If Wood can,t explain where this Stobart deal is potentially worth £2.5 million..................then I'm hoping he's gone by the weekend.

It will probably take about 5 years to get some proper global sponsors, aggressive marketing, media presence and credibility back in our sport. So whoever comes in has a massive repair job to do.

London have gone bust/into admin in the licensing period have they?

Do you think any of these clubs would have avoided this in P&R?

Don't avoid the questions.

How do you know that licensing hasn't saved other clubs from potential administration? I aren't sure what you're trying to get across here, and to be honest I don't think you do either.

Do we know how much the Elonex, Heinz and engage deals are worth yet?

Oh, and when you say media presence and credibility "back", I assume you can tell us of this amazing time where we had great presence and sponsors etc before the Lewis era?

1) When Lewis joined the RFL as executive chairman it was something like £2m in debt after a disastrous World Cup. In 2011, the RFL distributed £30m income throughout the game, mainly to clubs. His time in office has clearly been a disaster.



2) As I pointed out on Twitter when the Bradford issue broke and everybody seized upon it as clear and irrefutable evidence supporting the particular bee in their bonnet - too many clubs, salary cap holding clubs back, 'franchising' etc - SL licensing gives clubs the space to practice good management, it's not a substitute for it.

Stones Bitter. Raight global that wor!

So a few hours or (30 mins - rumour) is enough to look through the offer details from Betfair, especially as not all clubs attended the meeting and had already sent in their decision

The point I was responding to was that the Stobart deal was the only one [ion the table[/i. It clearly wasn't. I have no idea of the exact timing but I certainly recall the Betfair deal being rumoured widely before the meeting. Regardless of how much or little time was available, 5 clubs obviously had enough time and information to make a decision and vote for it.

Anyway ding dong the clown as gone which old clown the tennis clown

Can't wait for the blood letting to start because you don't jump ship unless you know you are doooooomed



Perhaps he can get tennis players painted on the side of wagons for renaming wimbledon the stobart franchise tennis league or better still lets have a magic tennis day and move it around the parks of this land,I will give it 12 months and he will says tescos have sold 250% more tennis rackets under his reign which really maens 6 more rackets

Sometimes I think that, against all the odds, the sport is making progress. A quick look at threads like this and I'm instantly reminded of what the sport is up against and how much work is left to be done. From too many backward, pillock parents to too many backward, pillock amateur coaches & players to too many backward, pillock fans to too many backward, pillock club owners/boards. Far too many people involved in the sport don't deserve the fantastic sport that RL is.

bravo!!

Re Lewis, nobody should need any more info than tb's first post on the previous page.

The issue now is getting somebody very good to replace him.

Oy lad! T'alifax won that cup back in t'nineteen eighty six. That were when Cas played in that there cowshed of a stadium.



Wi' sharnt want rid o' all 'istory lad eh?

Jumped ship did he?
Wimbledon gets more pun=blicity in 2 weeks than RL has received in 100 years......that's not ship jumping....it's a step up!

That's a pretty fair statement, and not just for SL clubs.

Can't say as I'm completely won over by franchising but I can accept that there are some plus points.

The fear non super league clubs like mine have is that if the SL clubs did all they could to improve then at some point there would be no room for a promoted team; the three year promotion door might close, then the lower divisions cut adrift.

There are still clubs spending far more that they are able for the right to feed at the top table and franchising does not seem to have changed that.

There will always be room for good clubs. We don’t even have 14 clubs of the requisite level right now. If we had a club outside SL which was of the requisite level, or even very close to being there they would get in.

If there had been a club in any position to move up they would have done last year, Wakefield were pretty much gone (despite what some Wakefield fans will tell you Blake Solly said, I think the phrase Richard Lewis described it as was ‘Poetic Licence’) If there had been a good club there was space for them.

And even if we had 14 clubs of the requisite standard, those 14 clubs wouldn’t be averse to having 15/16/18/20/30 clubs of the requisite standard in the league with them. If Leeds, Wigan, Hull, St’s, Wire, etc were in the championship right now, don’t you think room would be found for them?

The issue is there are some fans of clubs who would admit themselves that it would take some luck, a kind wind an a few years of SL for them to even reach the levels clubs like Wakefield are at now, the will always struggle to get in SL.

Without someone with the strength of character of Richard Lewis at the helm, I reckon the current non-Superleague clubs would have more to fear of being on the outside of a closed shop. He has faced down Superleague club chairmen on more than one occasion because he could see the bigger picture. Left to their own devices, club chairmen will invariably make decisions that benefit their own clubs before the game as a whole.

Unless the RFL find an equally strong-willed chairman, I predict a schism that would make the 1973 BARLA split look like a playgound fall-out

My thoughts entirely. I fear a person who is already involved in the game will get the job and set the game back to what it was in the 70s and 80s to appease the flatcappers, and from there the game will die in the UK.

But for P and R Huddersfield wouldnt be in the strong position they are in now, top of SL. I rest my case.
Im glad to see the back of Lewis, just hope he take Nigel with him, Im sure they can find some use for him at Wimbledon.

The thing is, Huddersfield would be in SL without P+R, they wouldnt without Ken Davy’s investment but they would without P+R.

Had Hudds been in the championship when franchising was introduced they would have got a franchise anyway.

How on earth can you make such a complete bollox statement like that, without providing any justification and then simply "rest your case"?



Why are the majority of the anti-Lewis brigade from either Leigh or Halifax?

That's also a pretty fair statement. I can't think of one SL club chairman (or any other club chairman) who I would trust with the future of the game.

I don't know enough about Lewis to to say good or bad, but RL seemed to be heading down the pan before he arrived.

It would be nice to get a strong willed individual with contacts (but not George Galloway

)

Is that the same Lewis that sanctioned a release of funds to get Leigh out of a hole a few months ago. How soon you forget!

In the eyes of a fair minded, strong willed man at the top there would be room, but not in the eyes of most SL chairmen.



I think the "14" would be too unhappy about sharing the sky money for this to happen.



Probably true unless they had a very wealthy backer (like some in SL are relying on now). But this is the very argument many lower league clubs put forward - the three year period allows the gap to become too great. I have some sympathy with the two division SL that some propose, but can see that it won't happen without more funding.

I am a Fax fan and I would much rather Lewis was staying and was more involved with the game. The next person needs to wrestle back the power from the clubs for SL to allow the RFL to make independent decisions for the future of the flagship competition.

I do dread to think what will happen if Woods and Rimmer are put in charge.

so your saying thats finishing bottom year on year wasn't having an affect on Hudds then.