Ian Lenighan has just been interviewed on radio Manchester claiming he has at least a 10-2 majority for his masterplan of one up one down with no middle 8's,and is blaming Leeds together with a West Yorkshire mafia for stirring up a media backlash against this blueprint (I assume this to mean Fax, Fev.etc.). His rationale for this is that the current structure means SUperleague clubs cannot plan a full fixture list for the season, and means that a third of superleague are in danger of being relegated. Furthermore, he believes fans want to see soperleague games throughout the season rather than some having to play championship sides at the end of the season. This conveniently ignores the fact that some of the middle 8?games have provided some of the most exciting games of the last 3 seasons.

he's a money grabbing selfish bstard who's only interested in his club and doesn't give a toss about lower league clubs.perhaps if his own club made a profit occasionally he may be happier

Whatever he thinks is irrellevant whilst the current legally binding agreement exsists. An agreement he & the majority of SL agreed.

This is the most galling thing of all. Lenagan spouting off about other clubs when his own club, which probably has the best brand in a market which is very pro-RL loses money hand over fist, seems to have a terrible off-field culture and has trouble keeping hold of fans, players and sponsors. It's a case study in poor management but you can see why he wants to get his hands on that Championship money.

The problem is clubs do not know their fixtures for the S8's (three or four home games) so they can't start selling hospitality until they do which is a commercial disaster and fans can't plan holidays given when they are so gates drop and the rationale for having a season ticket is less so another revenue hit . The middle 8 might generate interest for championship teams but the crowds for the S8's are rubbish and the revenue is nothing like it would be if the fixture list was nailed down at the start of the season. S8's mean you can also end up playing the same team I think it's five times in the season if you play your magic weekend opponent and get them in the cup. Stupid. I think the relegation issue is red herring and unless a SL side is decimated by injury it's only going to be the bottom side who has an issue. That said if a SL side is decimated by injury and gets relegated as a result that proves nothing and IMO you can bet your house on the promoted side going right back down again.

Talking of red herrings, this is going to be exactly the same under Lenagan's plan.

Is that the lower league clubs who are fielding 14 and 15 men in games, at a time when they’re getting a bigger slice of the games income then clubs at that level have ever been given?! Is it any wonder he along with at least 9 other club owners/chairmen are unhappy.

The game in this country isn’t big enough to spread it’s income around a whole mass of clubs. If the new plans push a few clubs with park field facilities and sub 1,000 average attendances in to the amateur ranks then so be it. It’s time for clubs with ambition to be rewarded and for the game to make some tough calls before we’re all watching a semi pro sport at the top level.

I'm with Nicky on this. The points made about fixture list uncertainty etc are completely valid, however much you might like them not to be.

If the sport starts letting Championship clubs make decisions on the best way forward at the top end, the only outcome will be a semi pro sport down the track. Again, like it or not but not all clubs, even within SL, are equal. Whilst quite a few fans seemingly found the demise of the Bulls funny, its been a huge commercial negative for the sport as a whole. What we need is to find ways to grow the revenues to the sport at the top end.

Like most people I'm open to a change in the structure (although Hetherington is very wed to the current one, a replacement which still included P&R would be fine). But the money side is pathetic. The money given to Championship clubs is a drop in the ocean for SL clubs. People like Lenagan shouldn't be trying to grab a bit of that back, they should actually try and grow their own clubs and their own revenues. Wigan are the most egregious example of a loss-making club with declining attendances and falling revenues that the bile coming from their chairman lecturing the RFL and other clubs about how to run the game properly is embarrassing.

The fact that is all you seemingly took from my post is a bit bizarre but given I am not sure he's proposed how many fixtures there will be without the S8's I am not sure what you are saying anyway.

He's not suggested removing the funding from Championship clubs. He is saying the current structure (S8's) is detrimental to SL clubs revenues. Other chairmen agree with him and so do I. I am no Lenagan apologist by the way and am regularly slagged off for questioning his approach on various issues and I don't think moving away from the S8's is going to magically change Wigan's financial fortunes on it's own. It is a step in the right direction though and not just for Wigan.

Agreed. You're trying to sell corporate boxes and with almost no notice you might change from playing Wigan and Sts home to Featherstone and Batley. Even if you're guaranteed a place in the Super 8s you won't know your fixtures until the final games are played, affecting how many home games you have, and who they are against.

