totally agree, more and more clubs in a real mess, Salford, wakey, Bulls, Dobbins to name but a few. Can only see it getting worse tbh. The game in this country is run by idiots, the Stobart deal being a recent case in point. If Sky ever did pull the plug in this country the game would be finished as a proffesional sport.

the future is dark, now their game is swimming in money our youngsters can get as much playing in their country leagues as they would earn with a full time esl contract, plus they can work. combine that with the lifestyle and whos gonna stay ? Ainscough iv read is the next to fly down under How can we expect to keep our talent then factor in worthless contracts as they are unenforcable. Not wanting to doom and gloom but i cant see anything good

I think our game will be all but dead within 10 years, the BBC are more than happy to treat it as an inferior minority sport and paying peanuts for the CC rights, along with poor promotion and presentation, all ther time they have the likes of Ray French being the main commentator plays to their game plan.
Sky see their growth in audience figures sliding and is reflected in the money they pay to us, falling gates less revenue for clubs will be the death knell for our game.
The RFL must stop this expansion fiasco and concentrate solely on what it is...a northern game, for 30 odd years we have supported a Southern/London team that gives no benefit to our game, money down the drain.
Get investors and sponsorship from the north and grow from within.......again.
Unless all of the above changes we are heading for disaster.

I think our game will be all but dead within 10 years, the BBC are more than happy to treat it as an inferior minority sport and paying peanuts for the CC rights, along with poor promotion and presentation, all ther time they have the likes of Ray French being the main commentator plays to their game plan.
Sky see their growth in audience figures sliding and is reflected in the money they pay to us, falling gates less revenue for clubs will be the death knell for our game.
The RFL must stop this expansion fiasco and concentrate solely on what it is...a northern game, for 30 odd years we have supported a Southern/London team that gives no benefit to our game, money down the drain.
Get investors and sponsorship from the north and grow from within.......again.
Unless all of the above changes we are heading for disaster.

I take it that was written with your tonge firmly in your cheak? (I hope anyway)

Ray French has been removed as lead commentaor (now Dave Woods), last season saw record viewing figures for sky, the last sky deal was for the largest amount ever and they got the least for it (no internationals, pay extra for wcc etc), London support themselves (well David Hughes) and Catalans have been one of the real success stories in the last 10 years.

London is not self supportive, how can it be on gates of less than 2k and no fixed abode. Catalans are the cream of a French league that has been around for years. The Sky money is barely keeping clubs bouyant and is grabbed with both hands by clubs asap to make ends meet. Record Sky viewers means less at the gates = less income.

I think it will have a positive effect.

The england team will get better with the best players playing in the NRL, younger players will get a better chance to develop and our best players may at least stay in league instead of move to union.

Short term the standard of SL will drop, but for us that's a good thing because I think we can keep most of our current squad and long term we are changing our youth structure.

Also if more UK players are based in aus SKY might decide to get NRL coverage back, which for me would be excellent.

I can't see how another TV channel in another country, paying more for RL, can be laid at the RFL's door.

There is no way the RFL can triple the fee SKY pay.

One of the major problems is a lack of competition in the media, there is really no-one to challenge SKY sports in the British media. SKY cornered the sporting market by paying way over the odds for football and other sports, this lead to SKY making losses for years and years. But it changed peoples behaviour, at first people moaned about it being on SKY, then they would go to the pub to watch it or tape it off someone elses SKY, now some 20 years down the line, enough people have grown up to accept that pay TV is part of life and if you want it you pay for it. So 8 million households have SKY. SKY are a very clever company and they understand how to sell a product.

If there was any other possible media outlet offering more than SKY do we really think the RFL would refuse to take it.

We all like to give the RFL a kicking, but lets assume the salary cap disappears, would Hull or any other club still be able to match £4m long term. You may get a benefactor doing it for 2 or 3 seasons, but after that once the debts had built up, clubs would not just be in difficulties they would be gone.

In the end the market decides the price you get paid and the market for RL in the UK does not equal the market in OZ.

We need to grow our supporter base, which is the clubs responsibility and our TV base, which is the clubs, the RFL and SKY's responsibility.

We will definitely be watching an inferior product, never mind top aussie stars even their journeymen will no longer need to ply their trade over here.

More of our top players will go too.

On a positive every club will have to invest in youth - I think we'll be watching largely local teams again within 2 - 3 years. Biggest danger is if SKY reduce their contract. UK games showed in Aus - currently they have some appeal in watching their old players in UK. SL may no longer appeal down under if they haven't heard of any of the players.

We are fortunate that we have AP at the helm, at least we now have things in place to develop our youth. We should also be well positioned to bid on players returning to the UK (as with G Ellis) and no doubt despite the sunshine & the lifestyle there will always be the odd one who gets homesick.

As has been said we are never going to get a TV deal that gets close to the money that the NRL can command, although hopefully next time round BT / Al Jezeera might help push it up a bit.

Was everybody moaning when British RL were signing Australias and union talent?

What goes around.

Instead of promoting and training our youth we've found stop gap players and now were paying for it.

Neither us or Hkr will have uk players first choice at 6 or 7, intact were pinning our next hopes on a 15/16 year old.

I don't think it'll be completely a mass exodus of English talent to oz. Remember reading the thoughts of an nrl chairman. His take was most clubs would carry bigger squads than they do now so they can use their best players more sparingly, e.g. not feeling need for origin players to back up, his example was gallen and how with bigger cap and bigger squad he may only play 20 games a yr be fresh for playoffs and international's and how they could pay their elite players more, keep union afl etc away. Some English talent will get poached but don't imagine oz clubs will spend fortunes on English players and neglect their own talent pool. That said only losing a few will hurt our competition. Hock Briscoe and only a couple more would leave a big hole

Agreed. (apart from the bit about Hull benefitting obviously).

I'm amazed that the RFL only try to sell two of our games a round to Sky. I really do think its time they made a big push to increase the amount of games on the TV. I don't buy into the whole philosophy that empty stands are creating a negative impact, because it certainly hasn't to people like me and you.

If the RFL had more ambition about them, they would have over 50% of the weekly rounds on TV, with at least one game on terrestrial TV. Easier said then done but without the "extra" financial gain from TV revenue, it is going to make it difficult for this country's elite to become real forces in the Rugby League world.

Extending the cap can't be an option right now as the clubs would have to make up the difference and they aren't strong enough for that. In an ideal world the RFL would strike a deal or deals which means every SL team can spend upto the full cap without administration just around the corner.

Better the NRL than RU - 20 or so of our best in the NRL and the England/GB team will be much stronger, which would hopefully feed back into interest in the domestic game. With the Aussies paying the wages of our elite players, our second tier players will be on better money and we'll probably attract and retain a few more. The standard of SL will drop a bit, but personally I watch for entertainment/excitement as much as quality. If it got really bad we could go to 12 teams, but better challenges for our best and more opportunities for the rest - it isn't best case, but we can adapt and make the best of it. We have to.