Also, Castleford (IMG Grade A) are now reporting that their new stand will not be built until September 2026 at the earliest.

Not the clubs they've washed their hands of it and chickened out and it's the RFL that agreed (straight away I would add) to advancing them £500,000 of the money. I wonder if that's because the clubs feel that they should have instigated more vigorous and in depth scrutiny of the IMG club submissions this year in any case. But Why are we not surprised eh? I read Cas's news about the earliest they can even start work on their stand with interest and noted the timing of the announcement, you can't help but be sceptical can you.

Have to agree Pete the timing of both Salford coming out asking for an early advance and now Cas with their ground development I would say isn't just coincidental. We lose points due to having another team in the same City and the pixel size of the 2 UEFA approved screens and Cas are given a Grade A then announce not long after their stand won't be going ahead just yet. As you say you can't help but be sceptical and with genuine reason.

The whole game from top to bottom is a mess and the RFL with such a quick decision on handing over the money so easily to Salford you have to question if they have actually done any due diligence in to the financial risks and also any penalties that should be imposed on Salford.
The IMG situation seems to be just another in the long list on money loosing ideas that the game can ill afford and any real value that the grading system had for me has been blown out the water with this latest news.

You have to ask who has been doing the auditing of the clubs...... Stevie Wonder perhaps

I think the recent posts on here regarding the Salford situation do sum up why our game is struggling and it's not just one particular thing. The clubs were concerned about Salford's long term stability and yet the RFL jump straight in and grant them the cash they were seeking. Time will tell whether it's the right or wrong decision but it shows that the clubs and the RFL aren't in alignment. Not just on this but pretty much on everything.

We can all criticise the RFL over their decision making and incompetence through the years but a lot of the time it seems to me that it's the clubs themselves causing issues, that they have too much power over the sport hence all the constant chopping and changing of formats. Case in point, Batley's proposal to reinstate promotion and relegation again after only just changing the format to a grading system. It would not surprise me if it passes and then next year another motion is put forward scraping it that also gets passed.

Whatever people's thoughts are on IMG, it doesn't matter whether it is them or another marketing company or someone like an Eddie Hearn as rumoured a few years back, unless the governing body and the clubs learn to unite under a common goal of betterment of the sport as opposed to what increasingly looks like self interest, we will continue to struggle.

The whole situation smacks of short-termism, the kind of which is rife throughout the sport. The game seems to exist on a day to day, hand to mouth policy.
I suspect the reason why Salford have been bailed out is due to the governing bodies being fearful of the wider consequences for the game if a club were to go under, without an obvious replacement, especially at this late stage in the year.
Whether they have simply kicked the can down the road for a short period only time will tell, but reading between the lines it sounds like this advanced loan will only get Salford over a short-term bump in the road. It doesn't indicate that this is going to solve their underlying longer term issues. Who's to say Salford won't be back in 6/9 months time with the same predicament?

You get the feeling the RFL are afraid we could end up with a 6-8 team competition, hence why Salford and Castleford are being given leeway which would, on the surface, seem to go against the current (IMG) philosophy of long-term sustainability. It's certainly difficult to escape the feeling that some clubs have been keeping aspects of their operation under wraps, away from scrutiny, until such time they feel their place in the structure is safe.
Either way, the news stories surrounding Salford and Castleford once more give an impression of a sport bumbling along, temporarily fixing the holes in the dam, hoping that eventually all will magically fall into place.
It certainly makes our problems with over-large pixel screens seem fairly inconsequential, that's for sure!