RFL UNVEIL CHAMPIONSHIP PLANS

[jammy dodger]

Sorry Knowitall but going into a little debt has to be a no no. This is some of the reasoning behind SL being a closed shop, short term financial risks taken by clubs. It has to stop, plain and simple. If clubs need to go into debt just to service day to day operations then the club in question has to re-evaluate their operation.

Also very narrow minded of people to want to stop clubs from around the UK entering our leagues just because they are worried about travelling. Im sure it wasnt an easy trip for the likes of Hull to come to Cumbria back in the mid to late 40's.

[jammy dodger]

Hardly rot. Even if the worse was to happen and next year we failed to get promoted then the year after that we should be a shoe in for a great year given the supposed lack of quality these teams will have

And if we failed in the objective of promotion if we had gambled money on it, what then??? Another administration with local businesses owed thousands??

Nothing personal in this Knowitall but I dont want anybody that thinks like you anywhere near the boardroom at Whitehaven RLFC. Although i do agree that most clubs have debt it shows that this way of running things is not feasable when you take into account how many times a club has gone into administration since the inception of SL

[J.D. Raaz]

"...The only way to 'add value' to our competition is to reintroduce promotion and relegation to the elite division of the game."

A statement I absolutely agree with.

[cran.cran]

"jammy" majority of the clubs in all 3 league have debt, most businesses have debt, if you have a plan on how to service a manageable short term debt in order to achieve a long term benefit,such as getting promotion and the advantages that go with it. If the club shows no ambition then Haven will rot in Champ 1.

Dear KIA, trouble is a short term debt rarely brings a long term advantage in RL [at least in the lower divisions] and I take on board what you say about ambition. However the policy has ultimately proved flawed for forty years or so, it wasn't too bad when gates were large and expected to remain so 40's through to early 60's but since then the dynamics have changed. I feel long term the problem should be looked at from a diffrent angle and unless we solve the problem of creating a constant income stream [one that remains in place regardless of results] we will continue to go from financial crisis to financial crisis or as you say rot in the third tier.

[Keith]

I'm with Jammy on this one and we do need these teams coming in if our game is ever going to be looked on as a major sport.

There will be no P & R between SL and the Championships until each and every club in the Championship can fulfill all the criteria set for SL and in the mean time clubs will have to build up their case the same as Widnes have done this year to gain access.

Don't forget with these new clubs we only have to travel once per season to the likes of Medway or Bristol.    It isn't as if it is every weekend and I'm sure it is just as tiring, etc, for them as it is for us plus all travelling expenses are to be paid, which presumably will cover accommodation on long journeys.

Going in to debt, either short term or not, is never the answer and clubs should live within their means.    We tend to get in to our own little private battle up here for money, for players, for attention, but we only play each other twice in the league.   Our enemies are further afield and we should be looking for both teams to gain promotion this season and helping each other by beating as many of the other fancied teams as possible not hoping that the other team gets beat by them!!!!!!!

[cbandg01]

To me this whole idea is nothing about the betterment of RL and wholly about providing a more profitable platform for selling the game to the TV media moguls, and, reading the Northampton statement, providing a second income stream for an existing stadium / football club / RU club.

There is something uncomfortable in my mind about simply 'deciding' to establish a RL club in an area where RL has never had a following or history of the sport, and especially in an area where RU is so dominant.

If the proposed teams established themselves and then 'win promotion' into the current league structures on merit, then it would not only seem right and proper, but also be right and proper. The poster who pointed out that most or nearly all of the league teams playing outside of the current Championship structure would beat the 'new' teams serves to illustrate how perverse the RFL proposals are.

Instead of working with, and strengthening, the structures below the Championship, the RFL are simply by passing it for their own financial betterment.

London Skolars are a prime example, to my mind, of a new club which has and is still failing to get any better. Taking their season as a whole they are little or no better than they were four years ago, despite all of the fettering and RFL support they have had..............mark my words they will 'fail' in the not too distant future.

On the one hand the RFL are doing things to the Champ 1 clubs which is encouraging / forcing them to go 'local' for the majority of players, but then helping 'invent' new clubs which can't establish themselves without masses of imports and travellers.

The RFL would be better employed revising their approach to established and heartland clubs.....but that of course limits their TV pulling power to three counties, doesn't it?

[Keith]

I think you will find cbandg01 that the likes of Coventry, Hemel Hempstead, Chester (Warrington Wizards) are clubs that have been around for a number of years in the Conference league so they are not exactly total "greenhorns" and Coventry play at a stadium we would both give a lot for.

Whether they make a go of it or not is not known and will never be known unless it is tried.   I'm sure people in these areas might be saying look at Cumbria with years of rugby league history behind them they can only provide three lower league teams after all this time!!!!

[cbandg01]

I did know that Keith, but still stand by the statements I made.
Promotion rather than parachuting would shut me up.

[J.D. Raaz]

Oh dear me.

