The Ghost of '99 wrote:
Wrong as ever. The only club to vote against the current Sky deal were then Koukash-controlled Salford.
Well your wrong which puts into doubt your credibility.
David Rogers reported on the signing of the current deal in RL & League express.
The first vote was 7-6 in favour with the
"income starting to kick in within two weeks" with an upront £300,000 payment for each club.
The upfront payment and the bigger TV deal as noted by Rogers was a "lifeline for some clubs" who were under tremendous financial pressure.
The clubs named as being closest to the edge were Bradford, Wakefield, London and Castleford. As guests Les Catalans did not vote.
After the first vote was lost, the clubs followed their protocol of making a final vote in which the losers were expected to give way to the winners and vote unanimously to show a united front to the press. It was THEN that Koucash refused hence the second vote was only near unanimous. The SL clubs were furious with Koucash for breaking protocol and not that long after Koucash gave an interview to the Yorkshire post urging Superleague to break from the RFL.
Koucash was cold shouldered for not following protocol either at the vote or on the unilateral outburst against the RFL and eventually he left the game.
The new deal pretty much puts the top SL clubs in the driving seat now, and we shall see how things pan out for 2022. The top SL clubs fell out with Gausch over recent years so things don't auger well for France 2022 at all, and we've already had a vote on the idea of 2022 being a 2x10 Superleague which saw SL defeated, but it's a possibility a second vote will be on it's way in the next 12 months.
But the bottom line here is that taking venture capital would have seen a change to the voting structure in favour of the big clubs, and the £750K may look like a "lot of money" but it is absolutely nothing compared to the £17,000,000 that the top SL clubs felt they were were denied from this last TV deal.....
