Do IMG have a plan. Supposed to be great sports administrators and have currently delivered a TV deal worth less than the last one with a broadcaster they wanted to ditch, nebulous at best criteria to judge clubs by and mass confusion over how next season will pan out. Great job they’ve done so far. Value for money

I wonder if Fax will extend the early bird offer again this week. I haven't renewed mine and know another geezer who's not doing so either. Not proud of it, but I strongly disagree with the price hike, and in the past season ticket holders have been shafted with discounts for certain matches (eg bring a friend for a tenner) which doesn't inspire one to fork out for a season ticket.

We also need more clarity about what's happening with the club. Are the stadium purchase rumours true, what central funding are clubs getting, is the club skint, what are the ambitions.

Slightly off topic, but for me season tickets don't fit with the flexibility people want these days. I haven't bought a season ticket in a few years, purely because I know there will be dates I cannot make. Am sure many feel the same.

New models need looking at. I'd quite happily pay 10 quid a month for a membership that brings half price tickets and a few fring benefits. Would probably work out better return for the club over 12 months, but realise there are cash flow issues with this and it'd take a brave decision to go against the grain. People want value, more than ever, and season tickets don't offer this (within the usual price brackets).

Just posted in another thread expecting the early bird offer to get extended. I don't normally buy a season ticket anyway as I feel the club does need some cash flow and I would normally attend every game but that has not been the case this season and I attended the least amount of games in probably over 30 years. I will be picking and choosing again next season for the reasons mentioned above in that I simply do not see it as value for money.

Looks like I'll become a "picker and chooser" myself and be one of the "missing hundreds" at the less attractive games.

As Jaffro points out, the club needs to explore different ways to entice support - the monthly membership, for example, is a good idea. Maybe also categorising matches - Bradford and Wakey being Category A, Whitehaven and (dare I say it!) Swinton being category C, pricing the admission accordingly.

I'm loathe to criticising the BOD because I recognise it's a blumming tough job and they're giving up their time to run the club. But I was very surprised they chose to increase the South Stand from £19 to £22 and East Stand from £22 to £25 and have set such a short early bird deadline. They'll obviously point to rising costs, but surely they must see in this cost of living period where folk are being careful there'd be a more than equivalent short fall in attendance? I'm guessing our average attendance last season was approx 1,800 (I stand to be corrected) and now we'll be looking at 1,600.

I've had a season ticket for years and haven't renewed this time. I just can't get my head round the club voting for the IMG rubbish which in reality condemns us to years of playing friendlies.

Apparently the provisional gradings for each club will be released some time next week.

I see Newcastle Thunder have pulled out from League 1 next season. So hardly any teams left, following from London Skolars departure. Wouldn't be surprised if there was a re-structure to include the Championship because of the lack of numbers in League 1. What a mess.

Or...Does IMG have a plan? The answer is probably yes, and the plan is to jettison all clubs below SL and to hell with anyone and anything that doesn't suit their 'reimagination' of the game. It's a sad time for Rugby League in this country.

How long will rugby league flog the expansion horse , the only ones who are pro expansion are the fans of the clubs who it doesn’t effect.

Ever since the re-branding to "Super League" there's always been an "us and them" with the lower tier. Hopefully one day sanity will prevail and Rugby League will regain its soul embracing all clubs.

But in the meantime IMG will no doubt make it up as they go along to please the "elite".

There won't be an elite if the tiers below it are allowed to wither. Sports depend on people participating, whether as players, staff, volunteers or fans. All those elite players started at grass roots somewhere, they didn't suddenly appear in a SL first team out of thin air.

L1 withering away is following a trend in the community game. Once the SL promotion drawbridge goes up we'll no doubt see interest in the Championship go the same way. Eventually there'll be nobody interested in RL outside of a few SL teams.

IMG and the London Conundrum! https://t.co/iq0i8oZqyJ

IMG and the London Conundrum! https://t.co/iq0i8oZqyJ

Good article

So according to Gledhill the clubs have been told today where they all are in the pecking order and with the list to be put in the public domain tomorrow. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet I wonder what effect that will have on those with little to no chance of ever making any progress?

So according to Gledhill the clubs have been told today where they all are in the pecking order and with the list to be put in the public domain tomorrow. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet I wonder what effect that will have on those with little to no chance of ever making any progress?

