OK...close to my stupid target of 1,000 people. Given that some shampoo adds claim that 90% of women prefer Blah blah blah when it's from a survey of 125 customers, I am very gratefull to all who have voted.

I will return tomorrow to see if the evening crew can add to this.

Once again, many thanks. I am trying this for all RL fans and hope some good comes from it.

try the facebook groups too

in 97, they changed the WCC match between wire and nz warriors from aukland to christchurch now that was annoying!



it's a fact of life, we jumped into bed with sky c/o uncle mo, you should expect no less, there's probably a table tennis final they want to cover on the sat night, it's pooh however they will continue to do it despite our complaints

When did they move it? How much notice were people given? Blimey. Springs to mind.

A message to those of you who are posting 'negative' viewpoints.



Let's presume you go to Perpignan and are in the 91% who book their travel 2 months or more prior to 'gameday' and your hit in the future by SkySports late change everyone of you would have had to either re-arrange your travel - average additional cost around £150.00 perhead plus the £60-£120 perhead already spent etc etc - or lose the cost allready paid.





So you will have been well stuffed as Sky only gave 48 days notice of the changed.i.e. about 7 weeks. In addition those of you who 'book' travel to Perpignan at the last minute seemingly have 'money' to burn.



Suggest that those posters who are 'critical' need to think a bit harder. This is not the cost of 'short' bus/train local ticket & match day ticket but a 'major'

outing - often involving the whole family & thus many hundreds of hard earned cash.



So, hopefully we will see less 'carping' and more votes & positive support

Once again, many thanks to all who participated in this poll. I will be banging off letters and emails today at 5pm, so there is still time for a few more votes, but 373 individuals contributing to this poll shows how strongly the RL fans here feel about this issue.

I will let you know if I get any response.

Many Many Thanks again.

Gutterfax

Two wrongs do not make a right.

HAVE I MISSED ANYONE OUT? If so, please PM me their details by 4pm...

Paul Blanchard - General Manager- Harlequins RL

Craig Spence - Communications Manager - The RFL

Richard Lewis - Executive Chairman The RFL

Nigel Wood - Chief Executive - The RFL

Stevo & Eddie - Boots'n'All - SKY

Neville Smith - Executive Producer SKY

Kath Hetherington Chairperson - Hull FC

James Rule - Chief Executive - Hull FC

Neil Hudgell - Chairman - Hull KR

Gary Hetherington - Chief Executive - Leeds Rhinos

Peter Hood - Chief Executive - Bradford Bulls

Mike Turner - Chief Executive -Celtic Crusaders

Richard Wright - Chief Executive - Castleford Tigers

Ken Davy - Chairman -Huddersfield Giants

Eamonn McManus - Chief Executive -St Helens

Ted Richardson - Chairman - Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

David Tarry - Chief Executive - Salford City Reds

Ian Lenegan - Chief Executive - Wigan Warriors

Andy Gatcliffe - Chief Executive - Warrington Wolves

Martyn Sadler - Chief Executive - League Publications

Lorraine Marsden - Reporter - League Publications

Chris Irvine - Reporter - Times

Ian Ramsdale - Reporter - BBC

Andy Wilson - Reporter - Guardian

Hughesy at Quins- or have you phoned him

mmmmm....I think I'll dodge that bullet thanks. I keep my council very rarely, especially regarding Mr Hughes without whom we would all be following the Skolars.

I fully support the sentiment but the reality is, it's nothing new in the age of wall-to-wall televised sport.



As a football supporter I've lost count of the number of rail tickets (a Leeds-London return can cost £210+), hotels and various other costs that I've incurred due to TV rearrangements - it happens. As much as I support the petition, unless somebody can suggest an alternative source of funding Sky are going to take some influencing.

So it's ok to petition the other club chairmen with your complaint, but not the chairman of your own club lest you upset him and he storms off in a huff?



Do you not think such blatant self interest dilutes the point you're trying to make?

Fully aware that Soccer and Union fans have had this for years. The point here is that:

a/ Catalans fixtures have always remained untouched in the reg season since they joined.

b/ Sky have picked this game to test the water. Imagine if they had picked this weekends Leeds game????



c/ If the people I contact (see above list) decide to let this go without raising a concern, then it will happen again and it could be you.



As has been pointed out, this fixture change hasn't bothered me, because if I do go, I will only book at the last minute anyway due to work, but I refuse to shrig my shoulders and let SKY ride roughshod over the RL community.

no they don't, i wish people luck, just not holding my breath, tbh it cost me a load of money and i was nobbed off and thus shared my story.

i do believe however as stated b4 you've got little or no chance of changing things.



sorry to be the prophet of doom and all that

They did it for the fixture where it would affect the least supporters, still wrong but at least they haven't done it for a fixture say against Wigan/Warrington/Hull or Rovers

we know, i made the jorney to perpignan 4 times in the past 2 years, that was not the point i was making, read what people are saying before criticising folk, reality is a vicious mother! your not going to change any thing! oh and when it happens to me i'll be fooked off as well.

