Latest IMG proposals for Super League

[Wb1234]

Did you see the gradings and what London got? If someone wants to spend ten years and pump in millions to get London up the level of HKR, great they'll be in.

London have had David Hughes for over a decade doing this

if the grading were done five years ago hull kr get a c

London is a no brainer

 

[Perth Red]

London have had David Hughes for over a decade doing this

if the grading were done five years ago hull kr get a c

London is a no brainer

not even close, as can be seen by the grading. Its taken them this long juts to find a decent home.
yeh but they werent and thats the point. HKR are being held up to all other lower clubs as a shining example of how you can take yourself from a lower B to an A grade.
London if they build a SL worthy club is a no brainer. They arent close to that yet.

 

[Wb1234]

L

not even close, as can be seen by the grading. Its taken them this long juts to find a decent home.
yeh but they werent and thats the point. HKR are being held up to all other lower clubs as a shining example of how you can take yourself from a lower B to an A grade.
London if they build a SL worthy club is a no brainer. They arent close to that yet.

under the old system hull kr would’ve been penalised by geography and London would’ve got a big advantage

even at Ealing I would’ve given them a super league spot

your game doesn’t need any more lower level clubs like fev fax or wakey back in super league

 

[Perth Red]

L

under the old system hull kr would’ve been penalised by geography and London would’ve got a big advantage

even at Ealing I would’ve given them a super league spot

your game doesn’t need any more lower level clubs like fev fax or wakey back in super league

Under the new system London wins more points for location than HKR lol

You seem to be missing the point of the whole restructure, to have clubs that are SL viable and capable of growing the game at the top level. London, ranked 24th, clearly arent close to being either yet. They know what they have to do if they want to get there. Its in their hands. The idea we should just put them in when they arent viable is stupid.
London has, and has had, great potential. It just needs someone to invest enough to achieve that potential.

 

[yakstorm]

Going back to the conversations around a French broadcasting deal, two of the biggest push backs the likes of beIN Sport & Co have had around paying a significant amount for SL rights are getting addressed by 2025.

The first was around coverage. It's very hard for a broadcaster to build an audience and commercialise a product when you can't ensure week on week coverage. The fact that every game will be recorded for broadcast now, means it is possible for a French broadcaster to show the Catalans consistently. They also can just buy a feed of the game (and add their own commentary & supers over the top) which should mean any future deals are cash based versus contra.

The second was concerns over relegation. SL is worth very little without Catalans to a French market and with no guarantee that there would be French representation year on year, meant deals were negotiated annually. Licensing or Grading addresses that concern and may even result in two French clubs in the competition.

One plus in having IMG involved now is selling broadcast rights is their bread & butter. If there is a French TV provider who will pay now that those feedback items have been addressed, they're likely to have the relationship already to sell that. Same if Carcassonne's inclusion would provide some sort of tipping point, they're best placed to find out from broadcasters in France before accepting them.

One would hope that considering the likes of beIN are willing to pay for the NRL (and also pay for local commentators to translate it) which is played in pretty average timeslots & contains zero French players, that something like SL would be perceived as significantly more valuable.

 

[Wb1234]

Going back to the conversations around a French broadcasting deal, two of the biggest push backs the likes of beIN Sport & Co have had around paying a significant amount for SL rights are getting addressed by 2025.

The first was around coverage. It's very hard for a broadcaster to build an audience and commercialise a product when you can't ensure week on week coverage. The fact that every game will be recorded for broadcast now, means it is possible for a French broadcaster to show the Catalans consistently. They also can just buy a feed of the game (and add their own commentary & supers over the top) which should mean any future deals are cash based versus contra.

The second was concerns over relegation. SL is worth very little without Catalans to a French market and with no guarantee that there would be French representation year on year, meant deals were negotiated annually. Licensing or Grading addresses that concern and may even result in two French clubs in the competition.

One plus in having IMG involved now is selling broadcast rights is their bread & butter. If there is a French TV provider who will pay now that those feedback items have been addressed, they're likely to have the relationship already to sell that. Same if Carcassonne's inclusion would provide some sort of tipping point, they're best placed to find out from broadcasters in France before accepting them.

One would hope that considering the likes of beIN are willing to pay for the NRL (and also pay for local commentators to translate it) which is played in pretty average timeslots & contains zero French players, that something like SL would be perceived as significantly more valuable.

Need toulose in super league

 

[Perth Red]

Other rugby league clubs tried to change IMG grades as Castleford Tigers release statement in response​

CALLUM WALKER 08/12/2023
OTHER rugby league clubs tried to change their IMG grades as well as Castleford Tigers after the deadline, the RFL has revealed.
The Tigers, last night, were informed that their indicative grading score for 2024 would not be reconsidered with their appeal failing.
The club requested an exemption to resubmit their Data Capture Form, having discovered after their initial submission that it had not contained the correct data.

Though the RFL revealed that they recognised that the resubmission would give Castleford an inflated score, the RFL Board decided not to increase the Tigers’ ranking because “it would be unfair to other clubs – several of whom have also sought unsuccessfully to have data submitted after the deadline considered – to make changes after the indicative gradings have been published.”
The Tigers themselves responded last night with a statement that reads: “As a club we are disappointed that the RFL will not change the gradings, however we are pleased to hear that they have agreed that our score would increase to 12.91. This gives us a great base to work from to push our score as high as we can in readiness for the 2025 gradings.”
There was, however, brilliant news for the West Yorkshire club last night with the revelation that real estate magnate Martin Jepson has become a new shareholder after being investing a seven-figure sum immediately.