Who has appointed Leneghan as the 'leader of the pack'?. Why are the clubs allowing one individual to dictate the future of the sport. A chairman that has seen his club go backwards during his ownership tenure. Just seems odd.
The RFL needs step up and appoint a CEO and start giving the sport some direction top to bottom.

Do you really think IL has taken Wigan backwards . The first team has been going through a rough spell in the last 18 months for varrious reasons but overall the club is in better shape than most .

Wigan run a full range of age grade teams thru to under 19's . Field a reserve team (which most dont and should be mandatory IMO). Wigan have had several u19 and reserve games cancelled recently because other clubs cant raise a team that is a sad situation. Sevelal Superleague teams recently have had to loan in championship players just to make up their first team squad.

Wigans academy structure is second to none in the UK and the envy of most if not all

Run 2 womens teams

About to spend £5m on a training facility adjacent to the DW which if i am correct will involve and include comunity access.

Wigan loose money some years and make a profit others (Rogues is the man to confirm / rubish this) but all in all we are in a reasonably healthy state compared to most.

As NK says below Wigan also do a massive amount of unheralded work in several communities (not just Wigan Bourgh). Not being a native i know about some but only a small proportion of what actually goes on.
That mostly is down to the stability IL gives the club

Regards EW

Backwards? You on about Wigan?!

We were in a mess when Lenagan purchased the club, with a lob sided playing group where some were paid fortunes and others peanuts, we had loads of overseas has beens, hardly any youth development, the crowds were about on a par with their current levels (but in his time we’ve averaged a couple of thousand more at times) and we hadn’t won anything for 6 or 7 seasons and hadn’t won a Grand Final for nearly ten years.

Since then we’ve built a club based on home grown talent, seen lads like Sam Tomkins, Williams, Farrell, Charnley, Gildart etc come through the system and as we’ve lost players replaced them from within, all whilst still challenging for honours. We’ve won 3 Grand Finals, appeared in two more, won 3 leaders shields, won two challenge cups, appeared in one other final and won a World Club Challenge. We make some losses but who doesn’t in this current climate (that he’s trying to change) and much of those losses have been due to investment in training and education facilities around the borough that the clubs involved in.

Not bad for a club gone backwards under its owner.

he's going to lose travelling Leeds fans next year on our form !

Lost them last night . But fair play that was more down to Football and playing a top Superleague fixture on a Thursday night (mental)

Not having a dig at Leeds fans

Regards EW

Wow, I read your board regularly and always agree with your posts and find your posts thought out and very knowledgeable. BUT I have to disagree totally here. The reason teams have fielded less have been because of mainly visa issues going to Canada. Clubs can't afford to sign a heap of players just in case they don't pass visa applications. The majority of clubs in the lower levels have fantastic history within the game and people seem keen to just let them just disappear without a trace. Do Lenegan and his cronies think these fans that part with their money putting it into the game are suddenly going to just start supporting another team and spend their hard earned elsewhere? No it will just alienate more rugby league fans into oblivion never to be seen again. As a Bradford fan seeingthe effort championship and league one clubs put into trying to make ends meet is highly commendable. The championship and League one have never been stronger than they are at present and greedy SL chairmen (most of them) are happy to see them all struggle further. Disgusting attitude for mine! Especially considering the money sky give all clubs covers the standard cap. If clubs want to spend over that by having marquee players thats their own prerogative and should be backed by the people allowing them to spend over, not come at a cost to other clubs. I don't like Hetherington but totally agree with his stance here, the middle 8s give championship clubs something meaningful to aim for. All that will happen with one up one down is a return of a lot of meaningless games between clubs that are too good to go down but not good enough to test the top of tree

Yes, kept chanting, but some dead rubber round ball game kept the odd one and a few even ones away. The M62 roadworks again did not help either !

This is the big point. Its lazy of Lenegan and his gang to actually use their business acumen and marketing power to attract more sponsorship etc, in their eyes its just easier to take a bigger piece of the sky money pie. Actually chase the money or put people in charge of the game who are actually good enough to do a job not just milk the game for their own agendas

Exactly, too many meaningless games, brings lower crowds, one-sides scores. The current split keeps things alive and to the wire (no pun/not Warrington) as Leeds are currently finding out !

There's a good argument over whether the money that goes from central funding to the Championship and League 1 clubs delivers a 'return on investment'. It seems that the the cash simply helps these clubs to tread water (at best), doesn't help them to grow and therefore doesn't deliver a return. That's not a good use of what little central funding we have.