One of the reasons for not including DH is the fact he has funded the club over the years, but if you want the MAJOR reason, I suggest you read through 6 years of my "we are crap at everything marketing" rants on here. Mr Hughes knows fully my stance on various issues at the club and it would quite honestly, be a waste of virtual ink to bother him.



As for blatant self interest? You are havin' a bubble mate! I have done this with no self interest or even club interest at heart.....just the interest of all RL fans. HTH

Actually the two words that spring to my mind on reading your post are "clueless" and "totally".



Quins v Bradford was not "bumped" anywhere, it was scheduled for Sunday 8 Feb when the fixtures were first released. Unfortuntely due to the most severe cold snap in London for nearly twenty years it had to be postponed because the protective covers on the pitch froze to the surface and would have ripped up the pitch if they had been removed. I'm sorry for any Bradford fans who lost money on pre-paid travel/accommodation etc., but this could have happened to any away supporters attending any match.



Bizarrely, some Bradford fans then expected us to cancel a game with Manly in order to rearrange their fixture at just two weeks notice, at a time of the year when there could easily have been another weather-induced postponement, meaning anyone needing train tickets or hotel accommodation would stand no chance of obtaining the cheapest rates.



Unless one team or the other reached the Challenge Cup semi final there was always going to be at least one free weekend in the summer on which this fixture could be rescheduled, and that is exactly what has happened. Bradford fans get almost three months notice of a fixture now scheduled for Saturday 8 August - plenty of time to book train tickets at not much more than a tenner each way and cheap hotel rooms at a Travelodge or similar if necessary. The parallels between this and the postponement by 24 hours of Catalans v Quins by a television company, after travelling supporters had booked in advance on the basis than Catalans have always played on Saturday evenings (except on a couple of Bank Holiday weekends) are not immediately apparent to me.

that the point of GF's poll here is exactly to try to protect all the supporters of all the other clubs.......this isn't about getting SKY et al to change this particular Quins fixture as I suspect it's done and dusted and we have to live with it, but it is to give some indication of the feeling of supporters of other clubs who may now face this issue later this season and the next ones, as another poster has said it was a toe in the water test to see if anybody would raise objections and picking the Quins game was a good tester for them.

Yet.



Can you say with all certainty that when next years fixtures come out that people will be booking to go to France in droves if there is a chance it can happen again? Maybe we can't win this battle but maybe we can stop them doing this to others.

Which is exactly the point I raised in the letter to the SL chair/CEO'S, SKY, the RFL, The all party group and a few journos........

FOR THE LAST TIME.......

This is to try to protect the finances of every fan IN FUTURE. We at Quins are already bu99ered.......

I think the next step is to think about embarrassing Sky Sports next time they visit The Stoop, perhaps some sort of fans protest e.g. banners or placards aimed at Sky in the line of the cameras (perversely the switch of stands this season at Sky’s request would make this easier). Sky Sports really don’t need to pull this kind of stunt, they only do it because they think there will be minimum negative consequences for them, if we as fans challenge that assumption by trying to embarrass them or tarnishing their brand they may at least think about behaving more reasonably.

Or make them think, "fook that, we don't need the hassle" and leave RL in this country in a deep financial sh*-hole from which it would find it very difficult to recover.



Still, if it helps a few dozen Quins fans make a point it's a small price to pay.



Fans are at the bottom of the pecking order in professional sport, that ain't going to change no matter how much we complain.

But they don't listen to fans as you say....









Oh well, that's alright then isn't it! I have lost the will to live with some of the stupid posts on this topic.

Tell you what, next year, when you have booked a 1p each way return to France and found a 50 euro a night B&B for 1 night in Perpignan, see how you feel when they bounce you to a Friday night or Sunday evening and you get "greased & shafted" for another £400 to move stuff around.

4 FUX SAKE..............Do you not get this?









If the powers that be decide to ignore the inane ramblings of 1 supporter, then so be it, but remember, at least I tried to make a stand!

Oh dear you don't seem to get this do you? Sky Sports is a business, they put money in because it's worth something to them, they're not going to walk away from their investment because fans demand they behave just a little bit more responsibly, that wouldn't make any commercial sense whatsoever. They don't actually need to shaft fans in this way, they do it purely and simply because of the cynical assumption that there are no negative consequences for them, challenging that assumption doesn't require major changes, doesn't require chucking millions of sunk investment down the pan in a hissy fit, all it requires is a little bit more thought about not shafting fans. If they're capable of this kind of calculated cynicism in the first place, they are also capable of not doing it.



I think protesting and embarrassing Sky Sports is a sensible way forward, because the modification of behaviour on their part is so slight that they would be cutting off their own noses to spite themselves otherwise.