A good move for promotion of the game, but bad news for crowds at matches.

4 vg reasons for NOT attending matches now.

  1. No Jeopardy, as IMG will decide who is getting relegated. A team could win every match and go down and another team could lose every match and stay up.
  2. Teams will not be allowed to field their strongest team every week.
  3. The new tackle rule will mean the game will become like tough rugby or 50 penalties each half, and no longer worth watching.
    4 Every match shown, so why have all the hassle of travelling to games.

I expect crowds next season to be down massively on last season.

  • Jun 05 2022
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    Less and Less reasons to go and IMG aren’t interested in crowds through Gates. More teams are going to go to the wall.

    • Jul 06 2022
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    stuey
    The attraction of Jonathon Davies and Brian Noble would be incentive enough for me to get off my arse and go to the game

    • May 30 2022
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    Whilst I welcome continued coverage on free to view TV, there’s no mention of this on the BBC RL Sports pages. How strange…

    Perhaps they’ll nick Adam Hills from C4 rather than stick with the old guard. Mind you Chappers aint too bad.

    • Jun 27 2022
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    back to the bad old days of Eddie waring & empty grounds on Saturday afternoon & Arthur Lampkin doing his scrambling antics, oh dear i fear the worst for our game

    • May 29 2022
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    Eddie Waring was head and shoulders above any commentator since he jacked in, the whole country were aware of Eddies “up and unders” commentary and were also aware of the sport itself
    , Sadly you are right about the attendances,
    Hope you are right about the Lampkins and the scrambling though 🤪

    • May 30 2022
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      pirate Waring had a proper sport to commentate about, with people commited to watching all afternoon and no more than ⅔ other channels as alternatives. Let alone internet on phones etc. Harder for those commentating these days even if they were on Waring’s level, none of them is though.

      • Jan 12 2024
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      My mate sent me this yesterday showing the sky schedule for the first weekend of games. Surprised all of them have ended up pm the sky sports channels. Thought there might have been a variety of platforms being utilised

      • Jul 09 2022
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      Sky Sports February TV Schedule

      Thursday 15th Feb
      Hull FC vs Hull KR (Main Event) – 8pm
      Friday 16th Feb
      Leeds Rhinos vs Salford Red Devils (Arena) – 8pm
      St Helens vs London Broncos (Action) – 8pm
      Leigh Leopards vs Huddersfield Giants (Mix) – 8pm
      Saturday 17th Feb
      Castleford Tigers vs Wigan Warriors (Main Event) – 3pm
      Catalans Dragons vs Warrington Wolves (Arena) – 5:30pm
      Thursday 22nd Feb
      Hull KR vs Leeds Rhinos (Main Event) – 8pm
      Friday 23rd Feb
      London Broncos vs Catalans Dragons (Action) – 8pm
      Warrington Wolves vs Hull Fc (Arena) – 8pm
      Saturday 24th Feb
      Huddersfield Giants vs St Helens (Arena) 5:30pm
      Wigan Warriors vs Penrith Panthers (Arena) – 8pm
      Sunday 25th Feb
      Salford Red Devils vs Castleford Tigers (Arena) – 3pm

      • Jun 05 2022
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      Kind of typical that our first home match and the one we need crowds for is at 3pm on a Saturday. All football fans are otherwise engaged. It’ll be interesting to see the crowd.

      • Jul 06 2022
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      I’ve just seen a social post about Sky’s new commentators. They’ve lined up both Mark Wilson (Ch4) and Dave Woods from the BBC.

      I assume Woodsy will still be doing the Beeb but the addition of Wilson should be an advantage for viewers.

      Correction, Woods has left the Beeb…

      • Jun 27 2022
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      a month later

      Nice to see the BBC plugging the Cas Wigan game during their coverage of the Six Nations, it’s in a prime slot so I’d be hopeful it would attract some decent viewing figures,certainly more than it would get restricted to the Sky platform. Let’s hope we can avoid the drubbings of last season and provide a competitive spectacle. Be interesting to see how the attendance figures are affected.

      • Sep 07 2022
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        Hepworth

        According to the club there’s less than 2k tickets left.

        • May 29 2022
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        That’s great news, corresponding fixture last year was just over 7,500 though we did get over 10,000 for the Saints game first up. From an IMG perspective let’s hope those figures hold up. Need to keep that average over 7,000.

        • Sep 07 2022
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          Hepworth

          Let’s hope the players put a top performance in to keep the fans coming.

          • May 29 2022
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          There may be a reasonable level of interest from Wigan fans. You’d like to think they’d support their team in high numbers..?

          • Jun 27 2022
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          No jeopardy, and ALL matches televised. I expect attendances at grounds to be down massively I hope not though, as it will hav a big impact on income.

          • Jun 05 2022
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