Other rugby league clubs tried to change IMG grades as Castleford Tigers release statement in response

OTHER rugby league clubs tried to change their IMG grades as well as Castleford Tigers after the deadline, the RFL has revealed. The Tigers, last night, were informed that their indicative grading …

www.totalrl.com

 

[Perth Red]

Wonder if HKR are having a dig at anyone here? lol


Super League attendances could be kept a secret next year as clubs consider keeping their crowd figures private. Attendances have become a regular topic of discussion within rugby league and clubs are thought to be pondering a move to keep them out of the public domain.

It follows Hull KR's decision to make that move during the 2023 season. While the Robins did periodically outline their average attendances during the season, they didn't publish figures on a match-tomatch basis. The club has confirmed that they will continue that trend next year and are aware that others are contemplating taking a similar stance.

Taken from the minutes of the club's most recent Supporter Council meeting, the club's Chief Operating Officer, Craig Franklin, said: "Match attendance figures were traditionally a barometer of a club’s health and everyone took a great interest in this. Now there are a lot of other measures, corporate income, retail, broadcast revenue that show the true health of our club. Hence, why we moved to a more in depth club wide, but less frequent, update.


"There needs to be some independently and auditable way to publish attendances, the figures are part of the IMG score so it’s important it’s a level playing field. We could put through an additional 1,000 free tickets each game and then publish that figure, which would boost our IMG points but it would not be a true figure.

"So we decided to take a bit of a principled stand at the start of the season until it’s a more robust metric. We believe the metric should be a number which can’t be manipulated like ticket revenue, £ yield per ticket sold or similar. Let’s encourage clubs to grow attendances with paying fans, not devalue the sport with price gimmicks and free giveaways.

"We hope other Clubs follow our lead in not publishing attendance figures, a number of clubs have indicated they’ll follow our lead."

Chief Executive, Paul Lakin, added that the sport has become obsessed with attendances, to the point that it is taking the focus away from the action on the field.


"There is an unhealthy fixation in the sport on how many are attending our games rather than what is happening on the pitch. As a club we wanted to put the focus back on the players and their superhuman athleticism and not on attendance figures. Every Monday there’s article after article in the press micro-analysing attendances and nothing about the players, it’s bizarre."

Super League attendances could be kept secret as clubs consider Hull KR's stance

The Robins did not disclose their attendances at all during the 2023 season.

www.hulldailymail.co.uk

 

[RL The greatest game]

London coach confident they can overcome IMG setback.

London Broncos boss adamant they can over come 'really poor' IMG body blow

MIKE Eccles is adamant London can overcome the grading body blow that saw them fall into a ‘really poor’ hole. And he is eager to dispel a couple of myths. Having part-time players in h…

www.thesun.co.uk

 

[RL The greatest game]

Broncos owner isn't happy

David Hughes: London Broncos owner flags up IMG grading concerns

With London Broncos seemingly set for relegation before Super League starts, owner David Hughes raises concerns with IMG's grading criteria.

www.bbc.com

 

[Perth Red]

Clubs have know the scoring criteria for a couple of years. Lets be honest London were not expected to be In SL and got in on a fluke of the old system cross over period. If they want to be a SL club long term they know what they have to do, same as all clubs. Its clear at this time they arent SL ready.

I do agree re the Academy and player production oversight in the grading though, plain dumb not to include it and somewhat political I suspect.

 

[Perth Red]

Hearing on the grapevine this weeks RFL club meeting has proposed a 3 division 12 team in each structure with promotion between L1 and Championship.

Some rumour that they haven't discounted going to 14 SL clubs with Toulouse invited and Dragons and Toulouse not getting any central funding but being supported to sell SL tv rights in France and keep the money they generate from it. That would lead to a 14 team SL with no extra costs in grants.

 

[Perth Red]

I could see Wakey, Bradford and Toulouse in. London out (for now).

 

[Wb1234]

Hearing on the grapevine this weeks RFL club meeting has proposed a 3 division 12 team in each structure with promotion between L1 and Championship.

Some rumour that they haven't discounted going to 14 SL clubs with Toulouse invited and Dragons and Toulouse not getting any central funding but being supported to sell SL tv rights in France and keep the money they generate from it. That would lead to a 14 team SL with no extra costs in grants.

Ah yes expansion done the English way

and when the French tv rights become a bonanza the super league clubs will just want a share of that too the grubs

 

[Perth Red]

Ah yes expansion done the English way

and when the French tv rights become a bonanza the super league clubs will just want a share of that too the grubs

Imagine if NRL had done same and Warriors had got all the SkyNZ money for last 20 years, Rl in NZ would be in a very different place Id suggest!

 

[Wb1234]

Imagine if NRL had done same and Warriors had got all the SkyNZ money for last 20 years, Rl in NZ would be in a very different place Id suggest!

Imagine if the nrl gives Perth no tv grant

 

[Perth Red]

Imagine if the nrl gives Perth no tv grant

Imagine if you had a clue what you were talking about

 

[Wb1234]

Imagine if you had a clue what you were talking about

You didn’t watch the Vegas games then commentated about them so

 

[Perth Red]

You didn’t watch the Vegas games then commentated about them so

I didnt comment on the games, as I havent watched them yet. But again you derail a thread. Well done.

 

[Wb1234]

I didnt comment on the games, as I havent watched them yet. But again you derail a thread. Well done.

Toulose not getting a cut of the tv money is typical super league thinking setting up expansion clubs to fail

and if by chance they do get a good tv deal super league will change the rules and want their cut

just like making Catalans pay for away teams travel and accomodation costs

super league is the only league in the world that makes it harder for expansion clubs than anybody else