Quote: Bullseye "Yes London finished bottom and therefore deserved to go down. However, you could ask if whether the fact that their fate was sealed before day one, regardless of where they finished, had anything to do with how they performed on the field, and whether it affected how they were viewed off it by anyone that was thinking of putting any money into the club.
IMG are copping a lot of flak but this is RL so it was bound to happen. Those voices will get louder if they're unable to demonstrate the benefit they're supposedly bringing to the game as a whole, particularly if clubs outside the top flight wither and die now the P&R drawbridge has been pulled up due to lack of fan interest.
If there is a genuine chance of admittance to SL and not some opaque assessment behind closed doors that is skewed towards preserving the status quo then they have a chance. Having seen how licensing protected SL clubs in the past I remain sceptical. Other fans (see the Fax board) are downright dismissive of the whole thing. That's the danger, clubs with potential fall aside as their fans perceive that there's nothing to aspire to other than being a big fish in a tiny pond and never having the opportunity in the top flight.'"
That’s a good post. Regards London it’s all semantics. If the IMG wasn’t in would hull have fielded half an academy team most of season and would London have been further adrift? Nobody knows but it’s irrelevant as they did finish bottom. Not only bottom but by less that Trinity in 2023 in many areas. I am a touch salty that Trinity got so much grief from SL fans through 2023 despite finally making good on the off field what they’d been criticised for decades before. Then London who were giving away free tickets, no sponsor start season and just mosned most weeks in the press get sympathy votes and support from other fans that they deserve to stay up or be exempt. So much so I hope we stuff some teams next year because I will be petty on the oppositions board
. Kind of went off point so I’ll return back now.
IMG do have to show results but it won’t be in year 1 of the new plan/format. It will be at 3,5,7,10 where we really get to see and review how good it will be for the sport. Fans rubbishing it and attributing every current and past failure to IMG are just resistant to change for the most part imo.
I don’t know if it will work but when you see clubs like York putting screens in, growing crowds and really buying in to it along with even Bulls making improvements too in key areas I think there has been some success in preparing for the future and self improvement of the clubs.
Take trinity for example. Should it still have been P and R, it would have been more likely Ellis would have run with a phenomenal team on the field instead of all the vast improvements towards the criteria such as LEDs, new gantry areas and other improvements like new bars, investment in social media improvements etc. That can only be positive to future proof trinity and same applies to other clubs who buy in.
Yes there is a question over closed shop but if we get more As then the league will expand. I don’t think it will become a closed shop.
However I do think it highlights that the RFL need to promote the championship as its own comp. The lack of media, coverage and investment in it is appalling imho by the RFL.
It needs its own tv deal, own media pages which link in with SL, own marketing.
There are a number of clubs in championship who get crowds around 2k and 3k. That’s mate too far away from the likes of Hudds, Salford and even Trinity. There’s a lot of potential but they need to stop treating it as a second also ran comp and really re market it as its own comp. Trinity signed two England current internationals mid season. I was absolutely appalled this wasn’t reported on the SL socials or any other socials hardly because the championship doesn’t really have them. So lazy by the RFL and frankly short sighted imho.
