Re: Is RL dead? : Tue May 14, 2019 9:04 pm
[quote="Him"]How could we possibly increase the cap to match that of the NRL when the TV deal, attendances and income are way below that of the NRL. If we increased the cap to the same as the NRL it would be more than half the SL clubs annual income and leave the likes of Wigan, Saints & Warrington with only a couple of million to pay for everything else. It’s entirely impractical.
There are many reasons why RL’s national profile has de lines since the 90’s. The salary cap is NOT one of them. The bankrupting exercise RL’s clubs merrily engaged in in the 80’s and 90’s very much is. That’s why we have out of date clubs playing in out of date, embarrassing facilities in front of sometimes embarrassing crowds.
There are other reasons such as the concentration of media in the south and the focus away from regional to national stories/interests. Along with a media refocus away from working class to middle/upper class audiences. No-one is bothered about watching 2 small northern towns play each other anymore. They want clubs and places they can relate to. We don’t provide that. The majority of people in the country wouldn’t be able to find on a map where half the SL clubs are.
But let’s not kid ourselves that if only we could spend more money on overseas players that would solve the issue. Not at all. If we have money spare to spend on overseas players that we’re not currently using then it’s a disgrace that that isn’t being spent on domestic player development.
So - parochialism,loss of any meaningful internationals, a southern centric media operating what is effectively a sporting apartheid,badly managed expansionism? Surely not unsurmountable issues within a professionally managed organisation ?
