Super League offers bribe to save Wigan

[Fairleigh Good!]

League bribe from Sporting Life

Super League has announced a £100,000 bribe designed to safeguard Wigan's place in Super League.

Trust me when I say that this issue will not come up should Wakefield or Castleford finish as the lowest placed English club. But should Wigan finish bottom, this £100,000 bribe and a free place in 2009 will be offered instead to keep Wigan up.

It's a joke if you ask me. They should either scrap promotion and relegation and start 2008/9 with just the franchises they want, or let the divisions sort themselves naturally through promotion and relegation.

 

[The Wood]

OK, if this is the case then I personally hope Widnes win promotion, because there is surly no reason why they should be excluded.

I think the reason they have introduced this is because teams who do not want to be considered for promotion can have something to play for.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

OK, if this is the case then I personally hope Widnes win promotion, because there is surly no reason why they should be excluded.

I think the reason they have introduced this is because teams who do not want to be considered for promotion can have something to play for.

No club would turn Super League down. They would move up for the Sky money alone, run a semi-pro operation and go back down with a nice bank balance.

 

[whatsdoing1982]

Coming from the best unoin or league comp in the world (the NRL), I think no promotion or relegation is great. It gives great security and also builds the game. It will also make your challenge cup more exciting for the national league sides wanting to beat the super league sides.

 

[bartman]

Surely though there are some clubs that might be in contention for promotion that would not meet current Superleague criteria. What do they currently get for winning the NL1 grand final? A big fat nothing if they don't take or aren't accepted for promotion. And judging from the Leigh experience it's not like Sky flocked to cover their games...

I'm thinking here about clubs like Doncaster whose facilities aren't yet ready? At least this would give those teams something to play for in the grand final, and some cash in the bank for not taking on a Leigh-like abortive top flite season. Even if it does seem to favour Wigan at this point in play, if we take that changeable factor out of it, it seems to me a good idea in the context of how they're trying to eventually develop the game.

 

[nadera78]

Jesus RL likes a conspiracy, doesn't it?

Bartman is right, there are clubs who would take the money, Whitehaven for starters. They have been knocking around the NL1 grand final for a couple of years without making the jump, if they won promotion their stadium isn't up to the criteria, this money would give them the chance to rectify things and mean they could have a real crack at it the following year.

btw, there is no way Wigan will be bottom come October, Wakey or Harlequins for mine.

 

[waywooway]

The fact that the instigator of this thread just happens to be a skints fan obviously has nothing to do with it's content.

David Fairleigh retired, I suggest you follow his example.

 

[terracesider]

Have they printed the story a day early by mistake?

It's getting nearer the time when the National League clubs will have to seriously consider going their own way and taking the amateur game with them.

 

[waywooway]

Have they printed the story a day early by mistake?

It's getting nearer the time when the National League clubs will have to seriously consider going their own way and taking the amateur game with them.

What part of the amateur game? even that is fragmented. The future is with those aligned with SL, despite certain lobby's would like to believe.

 

[terracesider]

WWW, the mainstream amatuer game is still totally a winter sport: the regional leagues with the National Conference at the apex. The National Leagues are half and half. For NL clubs, summer rugby was not an unqualified success and financial pressures led to them moving the start of the season back to winter with a cup competition running through to early spring. They may well go the full way to align with the Conference if ESL entry is closed off.

I agree with FG that it's joke. In fact, it's way past that. It's a disgraceful scandal that yet again the sport's governing body seems incapable of making such an important decision one way or the other.

 

[nadera78]

Sorry, but you are way out of date. The NL clubs did move their season back to a December start but that was years ago. And after a year they reversed the decision and now start at roughly the same time as Super League. The morons that run those clubs would like to blame all of their woes on the top flight and the RFL,but the reality is that most of them just aren't up to running even a boys club nevermind semi-pro clubs.

These clubs bang on about breaking away, well then fine do it. They reckon they can get tv deals and big sponsors The fact is, etc. Well, they tried giving the tv rights away fro free and no-one wanted it! Not one tv company wanted it! no-one!

The truth is, no-one in their right mind would get involved in a bunch of uddites like that. They play in stadia not fight to called such, in front of small crowds, have no money and still try to claim to be professional clubs. Well being pro means more than giving players a bit of cash at the end of the week. The NL1&2 clubs (with the exception of York and maybe Widnes) have brought all of their problems on themselves. the NL3 clubs however, show a bit of oomph. Eventually some of them will overtake the old clubs.

