OK, open question:



What is the RFL supposed to do about its profligate clubs?



This is the state of the game:



There is more money in the game than ever before. The clubs receive more than ever before.

We have 3 games a week on telly

Our sport draws almost double the tv audience of rugby union, it's closest rival

We have 7 Challenge Cup games a year on terrestrial telly

Our cup final is the centrepiece of terrestrial sports coverage on that day

We have a unique event (Magic) to open our season that covers every game live

All our England internationals are covered live, regardless of where in the world they happen

We have major sponsorship from family-friendly sponsorts (Engage, Barr, Gilette, Co-Op, Northern Rail)

We have the biggest per-player Development grant of any sport

We have a world cup here in 2013 that the Government has guaranteed to underwrite

England are top 3 in the world. Wales are 4th. Ireland and Scotland are in the top 12.

We are developing the international game in France, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Czech, Norway, Jamaica, Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, the USA, South Africa, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

We have a major biannual home international competition against the world's best (four nations)

we have a unique annual world club competition

our two major finals were both sold out this year

For the SL clubs, they have (had) three years guaranteed in the top flight.

We make an annual profit.



That is (ALL) the work of the RFL.



Against that framework, the majority of clubs, in both SL and Championship, do not balance their budgets. Several are in financial straights and would have gone bankrupt without the RFL advancing them money.



How do we solve that?

I love this quote







We are a long way off being 2nd let alone 1st in the world



How many countries actually play the game to level worth watching.



The way something is put can make anything sound good, when really they are only papering over the cracks. The cost of sponsorship to the Co-op and Northern Rail is very cheap if this sport is as prominent as you think it used to be. Lower leagues have been seriously undersold. To put the Co-op sponsorship in perspective, Nigel Wood pays himself more than twice what it costs the Co-op for a year

Three countries have won the RL world cup. Four have won the RU world cup.

Four nations have made a RL world cup final. Five have made a union final.

All we're missing is a strong South Africa.



Yep, only three nations could win our competition at the moment, but we'll be in the top three nations in a 14-team world cup finals that has qualification tournaments involving another half a dozen nations. Go back 20 years and tell me it was better when the World Cup was - at most - GB, NZ, Oz, France and PNG.



Papering over the cracks? Or pointing to a real success in the growth of our game over the last 2 decades. Depends whether you start with a glass half full or a glass half drained (and sour).



We're not a long way of second, we're not a long way of first. NZ are stronger than they've ever been, and neither Oz or NZ act to develop the world game as we have by splitting GB into four (eg they are very happy to play islanders rather than encouraging the growth of the game in Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands). But we go into home tests with NZ expecting to win (Four Nations last time around?) and if when we beat Australia it's a turn up but not a shock.



It's not our fault that RL is an unforgiving sport... football shocks happen all the time because you can put 10 men behind the ball and because a lot depends on luck and decisions in a low-scoring sport (ask Newcastle, Sunderland, etc). Union scores can be kept down by killing possession and running down the clock. But in our game a team with a 5% advantage will just keep scoring, so even league games can end up with a 50 point win.

Fascinating. Would you like to tell us (a) how much Nigel Wood gets paid; (b) how much the Co-Op sponsorship is per annum and (c) where you found this information?

I think Mr Woods salary was in the RFL accounts that were published



The Co oP deal is 4 k per televised game , so times that by around 25 matches



Not 100 percent , but thereabouts

To answer your first question , set rules for all , and stick to them , I know that causes different problems , given the intent to expand , but that's the deal I'm afraid , and a bit less ' spin ' , which we have discussed before

f**kin brilliant.i follow a profligate club.

I wish someone had told me before i bought my season ticket and shirt.

Do you mean Crusaders or Blackpool?

We're much better now than we have been in the past. Remember when we owned HP and the training pitch where B&Q is? That's millions of pounds of real estate gone in the last 22 years.

And the rest

Only if you sell it

Depending upon how far you want to extend the term 'profiligate' you could easily include around 10 SL clubs in the mix, let alone a host of other clubs dancing with Administration and the Revenue.



I deliberatley chose those two clubs because they're the only ones (unless I am mistaken) that have either winding up petitions or were placed in the hands of the liquidators and then were subsequently reborn under a different guise. Or not, in Blackpool's case.