sergeant pepper wrote:100%. All this talk about "without refs there is no game" is BS. You could say it for anything. Without the fans, there's no interest from sponsors, season ticket revenue. Let's also be dead nice to the guys who make the rugby balls too. After all you can't play a game with a ball can you.
If I was a chairman, who I'd rather keep happy. 8k of paying customers or a g!mp with a whistle.
Also, if you aren't smart enough to work out that stars make games more interesting and that then drives up revenue, then maybe this won't be much of a discussion.
Care to point out where the ball manufacturers or paying spectators have had to put up with abuse from the players? I've just googled it and, amazingly, nothing came up.