In my view, and this is certainly only commenting on the business aspect, what chandg01 says deserves consideration.

The RFL seems determined to leave those Clubs under Super League to collapse upon themselves.

Earlier this year, and many of you may remember, there was a target set forth by the RFL that if certain Clubs within the Championship 1 met certain goals, and delivered a respectful performance on the pitch, they would be considered for Championship....and Haven worked towards those goals...and then...the rules were changed.

My personal opinion is that those rules may have been set to try to entice a "union" between Haven and Workington, but what do I know. All I know is that as the season progressed and neither Club was delivering concrete messages about union...the rules changed.

I will state that any message sent from the RFL regarding expansion because they have already taken care of the "heartland" is so much foolishness. They have been absent to every important marketing and outreach effort we have made other than their minimal contractual engagement to each Club.

My business practice is one of you ground yourself in an area, and then you look to expand. The RFL, in my opinion, takes Haven and others for granted. They will not invest marketing and business investment because they think we will be regardless of what they do and we simply exist to serve "higher" teams.

They refuse to recognize the fragile nature of our existence and I must agree with Jammy...go into debt..and you are dead. This year, with a clean slate, it was not so clean on the accounting side, there was a shortcoming the last time I know what was happening with the books. I'm still waiting for reimbursement for paying repairs that happened to the Scoreboard in March, let alone to other expenditures throughout the season.

And the RFL wants to tell me that they have taken care of the "heartland". Not so much. Perhaps they truly need to connect the Clubs with a marketing programme, with a communcation base, etc, etc..

That is what should be happening, but I'm not holding my breathe.

It's outside of the comfort level they exist in and I'm not sure they will get it.

edit: I should clarify that when I say "clean" I mean it wasn't easy...the Club had to work hard to make its numbers work.

[Keith]

Welcome to the world of the Rugby Football League, JD.    There is no way you can talk about the RFL, marketing, or business in the same sentence for they have a totally different viewpoint to any ordinary language.

The problem that the RFL had was too many clubs below SL to form 1 league in order to give clubs meaningful fixtures so they either had to bring in new clubs or try to get some clubs to merge.  Haven and Town may have been in their sights but no more so than Dewsbury and Batley or Rochdale and Oldham, so I don't think they were solely looking at our clubs.

They have now decided to bring in new clubs in the hope that they can become strong enough to sustain Championship 1 rugby league and I suppose only time will tell on whether they have got that right or not.

[Martin]

All you need to do is look at the RFL annual report 2010 to see what they think about the Championship, there is a section celebrating financial highlights over the past 10 years  the fact that revenues in the Championship have only increased by 15% (1.5% pa average) isn't highlighted, maybe because in any business terms it has to be seen as a failure ?

But its ok because the RFL revenues have increased by 145%. That sort of inequality is a failure of the governing body & nothing in the new Championship set up will help counteract that. There is a very strong argument that the real heartland of RL is represented by the Championship clubs rather than Super League, so how they can say that it is "sorted" is displays an extraordinary level of incompetence.

They should hang their heads in shame

[Enoch]

All you need to do is look at the RFL annual report 2010 to see what they think about the Championship, there is a section celebrating financial highlights over the past 10 years  the fact that revenues in the Championship have only increased by 15% (1.5% pa average) isn't highlighted, maybe because in any business terms it has to be seen as a failure ?

But its ok because the RFL revenues have increased by 145%. That sort of inequality is a failure of the governing body & nothing in the new Championship set up will help counteract that. There is a very strong argument that the real heartland of RL is represented by the Championship clubs rather than Super League, so how they can say that it is "sorted" is displays an extraordinary level of incompetence.

They should hang their heads in shame

They should have their heads chopped off!

 

[J.D. Raaz]

Martin:

Logic tells me that all you have to do is look at the number of Clubs each year that experience serious financial difficulties to understand that resources in that arena are needed.

I'm not speaking of more money from the RFL, but resources with advice, networking, promotional materials, etc.. The attendance figures at the Championship and Championship One level should give the RFL pause.

Keith, you know my opinion about this issue probably better than anyone here. Its not enough that each team stay isolated and worry only about how "we" are doing, there needs to be concern about the health of all clubs in Championship because if one fails or is not doing well it impacts all of us.

Its a frustrating situation to be sure but one can only hope for improvement.

[spacecake]

Championship 1 after next season is going to be reduced to no more than an amateur league, and if Haven are not promoted we may as well join the Brow and Egremont in their amateur league where at least their would be local interest.

Dont worry marra we will go up so will town

[jammy dodger]

Championship 1 after next season is going to be reduced to no more than an amateur league, and if Haven are not promoted we may as well join the Brow and Egremont in their amateur league where at least their would be local interest.

What a load of bull. If we don't go up this year it is hardly the end of the world, as according to you, with the quality of the league being so low, we will walk the league the following year.

The crowds would come flocking to see the Haven winning by 30/40 even 50 points week in week out,