Agree with all apart from the 9s. We used to have a 9s tournament. No club took it seriously.

Main way to increase quality is increase numbers. Only way to do that is for clubs/rfl/whoever else to do some advertising. Only a few weeks from one of rl biggest events and nothing/v little on social media/radio/TV (though I get TV would prob be too expensive). Clubs seem to think by sending an email to subscribers they will fill stadiums. They need to be targeting schools/colleges/unis/wherever groups go

Main negative for me though is sky. Yes they pump in money but get exclusive rights to games they have no intention of showing. Why buy championship rights if you only show the summer bash? With the new deal being less its time imo to get some games on free to air TV. When challenge cups on BBC a lot watch, but there are too few cup games to make a supporter.

Agree with you about Sky has been great but too much power over the game.Think a new marketing strategy is key I hear about events as I am an RL fan but neutrals see no publicity at all. Radio advertising would be good and more use of social media, breaking out of the current fan base should be the target.

Yep. If the game was as big and popular as the delusional on here think it is, we'd have a 16 team SL with all clubs getting 10k+ attendances and a similar sized league below full of teams that could effortlessly move up....

Wow? Really??

The current fanbase of fans have a history of generations of over 100+ years of supporting M62 clubs which has got us our 125 years of history.

You can't really believe that's a solution?

I've spoken with many people who run businesses and lament they don't have the number of customers who like and buy their product/service they would ideally want. but have never heard any of them suggest they get a totally new customer base...

Tell us how this works??

I am suggesting growing the fan base that doesn’t mean neglecting the heartlands and existing fan base, they need to be encouraged back after Covid.

Not unless they play one another 3 times and i can't see that happening.
My opinion is that we will have 3 leagues of 12 with 1 down from Super League and the Championship Grand Final winners getting promoted and 1 team getting relegated from the Championship and one team up from league 1

I am suggesting growing the fan base that doesn’t mean neglecting the heartlands and existing fan base, they need to be encouraged back after Covid.

What can I say but "more fans" is something every commercial department in every Superleague and Superleague wannabe club have been targeting for decades.

I've heard this suggestion many times but the fact always is that you can sell rubbish to your diehard core of fans easily enough but to get the casuals in regularly you need to spend more on marketing and probably concede less money by offering cheap deals to non-fans, paying fans resent.

You don't get much better than Hetherington's commercial department at Leeds who have a very good operation, what's your message to Gary?

Where is he getting it wrong?

The reality is the reliance on SKY is everything and so it's not really possible to move away from what they want. Proof of that is their recent reported comments that they were not happy with some games, and these were not likely to be ones from the top teams. Further to that there's been comments about how SKY like the loop fixtures as they increase the number of big games for SKY to show. I think that when it's Saints and Wigan again NOT AGAIN SKY look forward to big interest TV and a great match, and a big crowd still rolls up.

Meanwhile purists feel that Toulouse.v.Featherstone before 900 would be much the better game to show. That is absolutely fine all entitled to their opinion.

But the bottom line is does Superlague give up £££Millions of revenue to placate their small purist fan base????

That's the tough £50 Million question, think carefully before deciding??

Yes it does, by focusing on a 'new' area you take that money from an existing area.

The opposite must be the way, focus on the low hanging fruit and when you have maxxed that move onto new pastures which will automatically be more responsive due to larger crowds and the better spectacle as a result.

Foundations are critical in any expansion, how we include them is the key to future success for all stakeholders, including Sky. That is why 2 x10 is essential - but it must be funded to be a FT second tier with p&r between the two and the best way to get there is 14 clubs in 2022 before inviting the T6 in the Championship to show they can fund a FT club in SL2.

If the Turkeys in SL vote to keep the vast majority of the money leaving too little to become FT in SL2 then change should not happen as it becomes a championship name change only - 5/600k min should filter into SL2 which should have a 1.2m salary min spend.