Including the Stobart deal the RFL hasn't brought in one penny of Sponsorship for SL naming rights for two years.

Absolutely spot on.

The fact that the RFL are continually changing the goalposts, does i'm sure make it a harder product to sell. Changing from P&R to franchising and then back again in an unknown format would not give any potential sponsors comfort that the product is worth investing in. Additionally the lack of clarity and support for representative fixtures does help either.

Until the sport addresses its short term emphasis and develops long term plans that it will follow to develop the sport it will be difficult to encourage anyone else to invest I the sport

amen.

Hey, I'll have you know that the Foxy Bingo Coin Toss is,

err,

well,

a bit embarrassing actually.

I hope it's making the league a lot of money. Although I suspect they only contribute the 50p piece they use for the event itself.... It was originally planned to do it with a 2p piece, but the commercial gurus at Red Hall drive a pretty hard bargain you know.

Carry on.

What next - Floodlight rugby league on a Wednesday, County Championship mid week also!!

Its the players who are potentially going to suffer more than the fans. Who'll be the first team to suffer a Monday -> Thursday turnaround?

could be potentially turned to a good news story. If handled right.

Personall, if i was the RFL id see if Sky were interested in renegotiating the rights for the next two years now. If the new slot for SL is to be Thursday, that’s fine, get guarantees that it will be on every Thursday and the RFL need to set about owning the lead in to the weekend. If they want Monday night RL during the summer, that’s fine, but don’t move it from the slots we own, sell an extra 12 games.

I get the feeling the good ol' rugby league public are having a traditional moan just for the sake of it here.

Personally I got home from work on Monday and remembered that Saints vs Wigan was on live in the next hour, that was a bloody brilliant treat as a neutral on a glum weekday. For the neutrals and getting people into the game it is brilliant, as lets face it what else is on Tv on a Thursday? Audiences will be on the up and its upto the RFL to capitalise on that.

I planned on going to Wigan vs Leeds and now that it has moved to Thursday I still plan on doing so. What is the difference between 8pm on a Thursday and 8pm on a Friday? So what if I have 2 hours less sleep on the Thursday night and have to go into work a little tired on the Friday, is it really the end of the world?? If you're the home side too then moaning about it is a joke. If you're one that cant possibly make the game, then boohoo watch it on tv and stop acting like a spoilt brat.

The only problem is if a team has a Sunday game then a Thursday game, that isn't very fair but look at the brighter side to it that they'll have a long turn around to recover.

For rounds 22-24, Sky are contractually obliged to give just 18 days notice of changes. For Rounds 25-26, that becomes 11 days and for Round 27 it's midnight following the completion of Round 26.

The clubs affected are consulted and have the right to say no. If you don't like it, I would suggest you direct some of your vitriol at our esteemed Chief Exec for lacking the cojones to take a stand.

Unless you have kids at school the next day.... I don't... just saying.

I tend to agree with the rest of your post!

They'll sleep in the car on the way home


If you're the home side will it really harm them once or twice a season to have a late night. Like I said people are just moaning for the sake of it, sure its not 100% ideal but what is?

If you're one of those sad types who arranges your life around rugby, then you used to only really need to keep Fridays and Sundays free "just in case".

Then it became Fridays and Saturdays, and maybe the odd Sunday if Sky had something else on the Saturday it didn't want to move.

Then it became Fridays, Saturdays and from an indeterminate point in the calendar, some Mondays.

Now it's Fridays, Mondays and the occasional Thursday.

If Sky want to move games, that's fine. They have paid for the right to do so. It would be nice however if they set out at the start of the season that all games were going to be broadcast on Friday and Sunday (for example) to minimise the inconvenience to fans. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who arranged other things around the original date of the Wigan game who now find they have wasted their time in doing so.

Why would GH want to turn down the sky money? Leeds get plenty of sky games, rocking the boat would not be in the best interest of the club imo

Does the championship match not go out on a Thursday evening. this sound like RL gazumping errrm RL

If anyone watched the Championships (either at the ground or on TV) then maybe so.

It's a dying competition, not even bringing back P&R will save it from oblivion.

Watching R.L is a weekend highlight for most supporters.
Not a Monday or Thursday night, when most of us have work the next morning. The Skye hype that this is some kind of bonus insults supporters intelligence!
Lets see some " we want weekend Rugby" banners at televised games and let sky know that we are not that easily duped!

This.

I see a Friday night game as a little reward for working a week, a little self gratification if you will. I don't mind travelling on a Friday night as I've not got work the next day.

Sky switching games to a Thursday night is done with only one objective, to get less folk attending the game and sat in front of their Sky subscriptions instead. The more people subscribing the greater the income stream also the more people watching the more expensive the advertising slots become.

Attendances for RL games are down on a whole and Sky are doing nothing to help this, in fact they are actively encouraging it.

That will do it. Sky will definitely be influenced by people at the ground. Definitely not interested in the ones at home watching on TV.

The numbers that watch the TV is where sky will dictate it's scheduling, and only those numbers.

This is very true. I don't think even the Eddie Hemmings spin is claiming that the "treat" is for people actually at the ground.

Nothing says "I'm not being duped into going to matches on a Thursday" quite like taking your banner.... to a match on a Thursday.



The RFL saying "you're not paying us market rate given our viewing figures, if you're going to d!ck around with our fixture times like this cough up some more cash or we'll get our next TV rights deal from BT" might be more effective. It will be hard for Sky to hear them while they're bent over presenting their bare buttocks though.

This.

when does the TV deal expire? Are BT interested in RL? I'd have thought that anyone with any sense would have been talking to BT with regards to a new deal, so expect to see a new announcement where Sky show our games, we get nothing, but its in anticipation of growing the sports 'brand'

Probably depends what you mean by "interested." TV companies are not really "interested" in any sport. They're interested in viewing figures which boost subscriptions and/or the value of their advertising slots.

What about asking the BBC to have a Tuesday night Cup competition. We could call it "The Floodlit Trophy" and put it on BBC2 perhaps? Maybe we could interest them if we agreed to keep the match to within a 30 minute slot like "Pot Black" where they made the pockets bigger so it could finish in half an hour. We could play touchline to touchline and first to 100 points is the winner.

Jim Davidson as compere, I presume?

Phil Clarke in a garish waistcoat in the John Virgo "Big Break" role.

"Use as many key performance indicators as you can."