Where is it?

As someone who loves watching the darts, I think I know what you think you mean, but in fact, they have done and are doing exactly what most on here seem to be railing against.

Darts has to make any money it does from stuff like broadcasters and sponsors. That is because they have no crowds to speak of. Even in a world championship, at the Lakeside, the capacity is maybe 1,000. Now, bear in mind that is the TOTAL people watching live darts that day. As the games are only in one venue.

The average UK wage is £26,500. There are hardly more than 50 darts players IN THE WORLD earning (gross) appreciably more than that.

This is why darts has tried to go international, and get games in places where frankly there is no darts at all, or not as we know it. Their international circuit is huge, but most of those places it is very much a novelty.

And, for what they are trying to do, it works. If selling a fair few seats to a few hundred bums, and getting some airtime on limited TV is the criterion.

Basically there is the darting international circuit where a fairly tidy income is available to the elite, and then there is ... nothing. Amateur / club darts. I'm struggling to see any sensible comparison for us.

[iNeither would I[/i

Here's how I would restructure if going down the licensing route.

SL1 + SL2, 2x Leagues of 10 with no real cache in being in 1 over 2.

Mix them up a bit so something like

[iSL 1[/i

Catalan
Leeds
Bradford *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Halifax
Warrington
Widnes
Wakefield *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Castleford *mandatory requirement for New Stadia*
Toronto
Vancouver/Any given Canadian Club.

[iSL 2[/i

Wigan
St Helens
Salford
Leigh
Toulouse Olympique
2nd *French* Club
London *insert current name as applicable*
Cardiff
Hull FC
Hull KR

Endon of season - No P&R *not required*

Top 4 from SL1 & SL2 play 2x semi finals & 1 Final *based on League Position in their own Group then ....

SL1 Champions v SL2 Champions for the title of *& for a laugh* let's call it [iGrande Campione[/i

Bottom 6 of both SL1 & SL2 play off for a minor Comp prize.

Top 4 of both SL 1 & SL 2 get a monetary award on a sliding scale based on placings with Grande Campione receiving a further sum for being good eggs.

All monetary awards are 'bound' solely to be spent on Academy & Affiliate Clubs
*for Leigh these would be Leigh Miners & Leigh East*
*for Wigan Ince Rose Bridge etc*

Affiliate Clubs to become feeders to Parent Clubs *just as they do in Oz*.

An arbitrary/nominal/moderate increase to Salary Cap in SL 1 & 2 up to £2m increasing to £2.4m over 5 year period, (£2m year 1 then + £100k p/a over next 4).

Significant increase to Salary Cap for new Championship member Clubs *with conditions* & new expansion Clubs to be blooded via Championship & Championship 1.

Edit.

Room for Cumbrian RL Club & Featherstone or Batley + Sheffield + 1 A.N.Other RL Club to join at later date following restructuring & development at a later juncture if sustainable.

[iLet's see who's heads explode !!![/i

The only exposure Darts had was the yearly BDO world championship. Now they get very healthy crowds on a weekly basis for premier league Darts. It takes the SS1 primetime slot on a Thursday while RL gets SS3 or 4 so they must be doing something right.

I see a lot to compare between the sports. Only their elite players get press and tv coverage just like our elite players. However their elite players get prime time TV slots on a weekly basis and a generally good coverage in the press. Our elite players get a couple of games a week on whichever channel Sky can be bothered to put it on and virtually no press outside the M62 corridor.

It is through their marketing that Phil the Power Taylor and MVG are names known outside their sport. Until recently, one of the best players of the SL era (Kevin Sinfield) wasn't hardly known to anyone outside RL

er so its pretty clear you are talking about the BDO which is an utter mess when it comes to making money.

bit strange that you basically ignored the PDC. anyone would think the PDC doesnt exist from reading this post.

you and I both know that the PDC is doing remarkably well, huge crowds, lots of sponsors, multiple TV contracts and players getting paid great money.

premier league crowds are off the charts.

This is Virtual Terrace you know, it's no place for facts.

Ftr Last time Leigh were in Supper Dooper League they averaged 4637 and Halifax averaged 2977, the year before 4152.

This is priceless....coming from a Wakefield Wildcats fan. Reckon you brought about 200 fans (max) to the play off game at Leigh last season.....you must be so proud !
What do Wakefield bring to Sooper League, that Leigh couldn't ?? Answers on a postcard please......

(sorry Wildthing, but he asked for it)

You clearly cant count (or choose not to).

