Don't know if anybody reads/buys the independent, but in todays issue in the sports editorial at the back, under the headline banner "Rugby league is living a lie", Michael calvin takes a broad swipe at our sport http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/the-last-word-tv-show-sours-fa-cup-dream-of-wembley-8081362.htmlrl

Don't know what's to be argued with.
It all sounds about right to me.

^^^^^^^^ This

Said nothing wrong and the sport in general is not in a great place.

It's a pointless article though isn't it, takes a few pot shots but offers no thoughts on how to improve it.

The thing is Cricket is also subservient to Sky and the Counties are in a similar poor financial state.

I'd also like to see numbers from other sports to see if it's just sport in general that's losing participation numbers.

Most articles like this are pointless it doesn't mean they don't make/raise some relevant points.
The RFL have to take a long look at how they are running the sport and the effect that this has on the games image. If the majority of the RL community sees the governing body as a joke how will outsiders view it?

We are an inept sport, run by inept people.
We are subservient to Sky, the constant changes to event timings to suit Sky are evidence to that.
Our refereeing standards are abysmal, as much as I dislike the Rah Rah game their refs certainly do a far far better job than Ganson and co manage.
Super league has been killing the game since its inception.
Traditional founder clubs with fine histories, the likes of Featherstone, Hunslet, and Swinton are now attracting few spectators.
The Challenge cup was an open competition at one time of the day now, its a given fact that almost without exception one of about 4 or 5 clubs will win it, the empty seats yesterday bears proof of the lack of interest.

I would agree with most if that with the exception of the Sports England funding.

The independent got rid of Dave Hadfield didn't they?

I agree with it.

It's not really a sport is it.

Suprised they did not mention that the governing body who decides who gets a license owns the ground, funds and assists selective teams in trouble.

Would that happen in a proper sport?

Well you guys are all just a ray of sunshine aren't you.

I don't see a problem with Sky having a say in fixtures. Football isn't that different.
Participation in down for s lot of sports.

Ehether we are struggling now or not, the sport that survives the recession is king. People only have so much money and Challenge Cup is feeling the pinch. If the product remains strong then people will come back. No point panicking and changing everything though I'm not keen on the Bradford saga, and I wouldn't have got involve like the Rfl, the admin story is happening in football and Rugby Union to top clubs too.

The game is going to get worse with all the money that the NRL is set to receive from their new TV deal. The best players in SL will leave for the $$$ and we'd be left with 2nd rate Brits.

Could end up like the French and Dutch football teams. Decent at international level, but rubbish domestic league.

Poptarts got it more or less on the nail football have to pander to the sponsors and how many clubs are in the black.Heavens above its only a few years ago that Leeds UTD were the 20th richest club and they had millions of pounds of debt.Some of the Union clubs are in debt and you only have to look at Wakey RU club no longer in the game because they could not make enough money to go on and thats not a life time ago.

Agree, tbh the doom and gloom around RL has gone way over board for me but it's always been this way for some people. Like you say all team sports in this country are in a very similar boat, from cricket to Union to Football, in as far as debt is the name of the game and finding a sugar daddy is most clubs ambition.
Obviously things can be run better and should be but as a sport we love to beat our own product up and then we wonder why we can't attract big sponsors.

The Bulls fiasco has highlighted just how corrupt the RFL are. Pity the Independent hasn't run an in depth piece on that!

My issue is with the critiscism of "the sport". Maybe I'm too broad in my definition but a sport for me is not defined by its governing body.
I'd applaud an article on the ineptitude of Woods et al and the way they badly undersell a fantastic product. I'd also support an article talking of the bulls fiasco and how there's a clear double standard in protecting some teams and not others. But to suggest the sport is decieving the public, or that the actions of the executives taints the whole sport from elite professionals to kids playing on a weekend is ridiculous.
The stobart sponsorship deal was a farce - but thats why its been dumped.
The particpation figures quoted here don't match the figures I've found today which say 100, 000 participants are now registered. He also ignores junior participation and the record number of schools ( 25000 + ) playing the sport as well as figures showing those who play MORE than once a week. Also deceptive, considering that the 2000+ professionals can technically only play once a week if theres only one club fixture a week.
We are subservient to our sky paymasters - so is any other sport on sky. Including football who also formed their own breakaway top flight division when Sky offered them a huge pile of cash. Why the implication that its only us ?
The Bulls plight has been badly managed. But in football, Portsmouth went into high profile administration as did Liverpool before the Fenway takeover. There were no stories claiming that football was "living a lie".
Jamie Peacock's suggestion is slightly OTT for me, especially in a time of recession, but he is a former national captain, understandably would talk up the game and its promotion and I don't feel in this case is trying to 'lie' to the public.
£29 million pounds is wasted ON ANY SPORT when we have failings in the NHS and education. Its no more grotesque than the millions pumped into archery and basketball for the olympics or a single penny thrown at GB footballers, whose sport is already saturated with cash yet still had public investment to inflict their unnecessary appearance at the London games.
As for being prisoners of the M62 corridor, I believe the Catalans are doing well. Allegedly, there's a franchise in London and at amateur level the sport is being played all over the country.

The sport is badly sold and administered by a few suits at the top. But the sport itself, on the pitch, in the community, its ideals, values, heritage, is a fantastic product, especially considering the disadvantages of exposure and media profile its suffers ona purely geographic level. I find it slightly spiteful than considering the Bulls and sponsorship angles could be run at any time in the last month, they choose to run it the day after the succesful, national showcasing of the sports cup final, with the ( in my opinion ) false implication that its a failing sport, that nobody wants to play, or sponsor and which is conning the public out of their money.