Quite,but he/she will still ignore your facts.

Let me put it this way, their posts are good vehicles for demonstrating to others on here their nonsensical soundbites lack substance, and the actual truth is something else more substantial and realistic. Let's face it some of the rubbish they spout has actually appeared in the RL Press. Both Editors of the Monday RL Rags predict North America is the future and so do Jean and Steph.

OH hang on

Your quite right Cokey, they (stephie and jeannie)will deliberately refuse to recognise, and ignore his facts, while at the same time fail to offer anything credible by way of an alternative.

Sorry to have to inform you of this, but your logic is as bad as your spelling and grammar.

Why is that mon ami/comrade, did my post get lost in translation?, or are you just being slightly over zealous in your position as the self appointed chief of the rlfans grammar police.

You'd be surprised at how nasty and insulting the troll can be once it's been shown up for what it is, eh Jean

Jean Douche craves attention but brings nothing to the table that warrants it sadly he will derive some weird satisfaction on each and every response to his ill informed comments, even this one, no doubt he will be sitting at his keyboard in his 'lemon' stained underwear and salivating at another reaction to him. My first and last response to the waste of space Jean Douche the only way to get rid of him is to ignore deny him the satisfaction of the response he craves.

Hey Rick. Come clean young newbie. Do you support Wakefield, Salford or Leigh?

Ignoring his nonsense only works for the posts that are not quoted. If you rise to his very obvious bait then please stop quoting him.

Yes indeed, you are correct - I will not quote him let alone reply to him as it appears if you make any reply at all, even a series of of insults, it somehow satisfies him or her?

Self moderation ruling the day? Good stuff

Back on track and under self moderation Gents?? Nigel Wood let them in without asking Superleague if that was OK. Wood had a new job lined up at the RLIF so he was never going to be the one to say "no" which would have ruined his "Internationalist" credentials. Superleague stood by and said nothing at all, probably thinking it would never be a problem for them. However the removal of salary cap restrictions below Superleague allowed TWP to buy their way to the top.

What the RFL/Wood did with the ridiculous league system and the raising of the cap was to stuff Leigh and their owner in favour of a fantasy. However please let's not shoot Nigel as he looks to be making amends by supporting Bradford's revival. In a couple of years we may have Bradford, Widnes and Leigh pushing for SL places under the new deal with the ridiculous American dream episode behind us.

I wonder if Jean used Tripadvisor, before he flew to Kiev ?

Crucial for the future of the game this deal, but sadly cant see anyone but SKY being interested and that of course means a lower price and I think we need at least a few games with another broadcaster to spark some different interest.

Have said for years that teams should be banned from playing while a TV game is on to maximise viewing figures.

Do HullKR really need to face Wakefield on a Friday night at the same time as the Saints-Salford grand final rematch in round1 for example? Other weeks its even worse with 4 or 5 games going on while the TV game is on.

No, I don’t need Trip Advisor before flying to Kiev. I already know the lay of the land there. Trip Advisor is for Newbies, not for me. But if I had gone to Kharkiv to observe Ukrainian rugby league, I probably would have consulted Trip Advisor.

Union showing how its done again, 75k in Twickenham, live on Channel5 at prime time. And seems a decent game for once, a 30-30 draw.

Sky aren't stupid, and they know that they basically keep SL running as a full-time professional sport. They'll have done their sums and know what they need to pay to keep it that way. If they reduce funding, then they run the risk of further diluting the quality in SL. The alternative is that they don't bother to bid at all for a new deal, which would pretty much see a return to a semi-pro game across the board. I'd expect that one of the conditions they insist on in any new deal is that other games can't take place at the same time as a televised game. I'd also hope that they'll include one Championship game every week.

My daughter was there (again). She first went 7 years ago when her employer bought 100 tickets at a fiver a pop....... Her friends had such a fun time the following year they booked a restaurant for a prematch gathering, which becamme an anual event and this year 22 of them shared a box at TW2 Towers with a meal and drinks at £100 a pop. She has no interest in union AFAIK, but attends trailfinders a few times a year when he beloved chelsea are away............the trick was that she was on an email list that first time and quins immediately contacted her for feedback..... She was given 2-4-1 deals for any game at the stoop that year, an invite to the clubs open day the following season and when she booked for 15 people the next year she got a free quins bobble hat.......
.... Compare that with the RFL and the marketing of the challenge cup final.......... And im ashamed to say that even as a casual broncos fan, she gets no incetivised offers from trailfinders..... They just take her £25 and expect her to come back.... She spends more on 1 game at the bridge than a ST for london, but the club, like the RFL dont have a clue.

