Quote: Cruncher "But this is still a shrinking economy.
If we produce one generation of good players after another - only to see them go to another competition before we get the full benefit of them, then we never actually gain any ground. Eventually we are literally nothing more than a seedbed for someone else.
The bullish attitude of 'so what if he goes, we can always produce another one!' can be made in a strong, broad-based and wealthy competition like the NRL, but from our lips it is hollow bravado.
For me, British RL is now facing one of the biggest crises in its entire history. Unless some way is found to attract a lot more investment into the British game - and soon! - we are in big, big trouble.'"
I agree.
The real issue is that the RFL seemingly think that RL is a finite ring fenced bubble that cannot or will not expand or contract from both a supply and demand perspective.
They seem to think that the attraction of the sport to potential professionals will remain the same, despite artificial salary restraints which will at best limit the duration of stay for the best players and at worst act as a deterrent to them ever taking up the game in the first place.
From a fans perspective they seem to think that RL fans are like sheep and will turn up to watch their team despite the ever dwindling standards on display. This is true to some extent, but you are not going to improve attendances by "dumbing down" the relative standards on display on the park.
From a business perspective, they lack any form of coherent plan. Simply trying the game out in Wales in the hope that it might "stick" is not the answer. The answer is not where to put a team, but to get the basics in place to improve the product so that the team has a chance wherever it is placed in the country (and I firmly believe RL needs to have teams away from it's heartlands if it is to survive as a professional sport).
As for the people who want to ditch Sky...........deary me. Why on earth would you want to ditch the best chance you have of marketing the sport nationwide?
So much for the reason why "This board" is not populated from a "game wide" stance.
As for Wigan, well IL seems to have gone even further in terms of not spending the CC money (as highlighted before). SW seems to have learned nothing from last year. "This year we are more strict"
The thing is the SL competition only really gets important around July/Aug time, and realistically we will have to wait until the CC semi's to see if there has been any improvement.
