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dontforgetthefueltapsbruv

Barry Hearn and 'player power'

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Rugby League is a sport ran in many parts by lots of well meaning amateurs..

Succesful business people who have invested into 'their' clubs over time and ended up Chairmen, with many enjoying the limelight locally that being in charge brings..

Very similar in fact to the way Football was ran for decades till the mid nineties when 'outsiders' were brought it to run individual clubs by much richer owners who simply stumped up the cash but didn't want the hands on daily routine..

The tail often wags the dog when it comes to the League set up and decisions made, due to the top league being less in numbers than the rest..

There is a clear demarcation between the haves and have nots and both sections have completely different agendas, meaning concensus as to the way forwards is always fraught... 

It has a central body running the sport, but decisions made are often only delivered after already having discussions with all the clubs to gain approval, rather than a truly independent body driving the sport forwards with a clear vision which the clubs then need to adapt too.. 

It has a very 'small time' outlook, with the vested interest of individual clubs holding back any chance of the sports collective progression...

All sounds a bit familiar doesn't it?

 

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7 minutes ago, mikebv said:

It has a central body running the sport, but decisions made are often only delivered after already having discussions with all the clubs to gain approval, rather than a truly independent body driving the sport forwards with a clear vision which the clubs then need to adapt too.. 

It has a very 'small time' outlook, with the vested interest of individual clubs holding back any chance of the sports collective progression...

Day-to-day administration should be independent, and it's advisable to have independent advisors with significant influence to handle specialist areas like marketing and legal matters. Ultimately though, those investing the money and running the clubs ultimately need to have a significant say in the structure and direction of the sport even if they're bad at making the right decisions.

I always think though, that Rugby League hasn't really made the progress it should have done considering the investment it's had over the last 20-odd years.

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Now Buster has invested in 3 teams in the top flight, I'd assume he's trying to control the riders a bit more, especially cost-wise. If he offers a rider, for example, £50 a point less than he was getting last year and the rider refuses, the rider is limited to where he can go to next seeing as he'll find the same problem at another 2 out of the 7 clubs running in the Premiership. If the clubs that Buster doesn't own are full, the rider will either have to lump it, get a job and go semi-professional or retire completely. It could be Buster owning several clubs that starts to put the squeeze on riders earnings, therefore reducing promoters out-goings and keeping clubs afloat. Buster may well be the man to 'save speedway' but at what cost? He does seem to be a man of 'do it my way or not at all'....     Anybody think along the same lines?   

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On 12/13/2018 at 8:01 PM, The Dog said:

Now Buster has invested in 3 teams in the top flight, I'd assume he's trying to control the riders a bit more, especially cost-wise. If he offers a rider, for example, £50 a point less than he was getting last year and the rider refuses, the rider is limited to where he can go to next seeing as he'll find the same problem at another 2 out of the 7 clubs running in the Premiership. If the clubs that Buster doesn't own are full, the rider will either have to lump it, get a job and go semi-professional or retire completely. It could be Buster owning several clubs that starts to put the squeeze on riders earnings, therefore reducing promoters out-goings and keeping clubs afloat. Buster may well be the man to 'save speedway' but at what cost? He does seem to be a man of 'do it my way or not at all'....     Anybody think along the same lines?   

Surely that can be only good for the sport to get the wages down. It's what all fans have been clambering for in debates so top marks to Buster for trying it.

 

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I think it needs to be done to some extent but would it make speedway totally semi-professional and would that attract sponsorship/tv? Plus, it actually stops promoters doing a bit of promoting if they think the outgoings have gone down. On the flip-side, maybe riders do earn more than enough anyway given that not many of them seem to 'work' during the off-season. 

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On 12/9/2018 at 12:35 PM, Humphrey Appleby said:

I'm familiar with the Mark McCormack and IMG's background, but I think it's arguable that he got his start in sports promotion because he was actually one of the (golf) players at that point.

Mainstream tennis professionalised quite late, and prior to that professional tennis was a marginalised sideshow with inconsistent promotion and unstable finances. The first attempts at running a proper tour were actually put together by former players, before the ATP and WTA were founded to give all professional players eventual full control of the sport.

Tennis is a very good example of a sport almost entirely run by the players, and golf substantially so. Of course, golf was one of the first professional sports and there is a long history of the players organising the tournaments they played in.

So I think the point is that a sport run by the competitors and a successful sport are not mutually exclusive things. 

With a few exceptions though, IMG specialise in low budget sport as cheap fodder to fill off-peak television schedules around the world. When they tried to get into mainstream sports it didn't seem to go so well for them.

By contrast, Barry Hearn has found a couple of niches that do well for him, and largely stuck to them. 

Where do you get your information from . Professional tennis has never been run by the players so why print such rubbish

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2 hours ago, mickthemuppet said:

Where do you get your information from . Professional tennis has never been run by the players so why print such rubbish

So what’s the ATP and WTA then? :rolleyes:

Individual tournaments might be run by clubs and promoters, but I was talking about the running of the professional circuits.

More muppetry from Mick.

Edited by Humphrey Appleby
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