Trinity just about filled the stand behind the post's, with more fans in the main stand.
I know that Leigh brought a great following to the cup game at Belle Vue and I think you had a good day out.
So, why do you choose to post something that is just not right, maybe you wish to over egg Leigh's support



I've nothing against Leigh and you are going great in the Championship but, looking at the bigger picture, IF the game was to grow
and become either a major national sport or a full blown English/French/Canadian league of say, 12 clubs, neither Wakefield or Leigh
would be in the top flight.

As for what Trinity bring to SL, nothing whatsoever, they are just a team of easybeats, just ask last seasons top 8 clubs, Leeds, Huddersfield, Warrington and of course Wigan.
All of them walked straight over the top of Trinity, NOT.

The club has had many struggles during it's unbroken SL participation but, without a sugar daddy, we are slowly growing again and just like many other clubs, we hope to remain as a competitive top flight club and one day, perhaps challenge for silverware, much like Leigh.

Darts is a game not a sport.

And if it wasn't for beer and the carnival/chav atmosphere most of those people wouldnt give a cr ap about some fat blokes throwing some darts. Does anyone really want that type of marketing in Rugby?! Most RL fans can't even put up with a drum in the crowd!

Keep me out of it

Wakefield [uTRINITY [/uWildcats fan.

Sorry pal...I know I drifted 'well off topic' and ended up 'biting' like a very hungry fish !

Why would a franchise with no fan base gather any revenue never mind more revenue than the current set up.

Put up a team in Saudi lots of money out there.
I'd give it 12 months before it collapses.
We've done the franchise and it does not work for UK fans.

You have superseded by quite a long way the most ridiculous post I gave ever read. Sport is about the fans, not popularity and gaining worldwide sponsorship and kudos. To save yourself time your thread should just have read:
Bibble

You think?

Yes, without its customer a business ceases to exist. I don't give a flying toss as to whether our sport is global, universal or just played in my back garden. I go to watch my team with my heart. The ideologists can continue to preach their rhetoric. I am the reason Rugby League exists...

Of course it need's fans but, without cash, there is no sport for the fans to watch, apart from pub teams and lower level amateur games.

Ultimately there is a balance to find, between having enough income for the sport to attract enough quality to make people want to pay and watch.
RL does struggle to attract enough fans through the turnstiles and whilst most on this forum would say that it's the best sport in the world, clearly, not enough people think so or, we would already have a strong global sport.

Our game is derided in the media and it's time that we improved the image of the sport to the outside world and got some positive media exposure.

The only time we make the headlines is when a player has done something stupid.

No too long ago there was some hysteria about media city being in Manchester and people said this would make a change but, the reality is, it's done nothing whatsoever.

Calder won't happen.
London failed epicly the first time round.
You've included Catalan, Tolouse, Toronto & Montreal - But no Cumbrian sides.

Maybe - instead of messing about changing the structures year after year - We should stick with something longer than 3 years and let it develop. Have some patience with it - Something the RFL seem to lack.

Increase the Salary Cap in the Championship to the same as the Super League and we may well see the new structure working.
How they can expect to get a competetive league structure with such a difference in the Salary Cap is truley mind boggling

says it all really.

London is improving in the Championship (now 2nd). A second investor could give them the boost they need to become a successful Super League club.

No Cumbrian sides because they have neither sufficient population/fan base, nor a geographical centre, nor sufficient financial backing to succeed in Super League. Newbies Toronto and Montreal and Toulouse possess all of these vital factors. Moreover Toulouse just thumped Barrow Raiders at Barrow to show that they are a more serious candidate for Super League than the feeble Cumbrians.

Oh come on, it's been years. TWO years. That's ages.

What a ridiculous post.

YOU are not the reason RL exists at all.
Without players, there is no rugby league. They are the most important, not some self-centred know-it-all who preaches from the stands.

Going to watch your team with your heart doesn't get players on a pitch. It doesn't get the best players in your pitch. It doesn't get most out of the players on your pitch.

People want the sport to grow so that their team can achieve more than winning a small competition in front of a few people. It's why the Champions League is so big, and that it exists alongside the Premier League. And why that exists instead of the Yorkshire League.

Professional sport is about achieving the most possible. The most possible isn't just what's I'm front of you today, it's what could be in front of you tomorrow. Some people are worried the team they support won't be able to achieve that and hope tomorrow never comes.

So the players ain't supporters themselves and are willing to play in front of nobody?
Self centred know it all? That statement says a lot more about you than it does me...

Jean, you are so funny at times, you really are.....good man !