I would think sky could be persuaded to up the ante a little in exchange for more matches, but the top turkeys, who don't want to miss out on any cash, may also be persuaded by an increase/change in the salary cap.

The length of the season is the other stumbling block. Unless not eveyone plays everyone home and away, and we stick to 27 matches. 30 rounds + 4 play-offs + 4 challenge cup + 4 internationals = 42 which leaves a 10 week off-season.

Elston said at a fans night just after the takeover that we would be applying to spend 400K if we were relegated which would mean it would be possible to keep a fulltime squad together. 20 players on 20k or 10 on 30k and 10 on 10k plus juniors would be a decent fulltime squad for the championship IMO.

But again, planning for the Championship hardly merits the most amazing announcement in the club's history. Either the RFL have changed their position, or there is some movement with a ground that would satisfy the RFL.

I agree, i was just responding to a post which said that it wouldn't be possible to keep a fulltime squad in the championship.

I'm fairly sure you can only have the extra 100K on the cap for the first year though then it reverts to 300K like the rest of the divsion. Could be wrong though.

With the salary cap rising significantly in australia the RFL is under pressure to give more money to the clubs to allow them to be able to spend more on players so superleague doesn't lose its top stars to the NRL and lessen the quality of our competition. I just can't see the increase in revenue being enough to enable them to do this AND raise the number of teams in the league. And players talk about burn out now, so playing more games isn't the answer unless all teams run bigger squads. Again more costly. Its going to be an interesting couple of months seeing how this all pans out.

It wouldn't shock me if ESPN picked up a few games next season in partnership with Sky, much like their deal on the rah rah. The two companies have a much better relationship than Sky had with Setanta and ESPN will be looking for extra, reasonably priced contracts to balance out the loss of some Premier League football.

As for ITV4, one can only hope they'd want us, but the cost is the key.

Would Sky be willing to pay as much though if they were losing exclusivity, thus meaning any extra income gained from ESPN is lost elsewhere? And would fans be prepared to pay an extra tenner a month to ESPN for an extra game a week? You'd have to doubt they would. I'd love the sport to go down the ITV route but i'm not sure whether they'd want us and if they did would they be able to pay the going rate with their advertising income already down?

Whatever happens I hope the deal done is beneficial to the game as a whole and not just the top clubs.

To be fair, most of what I read suggests that the TV money is likely to be about the same as before - much as I would like that to be true I dont think it is the case.

I know what the announcement is and I am honestly shocked nobody else has figured it out. If you read through this forum at certain threads the answer is there.

For those who can't be bothered, here it is.

Andrew Glover is to announce that NGB4C is take full control of the club with immediate effect, ploughing in his personal fortune, he will also being replacing John Kear as the head coach, as well as taking on the responsibilities of Colin Sanctuary. He will make his first team debut in the home match against Huddersfield, a game which will see the debut of his first signing, a scrum half with an Australian or New Zealand accent.

So there you have it cancel the Cedar Court, the surprise is ruined thank you for your time.

Can't believe the cats out of the bag, I hope ngb4c doesn't read this otherwise he may take that fortune and invest in cas!

We live in hope.

We don't need hope just a fast forward button to this meeting! Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgghhh

Just remind me again what they are Even though we have young adults (I won't say kids) in the sqaud I still think we have a problem with fitness.

We did at Castleford when we went down.