Quote ="faxcar"So according to Gledhill the clubs have been told today where they all are in the pecking order and with the list to be put in the public domain tomorrow. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet I wonder what effect that will have on those with little to no chance of ever making any progress?'" You mean like Fax? We will be looking at a low B/high C ranking with a number of clubs in front of us for the 12th position. Our chances of making SL under this new system is pretty much slim to none and I would advise anyone to have a look at the criteria and have a good read and try and figure out how Fax can possibly bridge the gap to the teams above us. A greater worry for the club at the moment should be that season tickets have now been on sale for a good number of weeks but it looks like the RFL are trying to push through a merger between League 1 and the Championship which could lead to an increase in games which would have ramifications not only on match day income but also would mean re-working of player contracts. I really hope the RFL do not go down that route but taking the vote away from the clubs suggests that is what is going to happen.

Quote ="faxcar"So according to Gledhill the clubs have been told today where they all are in the pecking order and with the list to be put in the public domain tomorrow. https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... gr%5Etweet I wonder what effect that will have on those with little to no chance of ever making any progress?'" You mean like Fax? We will be looking at a low B/high C ranking with a number of clubs in front of us for the 12th position. Our chances of making SL under this new system is pretty much slim to none and I would advise anyone to have a look at the criteria and have a good read and try and figure out how Fax can possibly bridge the gap to the teams above us. A greater worry for the club at the moment should be that season tickets have now been on sale for a good number of weeks but it looks like the RFL are trying to push through a merger between League 1 and the Championship which could lead to an increase in games which would have ramifications not only on match day income but also would mean re-working of player contracts. I really hope the RFL do not go down that route but taking the vote away from the clubs suggests that is what is going to happen.

Fax votedfor it!

Obviously Fax are involved and there will be a number of clubs behind us as well but I meant the overall picture for all the clubs and how some would respond, specifically if some more would throw the towel in but from what I'm hearing Fax won't be one of those that do.

As for the rest as you know I try not to speculate in what could happen and even less point in worrying about it from my side it's out of my control.

https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... 16/photo/1

https://twitter.com/TheGameCaller/statu ... 16/photo/1

Rated lower than Barrow, Did Micky Mouse compile the gradings?

Lower than Newcastle and they don’t exist. One of the pullers is Stadiums. Bradfords is a hole and in the process of having their free gold sold off by the RFL. Why Barrow are above us. What are Toulouse above Leigh? It all seems very strange.

Let the fall outs begin. Our grading is no surprise to anyone who took time to fully read the criteria and the things that could not be worked our revolved around FanDom and finances. We already had a decent idea of the FanDom score which was reported in the press so that must be accurate musn't it? That just leaves the finances so hopefully the board come out and let people know how we scored in each catogary.

7 Grade A's is a bit of a surprise as a lot of people thought there may be 4 or 5. The drop off to the B grades although just over a point is in reality huge. Wakey above Cas by so much is a surprise and Cas will not have a lot of wiggle room to improve their gradings so look like they are in real trouble. Fev been so far off a SL spot is also quite a big surprise and really not a chance they can make up nearly 2 points so it will be interesting to see what they do from here. I thought York may have done slightly better and Bradford are a touch closer than I expected but they score very well on location and have manipulated their attendances this season which they won't get away with next year so they could see a bit of a drop off. Also anyone who talked about London been somewhere near to keeping a SL place after this season is going to feel a bit silly at this point and probably should have took more time to fully understand the criteria.

Edit: Added Fev statement.
[urlhttps://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/board-statement-img-grading-0G46k/[/url
Fev statement pretty much pointing a direct finger at Bradford regarding attendances. I wouldn't normally agree with Fev but its been an open joke in the RL community that Bradford's attendances are less than half of what the declared figure has been for most of the season.

Fully agree.

So from the more studious amongst us after carefully reading the criteria that’s it then.

1 no surprise against 3 surprises and a may have.

Cas grading is a slight mistake on a technicality and that puts them above Wakefield and in to 11th spot meaning at this moment it would be Leigh who would miss out. This has the potential to be the funniest thing I have seen in all my time watching RL. It makes it easier as it does not involve us but I can't wait for the drama off the field over the next year or so.

Yep room for a couple to change places and until July it’s just a provisional.
Even though it’s been well publicised bigger picture the game has never seen anything like this before, add that to the Champ 1 issues how each club responds is unfathomable and was what I was referring to as being of some interest.

As will closer to home what Fax have to say.