I could be wrong, but my understanding of the ‘pause’ for Sky Sports, is on the proviso that there isn’t any live sport. Once a live sport, that SS programmed before the COVID crisis comes back, then the pause is unpaused.

If RL plays it right we may take advantage of that. Whether it’ll last is a different matter altogether. Then throw in the ethicalness etc....

And if they do take advantage wouldn’t sky just walk away from RL next season?

This “plan”has more than a few holes in it,one being the infrastructure to televise games to an acceptable level,yes I know the DW do a good job on match days but we all like our comforts that sky brings.

How would it work if they are to count these games against your season ticket? Not everyone has sky nor in Wigan’s case Wigan tv.

And where is this mythical pay preview audience suddenly going to appear from? Harrison the agent is clearly the driving force behind this but I don’t see many taking up the clarion call either I rather suspect,and I could be wrong in this that those well known pay per view masters called sky have looked at most sports and wondered if it was worth it,that sky has no RL games on PPV shows there’s no audience,plus I do feel given the downturn that’s about to hit us it’s a bit much expecting fans to dip into their pockets when most are going to feel a huge pinch when things go back to some normality?

And the last,that I can think of blocking points is sky itself they have channel after channel to fill not all sports will return at once so why would they let the rights ease unless they’d decided to ditch RL after next season?

Any move like this I feel would provoke sky to walk away and there isn’t anyone to take over from them is there as money will be tight for everyone going forward .

Reports on the plans for reopening of the country first phase including schools could happen in May. Sports may be back July

The second “amber” phase, beginning in late May or early June, would see more shops and businesses reopen, all employees urged to return to work and some small social gatherings permitted. Pubs and restaurants and larger events such as sport and concerts would not be phased in until July or later in the summer.

If there were events allowed would they mean reduced capacity? What would cause bigger problems for clubs no fans or deciding on who will be allowed to watch live. Many have said that they would not ask for refunds if the season was cancelled. However if some fans are allowed into games how would season ticket holders that are not included react?

I understand your reservations and you make fair points too. Ones which I’m not going to try and come back at to be honest.

I saw that and I just can’t see it being accurate, at least the timeframe anyway. How can the Govt set out a time frame for resuming anything whilst deaths are still knocking around 1k a day?

And what about season ticket holders who have paid for their tickets,you can't play behind closed doors as you have already paid unless we will get refunded after the lockdown finishes,it seems to me that the paying public aren't being considered on this one

No club can ignore its season ticket holders, they are large proportion of the home gate.
If we have to pay for each game televised then if it is done via Wigan tv the club could make financial arrangements season ticket holders.

Do you get a Wigan TV subscription with your season ticket? If not, then couldn't the club just include it within your season ticket so you don't have to pay extra to screen games?

ok, what I mean is sky pay for the RL rights on the basis that everyones subscription is paid for, now that it is paused its sky that are losing out, when the pause finishes sky wont have a lot more money coming in as in fact they will have less than they would have had. The only was they can have more is if 1000's more sign up to sky sports after the pause which I very very much doubt.

Have to agree with you.

Simple suggestion Wigan RL contact all season ticket holders with a login to Wigan TV for home games away games would be pay to view .Could be this a way to save RL as the SKY deal is nearly up and if this happens would SKY in the future take this into consideration .I would pay for away games as if you take the cost of travel into consideration just depends on how much they ask. If this saves RL so be it .

That's my thinking also

I’m a season ticket holder and also subscribe to Wigan TV so it wouldn’t work for me. I would pay to watch away games though, this does seem like a good idea.

so season tickets are 100's of pounds and the wigan tv pass is 5 pound a month so 40 pound till december and you want them to pay for away games? they would have to refund the rest of the season ticket money

I am a season ticket holder also subscribe to Wigan TV ,maybe the club could freeze our subscription to Wigan TV .
Just a thought the suggestion was for SKY pay for view if your a SKY subscriber it should be free to air as you already have paid. [size=150IF[/size they do decide to play every game behind close doors then rather than pay for view would it not be better subscribing to SKY for the duration then cancelling.

Cant see that happening on Wigan TV would SKY agree to allow games on Wigan TV? SKY have the sole right to televised games. It does not boil to money the future of the game as it stands is in jeopardy.

I agree was replying to the person who said give free wigan tv instead

Premier league football considering free to air with games being played behind closed doors when restrictions lifted .

Out on my daily run past the stadium and robin park I saw Hastings going into robin park arena. Doesn’t he live in Salford? Could be a sign that players are back in training and have an idea when games will resume. Or I could be reading too much into it... just seems strange for him to be there during lock down.

Edit: he has also posted this on social media so it’s no secret.

So am I but I paid for Wigan TV for the season up front (you save a few quid doing so) so any freeze on subscriptions would mean a refund or that simply would not be fair.

Not sure how Wigan TV would work anyway. I would hazard a guess it's not been designed to have the capacity to have circa 10k viewers on at the same time.

Also what about other clubs? Have they all got similar "TV" set ups?

He is allowed to go to work technically and I imagine the club will be testing players fitness levels as best they can.

As Robin Park Arena is now the HQ of the club, it does not mean that players are going there for training!

I think players are going there to train in pairs/small groups.

Back to the title of the thread, I hope there are no clubs who are still holding out hopes that crowds will be allowed into stadiums in 2020. It wont happen. As dreadful as it is to contemplate, that's the reality we face. Sticking heads in the sand isn't going to help. We need to focus on retaining any income streams we can (mainly broadcasting fees) and thinking creatively about other potential sources of income whilst drastically cutting costs.

I do feel the game could be looking at a spell of semi professional status.

Would the sport, for the time being at least benefit from going semi pro?

Don't want to start any argument but given money is going to be so tight when the world starts to spin again would the sport be better for a spell as semi pro rather than bumping along with the backside hanging out of its trousers?

Wigan Athletic have been given a date of October 1st apparently regards fans being let back in to grounds and that is the earliest and most optimistic scenario according to the report I read. I see no reason why any other sports would be different and if it is the case, it looks like we’ll watch the vast majority and maybe all of this season on the box. It’s going to be strange to do that and even more so when the games will be in empty grounds (and maybe not even in our own rugby league grounds).

It’ll be a huge challenge for the players as well to get themselves up for games. There’s every possibility big games, semis and the two finals could be played with no crowds. Something just feels wrong about that but if it needs to happen so be it.