Clearly explained, thank you. My penny's worth, not a criticism: I somehow think both Cas and London will disagree with the presenter's statement that both clubs have plenty of time to get their affairs in order, especially as those clubs near the bottom of the 'draft' Level 1 and top of Level 2 will be doing their utmost to achieve Level 1 status.
if its going to stop the embarrassment of super league teams going bust or not been able to spend up to their salary cap then that will be a big plus. my only gripe is that a promoted team such as London is only able to earn the bigger number of points for one season unlike those that have been in super league for 3 seasons honestly i think IMG were caught out with London getting promoted as they fully excepted it was between fev and Toulouse. imagine london finishing in the top 5 next season and getting relegated not a god look for the sport
Great analysis and without the bleating that harmed coverage elsewhere. Some of the owners have really showed how unprofessional they are over the last couple of days, with some stupid statements that make them look very petty indeed. In a sport full of parochial self-interest, these chairmen can't handle that IMG are solely concerned with a return on their investment. If the sport doesn't thrive then they won't get that return. I love Wheldon Road but this is the second or third time that the sport has gone through some sort of licencing process. The RFL told Saints, Wakefield, Salford, Cas and many others in the mid-2000s to upgrade their stadiums or be negatively impacted during the licensing process. Fast forward to 2023 and Cas haven't even made a token upgrade to the ground. With that said, the RFL have hardly helped clubs actually improve in many areas, their job is promote the sport nationally and they've woefully neglected that, putting a pretty low ceiling on the income that clubs and players can expect. The development pipeline is a joke, so it's little wonder that so few clubs have working academies available, even in areas where there are significant populations and/or playing numbers. As for stadiums, well the RFL have a stake in Odsal and have done zero with it, and the club are now asking the council to take it on, Huddersfield might end up becoming tenants in their own stadium and Salford might get booted out altogether. All these goes back to the fact that the sport has been mismanaged for at least 15 years, with neither the clubs or the governing body seeming to understand basic concepts like capital nvestment, amortisation and even basic strategic planning. If nothing else, regular, transparent grading like this will show everybody exactly what they need to do to progress.
As I understand it, IMG have made no investment here. They have simply acted as consultants and charged accordingly, i.e. probably quite highly. I agree, though, that the RFL, as an administrative and governing body, is unfit for purpose.
This is absolute madness. Placings should be based upon results and results alone. Whether many of the criteria introduced have been met will be based entirely upon opinion and, therefore, always subjective and, possibly, subject to undesirable influence. IMG have sold the RFL a "pup" here and no doubt at great expense too. Most RL supporters will not be happy.
The irony is that promotion and relegation was working. Bradford, Sheffield, Toulouse, London all made the Championship playoffs this year and all should be attractive markets for Super League. It wasn't broke to fix, it was actually working. Same with Toronto a few years back. They snatched Sonny Bill Williams from Union and had him on the highest rugby contract in the world. If it wasn't for COVID and Super League provincialism, a New York team was to follow.
You're absolutely right. Promotion and relegation is the lifeblood of sport. If fans think their team won't be able to go up, they'll walk away from the sport. I don't say this without any evidence. Back in the 90s a mate of mine lived his life for Keighley Cougars. This was the period of Cougarmania. But when he saw London given preferential treatment to his own team, he walked away from the sport in disgust. He hasn't been to a single RL match since and is a season ticket holder at a non-league football club. Sport has to be won or lost ON THE PITCH. Trying to gerrymander who's in Super League is going to be a disaster.
@ChrisLonsdale67 I spoke to a guy from keighley doing a delivery their. He said the same thing. All the smaller un little towns will suffer and the big boys in the city will eventually rule the game. A rumour is going around, York will eventually will get automatic promotion because igm want the clubs in the big cities around the country to be in the super league. That's is where the money is . Its a shame for the die hard fans like keighley. My club leigh will be the same in the next 5 yo 10 years so I will enjoy the fairytale while it lasts.
Some things need looking at again, such as the catchment area, my own team Trinity, a large city have been grouped with much smaller towns, Castleford and Featherstone, therefore the points are divided by three, this means Trinity receives a much lower score on the catchment area criteria.
its been done on local authority area and cas and fev are in the Wakefield council area just as wigan and leigh are bunched together and of course the two hull clubs
Load of rubbish. As a Crusaders fan I can tell you we also run a woman's team, a wheelchair team, and the men's team made the league one play off final despite having no home ground last season through no fault of our own. Stuff IMG and the RFL who have never been fit for purpose.
I agree. This is absolute madness. Placings should be based upon results and results alone. Whether many of the criteria introduced have been met will be based entirely upon opinion and, therefore, always subjective and, possibly, subject to undesirable influence. IMG have sold the RFL a "pup" here and no doubt at great expense too. Most RL supporters will not be happy.
But therein lies the problem, they had no stadium of their own, and having various teams beyond the first XIII only counts for 2.5 points. I am very surprised they are dead last but I'm not surprised that they graded C.
This is going to destroy SL. It looks like clubs that have big wallets will be at an advantage over the poorer clubs. The SL to me should be on performance alone. If you play poorly, you get relegated. Not if you play poorly but pump a tonne of cash into your stadium, investments and community you can stay in SL. Just doesn’t seem fair to me. It’s going to be based on opinion too and that’s always subject to unconscious bias and external influence. The RFL have really been sold a dud by IMG here.
so, its going to be just like its always been then. big money has the advantage well that's not a change is it. just look around the more money you have the better chance in anything that you need money for you have
![Digital Circus Episode 4 [TRAILER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/abZtsmMUbJo/mqdefault.jpg)
Clearly explained, thank you. My penny's worth, not a criticism:
I somehow think both Cas and London will disagree with the presenter's statement that both clubs have plenty of time to get their affairs in order, especially as those clubs near the bottom of the 'draft' Level 1 and top of Level 2 will be doing their utmost to achieve Level 1 status.
