I seem to recall how Ice Hockey imploded quite quickly but wasn't it always on a knife edge, the early promise of it being a prime sport seemed to ebb away.

Do you think there could ever be a consensus of the chairmen that funds that go to RFL are put towards running a seperate entity to include luring officials and those that organise and run the admin of the sport, whilst ditching the roles that we've seen in the past that contribute little to nothing (and do so for significant sums of money)?
I don't know how that financial contribution would work but it would need all on board to agree as to how to fund a body/organisation away from the RFL.

I don't think anyone would say that the RFL is streamlined, maybe the threat of revolution not evolution is what is needed and that the clubs through this seperate entity can run the administration and officials of at least the top 3 tiers.

I certainly can't see the changes that are needed will come through the RFL in its current guise because I think the workings/set up of it as an entity is out of date and has been failing for 40 years. No matter how much you 'work' with it, it's stuck in the past and not effective or efficient at what it does as a guardian of running the game.

Not sure why the Dobbins are crowing. Sorry, did I miss their new owner taking over?
Other than two or three clubs, every club is in the same boat. Pearson said that himself.
Think the comparison to EIH is a good one. Also think that if rugby league isn’t careful, we’ll drop into that level of sport where EIH is now - a minority one.
The cumulative effect of persistent bad management (clubs and the RFL) is now catching up with the sport, post covid.

That’s not denigrating EIH either. Like rugby league , it’s a great sport that deserves wider exposure. Hull Pirates is a great way to spend an evening.

I think its fair to say all clubs are in the same boat to be honest as the game itself is possibly precariously positioned and it would only take one club to go and it would likely be like house of cards with others tumbling. It doesn't matter how much money a club has if the opposition teams in the leaguie disappear.

With regards to the Ice Hockey comparision I made the sport is a great sport and much like RL has so much to offer but sadly due to mismanagement of the sport from top to bottom by the governing bodies and clubs themselves (particularly the arena teams namely Sheffield at the start) it imploded once the supportive arm of the main sports sponsor pulled out.
The similarities for me between the two sports is actually quite frightening as I was closely involved with the Ice Hockey teams (Seahawks & Hawks days) and see the same situation looming if the RFL and SL owners don't get there act together for the good of the game rather than themselves.

For the sport to grow it must work as a cohesive group from top to bottom and evolve with the times, for me the RFL still seem in the most part to come across as flat cap and whippet and certain SL clubs seem more interested in self serving and parochial. They need to act and act quickly before it is too late.

Rovers and Hull need each other, the Derby games are by far the biggest income of the season, and then there's a massive amount of free Marketing from all the banter and workplace chatter between the two sets of fans. While it was funny to see Rovers go down in dramatic circumstances I was glad to see them back in SL.

good post bud , 2 thriving clubs in hull would benefit us greatly and possibly secure our futures under the present circumstances

From Matthew Shaw's twitter - Talks between the RFL and Super League over realignment will begin next week, Ken Davy has just confirmed.

Some interesting points on the comparison with ice hockey. I have a passing interest in the BBL, and it is tough for minority sports. The slump in interest in snooker is also cautionary. In the same way Ellery Hanley and Shaun Edwards are still probably more famous than any current British players (starter for 10, who is the most famous British RL player still playing?), Steve Davis, Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry likely remain the most famous snooker players.

I think a key first question is, what do we want? The mines and mills and manufacturing that RL was born into, and the culture associated with it, have largely gone. The memory of it, even, is passing. How much is RL ‘just’ a game and how much is it the places it came from, what they were then and what they are now? If we ended up only having professional teams in Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, London, Sheffield, Birmingham, Paris, Perpignan and Toulouse, would we have saved RL? I’d argue partially, at best.

There’s a lot of change coming. Think about the way we watch television now compared with just 5 or 10 years ago. Sky aren’t lowballing SL especially - the value of sports TV rights isn’t what it was, because TV isn’t what it was. People aren’t watching stuff just because it is there, as much as in the past - there aren’t as many floating eyeballs to grab, it doesn’t matter how good your marketing is. Not a reason not to try, but we shouldn’t think it’d be easy even if the RFL or SL bosses were great at their jobs.

The market place is a congested one now for RL
When I started going to Hull, nothing was open on a Sunday. Now (in a post covid world) you’re competing against shopping centres, cinemas ,restaurants and suchlike for time, attention and money.
You’re even competing against gaming, Netflix, live premier league football etc, where people don’t even have to leave the house.

Broadcast wise, we’re really weak. The advent of broadcasters wanting women’s sport, and the monopoly of the premier league means we continue to fall behind.

I can only see the sport contracting financially going forward, especially post covid.

It was also then a winter sport
for me the biggest loss to the sport is not been able to secure a terrestrial TV deal.A live game on a Sunday KO 18.00 or 19.00 would have been a huge success.

Very good post.

On the 'household names' front I've long thought they could do a lot more with reality TV. I don't watch crap like Love Island and Celebrity Big Brother or whatever but many do, and the level of fame needed to get on these shows doesn't seem high, so no reason we couldn't get a player or ex-player on there. In turn the TV viewers are made aware that RL exists and that is a good starting point to then hit them with more advertising.

SKY seem to aim to just stop loosing subscriptions now, the growth is long gone, everyone who wanted SKY has got it or has had it. RL provides a consistent audience to them which is a good thing, but we struggle to post amazing audience numbers. Doesn't help that regularly games take place on a Friday night while the TV game is on. On Friday for example 5.5k Hull fans were at the stadium and not watching England on SKY. Some weeks it can be approx 40k sat in stadiums while a TV game is going on.

Its a real shame that RL isn't big in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle three massive northern cities where we have minimal presence. There's also odd quirks like RL being massive in Cumbria but not Carlisle, in Wigan but not Bolton. Without loads of money we don't have I can't see how we can change that.