An excellent, pragmatic well thought out post. I only differ on your idea that "SKY don't bother to bid". Why an English Sports channlel would not renew the contract thus losing customers and disenfranchising a game British people do love and admire I can't think? It's their bread an butter to pickup sports like RL and it's worked for them for 24 years.

In 2006 Richard Lewis wasn't happy and thought we could be more than what we are and thus attract new audiences and expand the game to attract new broadcasters. This led to Les Catalans, Toulouse, Toronto Wolfpack and now New York, Ottawa, Timbuktoo etc. We've had 14 years of this stuff and nonsense so I would hope that with the new SKY TV deal we can just get back to basics and fortify the game back into what it's successfully been for 124 years - a Northern Rugby Union with a better set of rules that creates an alternative rugby in the sporting TV calendar.

The last deal is something we can't fairly expect again, as I don't feel we delivered that value anyway, but even a 25% reduced deal should secure us enough to carry on giving to the great British sporting public. That means giving them good old Northern Rugby league with the odd London appearance, a "basics" we must really now get back to concentrating on.

Pretty much my thoughts on it I think that the biggest negotiation it to get no exclusivity give sky a select bunch of games then auction off other packages to amazon bt bbc etc. I think that must be what the pe firms would be brought into do as that's the only real place for them yo make money on adding to any possible deal.

Disagree that they are teaching us a lesson, disagree with Axey as well. If we had as big a game as Union and were as strong in the capital as union I may agree if we didn't get the same deal, or attract the same number of fans, but we are not as big nor do we have anywhere near as much interest in the capital.

Judge us on how much we get for how little we are, not how much a much bigger game gets.

Can't argue much with that.

If you look at the 2 sports from 1996, then you will see how far behind they have left us. They had no tv deal to speak of and their shop window was 4 weeks in spring for the 5 nations. We had a new deal. With sky and FTA covwrage of the challenge cup..... The likes of saracens struggled to get 5k to a rented stadium as did wasps..... They culled london scottish and richmond, 2 big clubs at the time and traditional powerhoses like. Coventry and bedford were ignored..... If you mention castleford ground sharing with wakey you get stonewalled..... Wasps now own a nice ground and sarries get 60k to. Wembley...... As for london,..... Sarries and quins are 2 of 12......the rest are scattered south west, midlands and north.... As for help????? They are as reliant on wealthy owners and tv deals as we are.... But they polish their turd far better than us, so yeah.... We have a lot to learn from them.

Again I don't really agree with respect. I don't believe the best marketeers in Rugby league (and OK there may not be many) are missing a trick that Rugby Union are playing that would work just as good for us. I had a long conversation with a poster who strongly believed we were and he claimed marketing credentials but in the end he could not specifically tell me what actual tricks we are missing.

I think we did a great job creating the magic weekend and the Grand final, and I think that of course inevitably impacted on Wembley, but created an overall net increase in numbers and profit yet people berate the game for the demise of the Wembley cup final and wonder why people no longer travel a 400 mile round trip to see one match mainly featuring the same few clubs who win it in a now second rate competition that mainly throws up mismatches. Again that leads to threads about how useless we are for not selling Wembley out, but I would not go now even if I had free tickets and free air travel from Robin Hood Airport, but I go to Magic and Old Trafford.

I know Union is a bit of a mirror to league North/south and both games are reliant on rich owners but beyond that Union are by far far the bigger, richer, more played and watched game with heavy grass roots all over the UK, It would really take a true qualified and experienced marketing person to explain whether size for size against union we are somehow missing a trick or two? I don't think we are because I as a fan know myself what attracts me to the game and what doesn't.

Sounds great. Here's to another 100 years of a tiny sport played in the North. Fantastic.

I'm a realist honed over half a century of avidly following the game. In those times we have made many attempts to make it a bigger sport and spread it out of the North. Beyond the fluff and nonsense of the "expansion" to France and the "American dream" lies a steady decline in people wanting to organise and play the game at it's roots. What keeps the game alive is it's traditions and it's heartlands support and goodwill. What can I say if you don't like the reality of the situation? It's just how it is - and we have to make the best of it unless you have a "growth" plan?

Let me hear it my friend, hopefully it will be "Fantastic"?