It's not as if such funding, for example, is helping to develop elite talent - the last players from the "hotbed" of Cumbria to play for England were Rob Purdham and Ade Gardner. Nor is that going into developing facilities, being invested in modern marketing techniques, or on community development. Essentially, we're using that funding to keep administrators at bay, rather than develop the sport.

In that context, it's probably worth listening to the idea that such funding is better off in the hands of the clubs that (in theory) are most capable of investing it for the greatest return (the top clubs are the biggest developers of elite talent, they generate the most interest, etc). That doesn't mean that I think the lower league clubs should be cut-off, but I think it's fair and right that the people who are generating this funding should expect some degree of return from the people they are giving it to that benefits the sport as a whole.

Where I think Lenaghan is wrong is this idea that, simply by changing the structure, he can deliver this new age of prosperity with bigger sponsorship and TV deals, because IL's track record on this is hardly stellar. A former client of mine was the main shirt sponsor of Wigan for two years, and they couldn't believe how cheap that arrangement was. Wigan's crowds aren't showing growth, they still have occasional disputes with their landlords and there is a sense of arrogance about the whole operation that doesn't sit well (for example, the cancellation of the Widnes fixture, and the statements using the RFL as a lightning rod for their own failure to get on amicably with their landlord).

But above all, I don't believe IL can deliver on his vision simply because the sport, even under his proposed structure, still has the same fundamental problem that currently prevents it from achieving high value TV and sponsorship deals - it's audience. The sport doesn't reach people who advertisers either want to reach, and the people who advertisers find difficult to reach. I can create an advertisement and reach the demographics that this sport reaches for less than £50-per-thousand - 10,000 people in Wigan would cost me about £500, so why would I bother paying Lenaghan and his posse hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to do the same?

Interesting points. On the advertising point there's a major difference between reaching a demographic and having the desired effect. I could go to a Leeds game and shout "Wigan are the best club - support Wigan" and I would have reached a target demographic but had zero effect. Associate your brand with WRLFC in Wigan and the positive association is what you're paying for.

I think you're right on the other points and, whilst I can see and sympathise with the worries expressed by some other posters, I'm constantly reminded of the definition of insanity being to repeat the same things over and over but expect a different result. We simply can't continue in the way we are as a sport. It's failing on every count. Doing something may not provide the answer. Doing nothing definitely won't.

You're right in that there are other reasons why an advertiser may align themselves with sporting organisations but again, this is where I think the sport's propostion is wrong.

It's something of a simplification of the issue, but you can't act surprised when this sport attracts online bookies, payday loan firms and Big Soup as sponsors when it is most popular in towns where the High Streets are full of bookies, pawnbrokers and fast food outlets. These sponsors don't bring a lot of money into the sport - they don't need to, because their audiences are cheap to reach and generally don't spend much as individuals. This is why those who shout "focus on the heartlands" in response to any suggestion of expansion tend to miss the issue - the "heartlands" of this sport hold no interest for the people who we need to ultimately fund it - the broadcasters and the blue-chips.

That is the audience that we are currently selling access to. With the exception of Leeds, the sport doesn't cut through with urban city audiences that advertisers find most difficult to reach, it doesn't cut through with audiences in affluent areas and it doesn't have a national or international profile. These are all things that other sports, who do get good TV and sponsorship deals, do achieve.

And whilst these factors all influence the sponsors we can attract and how valuable our TV rights are, nothing that Lenaghan and his pals have come up with addresses any of that.

Whilst agreeing with the vast majority of that I have to point out the last sentence.
At what point has anyone said that this is the only idea or intention they have?

My two Penneth it's that for the last 10/12 years the game has been allowed to slump into a malaise based on the lowest common denominator. Level playing field instead of excellence.
Why bother marketing and bringing in Moyer money when the game wants the clubs to only spend what the lowest clubs can afford.
I used an argument a few years ago that potentially one day a Leeds could find themselves relegated after one bad year with injuries or a bit of bad luck yet be sat with millions in the bank.
Why shouldn't they be allowed to go and use the money they have earned through their own good business plans etc to reinvest in the players when they need to?

An analogy I've used is like 20 home owners all deciding they won't make the 5 or 6 houses on the street who don't want to keep their houses tidy and clean or reinvest in New driveways, Windows or cut their lawns look bad so all getting together and deciding none will do it in the street.
10 years down the line everyone lives in a poop hole and then all being shocked and dismayed that the value of their houses has gone down and no-one wants to buy it or live their.

Well maybe one our two of the home owners have had enough?