Explained brilliantly, nice1.
if its going to stop the embarrassment of super league teams going bust or not been able to spend up to their salary cap then that will be a big plus. my only gripe is that a promoted team such as London is only able to earn the bigger number of points for one season unlike those that have been in super league for 3 seasons honestly i think IMG were caught out with London getting promoted as they fully excepted it was between fev and Toulouse. imagine london finishing in the top 5 next season and getting relegated not a god look for the sport
Great analysis and without the bleating that harmed coverage elsewhere. Some of the owners have really showed how unprofessional they are over the last couple of days, with some stupid statements that make them look very petty indeed. In a sport full of parochial self-interest, these chairmen can't handle that IMG are solely concerned with a return on their investment. If the sport doesn't thrive then they won't get that return.
I love Wheldon Road but this is the second or third time that the sport has gone through some sort of licencing process. The RFL told Saints, Wakefield, Salford, Cas and many others in the mid-2000s to upgrade their stadiums or be negatively impacted during the licensing process. Fast forward to 2023 and Cas haven't even made a token upgrade to the ground.
With that said, the RFL have hardly helped clubs actually improve in many areas, their job is promote the sport nationally and they've woefully neglected that, putting a pretty low ceiling on the income that clubs and players can expect. The development pipeline is a joke, so it's little wonder that so few clubs have working academies available, even in areas where there are significant populations and/or playing numbers.
As for stadiums, well the RFL have a stake in Odsal and have done zero with it, and the club are now asking the council to take it on, Huddersfield might end up becoming tenants in their own stadium and Salford might get booted out altogether. All these goes back to the fact that the sport has been mismanaged for at least 15 years, with neither the clubs or the governing body seeming to understand basic concepts like capital nvestment, amortisation and even basic strategic planning. If nothing else, regular, transparent grading like this will show everybody exactly what they need to do to progress.
Was about to comment the same. 👍
As I understand it, IMG have made no investment here. They have simply acted as consultants and charged accordingly, i.e. probably quite highly.
I agree, though, that the RFL, as an administrative and governing body, is unfit for purpose.
This is absolute madness. Placings should be based upon results and results alone. Whether many of the criteria introduced have been met will be based entirely upon opinion and, therefore, always subjective and, possibly, subject to undesirable influence. IMG have sold the RFL a "pup" here and no doubt at great expense too. Most RL supporters will not be happy.
The irony is that promotion and relegation was working. Bradford, Sheffield, Toulouse, London all made the Championship playoffs this year and all should be attractive markets for Super League. It wasn't broke to fix, it was actually working. Same with Toronto a few years back. They snatched Sonny Bill Williams from Union and had him on the highest rugby contract in the world. If it wasn't for COVID and Super League provincialism, a New York team was to follow.
You're absolutely right. Promotion and relegation is the lifeblood of sport. If fans think their team won't be able to go up, they'll walk away from the sport.
I don't say this without any evidence. Back in the 90s a mate of mine lived his life for Keighley Cougars. This was the period of Cougarmania. But when he saw London given preferential treatment to his own team, he walked away from the sport in disgust. He hasn't been to a single RL match since and is a season ticket holder at a non-league football club.
Sport has to be won or lost ON THE PITCH. Trying to gerrymander who's in Super League is going to be a disaster.
@ChrisLonsdale67 I spoke to a guy from keighley doing a delivery their. He said the same thing. All the smaller un little towns will suffer and the big boys in the city will eventually rule the game. A rumour is going around, York will eventually will get automatic promotion because igm want the clubs in the big cities around the country to be in the super league. That's is where the money is . Its a shame for the die hard fans like keighley. My club leigh will be the same in the next 5 yo 10 years so I will enjoy the fairytale while it lasts.
Some things need looking at again, such as the catchment area, my own team Trinity, a large city have been grouped with much smaller towns, Castleford and Featherstone, therefore the points are divided by three, this means Trinity receives a much lower score on the catchment area criteria.
its been done on local authority area and cas and fev are in the Wakefield council area just as wigan and leigh are bunched together and of course the two hull clubs
Load of rubbish. As a Crusaders fan I can tell you we also run a woman's team, a wheelchair team, and the men's team made the league one play off final despite having no home ground last season through no fault of our own.
Stuff IMG and the RFL who have never been fit for purpose.
I agree. This is absolute madness. Placings should be based upon results and results alone. Whether many of the criteria introduced have been met will be based entirely upon opinion and, therefore, always subjective and, possibly, subject to undesirable influence. IMG have sold the RFL a "pup" here and no doubt at great expense too. Most RL supporters will not be happy.
But therein lies the problem, they had no stadium of their own, and having various teams beyond the first XIII only counts for 2.5 points. I am very surprised they are dead last but I'm not surprised that they graded C.
Rugby union should copy this.
It won't help anybody except those that made a lot of money out of it and it will all change again in a few years time.
Its total tosh
This is going to destroy SL. It looks like clubs that have big wallets will be at an advantage over the poorer clubs. The SL to me should be on performance alone. If you play poorly, you get relegated. Not if you play poorly but pump a tonne of cash into your stadium, investments and community you can stay in SL. Just doesn’t seem fair to me.
It’s going to be based on opinion too and that’s always subject to unconscious bias and external influence. The RFL have really been sold a dud by IMG here.
so, its going to be just like its always been then. big money has the advantage well that's not a change is it. just look around the more money you have the better chance in anything that you need money for you have
joke, but looking like a 14 league system, how is the likes of salford, wakefield and toulouse up there, and leeds top, the golden boys
just look at what its judged on and you will see the reason why