 

[terracesider]

The National Rail Cup is not an out of season competition and it's mostly played in winter to give the clubs much needed revenue.

The RFL has never given a damn about the lower leagues and it disappoints me to see so many fans of ESL clubs taking such a dismissive attitude towards them.

 

[nadera78]

No, the Northern Rail Cup started in mid-Frebruary. Winter runs from November onwards. If it was a witer comp it would start before christmas.

It's ridiculous to complain about the RFL's attitude to the NL clubs. Under the first superleague tv deal with Sky a certain % of the money went to the NL clubs even though they weren't shown on tv. The clubs themselves wanted out of the deal and took a pay off from the RFL. They thought they could get a tv deal on their own. No takers.

Despite all the fine words from the clubs they have done nothing (most of them) to further the game in the last 30 years. Their problems are all of their own making.

 

[terracesider]

Ok then, February and most of March ain't in winter and November, most of December ain't in autumn and "mostly" in fact means entirely all of it.

True, some idiotic mistakes were made in the past but NL clubs have largely got their act together now. The key point remains that if ESL is blocked off, it's more likely the NL leagues might realign their seasons with the amateur game.

 

[nadera78]

One minute you are saying the NL clubs play most of their season in winter, the next its partly in winter, then a few weeks of winter footie. Mke your mind up.

And I'd love to see your definition of "getting their act together" re the NL clubs. Most of them have done nothing for tgg over the last couple of decades and ain't about to do anything soon!

If SL was shut off to them maybe they would move to a full winter season, but it would do little for their attendances other than the odd SL fan looking for a bit of RL action. It would merely paper over the cracks. Mind you, most of the clubs are little better than the amateurs, in fact there are a number of clubs down in the amateur rank that not only pay players more money than NL clubs but get better crowds and are better run. The real problems lie with the clubs themselves.

 

[terracesider]

Over the last decade, the majority of NL clubs have achieved financial stability and have improved their grounds beyond recognition.

It's taken somewhat less than a decade for a new arrogance to emerge amongst soem fans of ESL clubs that the ESL is the be-all and end-all of RL, so it doesn't matter if the lower divisions are killed off.

 

[nadera78]

If ( for example) Barrow RLFC collapsed tomorrow who would miss it bar a few hundred supporters? What effect would it have on RL in Cumbria, in Britain or worldwide?

The 8 or 9 amateur clubs in Barrow would still be there, still playing RL, still churning out players at senior and junior level. It would just mean the best of them would move further afield to try to reach the top. But this is what happens now anyway, and has done for a very long time. The best youngsters sign with SL clubs in Yorks/Lancs.

And in fact, many of the best players in rural areas like Cumbria choose not to sign with NL clubs. They prefer to play for their local amateur clubs with their mates, for a bit of beer money and a good social scene, rather than play for a poorly run NL club in front of crap crowds, for beer money and travel around the north of england.

Now try to tell me Barrow RLFC is more professional and offers more to the game than say Askam or East Hull or Saddleworth. The same could very easily be said of at least half the NL clubs.

 

[terracesider]

Who knows what would happen in an area without a professional RL club as a focus? It may make no difference but there's every chance that within a few genererations that, in the area, the game would start to slowly wither at amateur level.If it's up to people like you, we may well find out one way or the other.

If Super League loses the SKY contract and ends up on hard times again -and, in the nature of things, it probably will- where is the professional game going to be without a strong base in the National Leagues?

 

[nadera78]

Why on earth would Sky ditch RL? After soccer it is the highest rating sport they have. And they get it for peanuts. RU gets almost double the money from sky but brings in about a third of the audience figures. If anything, we should be getting more money from Sky, they won't leave RL, pound for pound we are probably their best product.

And, actually, I'm not wholly opposed to the NL clubs. I just don't accept that all of their problems begin and end with SL. They use it as an easy excuse, a way of not facing up to their own problems. It's actually a very common trait in northerners.

 

[bartman]

It's actually a very common trait in northerners.

:lol: Here we go...

Before you dropped that one at least there seemed to be a recognition of some common ground, ie that a NL is necessary, and that SL and its decisions can be the cause of some of those clubs problems.