MMA events till 2016.

The salary cap is killing the sport. Clubs have no real incentive to try up their income as they cant spend it on world class players. Likewise the big money sponsors are put off as they want their brand to be across the chest of a household name not little Jimmy who came through the academy and showed great promise at Wigan St Pats. In its current format, the cap stops teams from prospering and growing and keep the game stagnant and unattractive to big investment.

It's all a ploy to so Leeds can be successful, as is having no reserves grade, The game is dying thanks to the machinations of Gary Hetherington and his beautiful wife

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It's all a ploy to so Leeds can be successful, as is having no reserves grade, The game is dying thanks to the machinations of Gary Hetherington and his beautiful wife'"

Every team has one..... we have two

The problem is that sponsors can't make home grown player's into household names because if I remember correctly,any sponsorship deals count on the cap, let player's earn whatever they can through external sponsorship then their faces will become more widely recognised and help to raise the profile of the game

I think you can get external sponsors but they can't have anything to do with the rugby club.

I'm sure that Bradford got busted a good few years ago due to Iestyn Harris receiving some money from a personal appearance or endorsement. That wasn't a problem until that same company then advertised in the match day magazine, effectively making them a club sponsor.

Adverts on SKY today publishing all the 2109 events we can see on SKY SPORTS no mention of SL whatsoever even ladies RU got a mention .All the major sports football,golf,motor, racing,rugby union ,tennis,
darts among others. Its a bad situation when SL does not even get a mention seeing as we provide nine months of viewing culminating with the GF .This is why we need a Eddie Hearn figure .

It has been said before but perhaps we need a modern day Packer versus Murdock. Sky have become complacent that we have no other outlet so perhaps we need someone who understands new media. The money is out there but we need to work out how to tap into it. I remember Bill Bryson, the American author, mentioning that Britain can do amazing things with virtually nothing. He mentioned that Oxford University, our wealthiest university, earns less in endowments each year than the Ohio University American Football team. That team earns in a year more than enough to fund Super League in total for a decade.

Excellent post. Our contract with sky has made RL so exclusive that public exposure is minimal. The game needs free to air games just like RU gets on BBC ,ITV, channels 4 & 5. The game will never have any household names when our sole broadcaster starves us of publicity.

I couldn’t agree more. Last week Sean O’Loughlin was on the picture board on A Question of Sport and Phil Tufnell had to pass, despite having Jon Wilkin’s girlfriend on his team.
It’s bad when so called sports experts don’t recognise the current England RL captain and it adds weight to Eddie Hearn’s comments about the game lacking superstars.

If that doesn't worry the powers-that-be in our game, then nothing will.

I keep telling myself that with the removal of Woods and the sidelining of the RFL, things are finally moving the right way. But we seem to have fallen so far that it's going to be a long, slow, cautious climb back to prominence, if it happens at all - without some kind of major personality injection at the publicity end.

I understand people's hesitation about the Hearns, but at present we can't seem to sell ourselves at all outside the heartlands (and not even there from our falling crowds). How can that happen when we are supposedly TGG?

Lockers is probably not as well-known to The Great British Public as someone like Michael van Gerwen. More's the pity. I too was and am hopeful regarding recent changes, but something needs to happen, and it looks like the Hearns will not be getting involved in the foreseeable future.

Totally agree. And while the SL/RFL should promote the players, they themselves could do more by prodding their agents into generating some publicity. For some reason, this aspect of an agent's role is neglected entirely in RL. Not in other sports though.