12 January 2018

An SLP Take on the RFL Upheaval


The story dominating the last week has been the news that Nigel Wood is leaving the RFL after 10 years as CEO and 16 years on the RFL board. This comes after he had already stepped down from the Super League board in December. A sideline to this story that's also made the news this week is Roger Draper, the RFL's Chief Commercial Officer for just one year, also stepping down from his role.

Fans have rejoiced at the Wood news across social media, this in the face of an RFL press release crediting Wood for the development of some of Super League's major events and the geographic expansion of our competitions. Here's my take.

It's easy to find criticism of Wood. Crowds have, at best, stagnated from when he took his post in 2007 - a peak year for Super League average attendances. There have been some highly questionable sponsorship deals for our sport during his tenure. There's been a feeling of getting short changed in TV deal processes, despite securing increasing financial sums at each renegotiation. To fans of the sport, the mainstream profile of the sport seems to have gone nowhere. A number of clubs have suffered financially and questions have been raised over the support given to them by the RFL - from all sides. And, probably most importantly, we've tried a number of different formats during Wood's time and we still don't feel closer to a long-term solution that most are satisfied with.

Much of the criticism will have been exaggerated by personal feelings of passionate fans, but it would be foolish of any person to say there's no merit in lots of the concerns and questions raised over Wood's leadership.

In partial defence of the job he did, he came to his role just as a financial crisis was looming that would hit traditional rugby league communities harder, and for longer, than most places. His whole tenure as CEO has been under the cloud of that financial crisis and subsequent austerity. It's fair to criticise the way he has handled the sport's approach to that difficult period, but he can't be blamed for having to handle it, and no-one can realistically deny the impact of the economic circumstances of the last 10 years, particularly in Rugby League heartlands. Crowds haven't really gone down either, they're about where they were a decade ago. Sure there have been ups and downs, but they aren't in a bad place.

Whilst he wasn't solely to blame for licensing, it's obvious that didn't go well and he headed up that period for our sport. I think the theory behind licensing is strong and personally I like that kind of closed league structure as a concept. There were two main issues with it in Super League that Wood has to share in the criticism of. Firstly, it was a big cultural shift for sport in the UK and one that the general fan base never got behind. Fan buy-in is crucial, research surely would have shown it didn't exist, so any credit for applying a strong theoretical idea that's worked in other circumstances gets totally undermined. Secondly, it wasn't operated properly. The clubs still ran as almost completely autonomous and independent entities, still chasing their own agendas and competing with each other for commercial revenues, junior players and fans in the stands. For licensing to have worked, high levels of interdependence and revenue-sharing would have been needed. The man at the top has to take the hit for not properly applying the good theory.

The RFL is now in a better commercial position than it was 10 years ago, although it's fair to say it's not always been in a strong place during that 10 years. Wood deserves some credit for the position he leaves things in, but it's Draper that earned more credit in the press release announcing his departure. News that Betfred have extended their sponsorship in 2018 to cover the Championship and League 1 covers off the glaring black mark on Draper's record - that we made it to January without two of the four competitions having any sponsor. Clearly there's still problems getting the amount and types of sponsors on board across all levels of the professional game that we would want to see. That's not good, and it leaves work to be done by the new people who will come in, but it's better than the place we were in when a commercial deal was putting pictures on trucks.

So where now? Well a popular appointment would probably have been 2013 World Cup figurehead Sally Bolton, but she's ruled herself out. Blake Solly, who finally seemed to have been getting things together when he moved form his RFL role to his Super League role, has also ruled himself out and is happy back in Australia at Souths.

Ralph Rimmer is getting the CEO job on an interim basis. That makes sense for now, but I really hope it's not one of those situations where the interim seamlessly slips into the permanent role with little apparent thought carried out. It would be a completely underwhelming appointment in my opinion. Every criticism of Wood in recent years leaves a stain on Rimmer too in my view. By all means keep him in the RFL. He's experienced and understands the sport's inner-workings well. Even promote him to a new role if the RFL want. But the top role needs to bring in a fresh view.

We need someone who can add something to what we have, because it's clear there's a lot to be learnt from other sports and organisations. Love for rugby league would be a preferable characteristic, but by no means should it be an essential criteria for the new CEO - we can surround them with enough people who have enough passion for the sport that this aspect is covered off. I'm not up on who fits the bill or has the right credentials, but I really hope the RFL board do know what they want, and that they want something more than what they currently have.

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On the Super League board part of all these manoeuvres, as I write this a nice fluff piece promising the best of intentions has been released - read it HERE. We're hearing noises form the club owners about big changes to shake things up and increase Super League's profile.

I have no doubt that there are some clever people running our clubs, with some great ideas to help our game grow. What I fear is that there are also some self-serving people who might be misguided by individual gains - they might even be the same people as the clever people. The key here is the sport, and the clubs need to work together, become understanding at just how interdependent and reliant on each other they are to find success.

When we look at a way forward for the sport, we can't heavily rely on the incumbent Super League club owners, they have too much to lose to make rational decisions to benefit the whole game. We need to add representatives at that table of all the full-time clubs from outside Super League, and all the clubs with a realistic plan to be a full-time club in the near future. We also need a voice for the rest too, just to make sure they aren't forgotten, but right at this time it's the full-time clubs that need to lead on the immediate next step forward for our sport.

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My last note this week is on Nigel Wood's appointment as Chief Executive of the RLIF. Of course, this news has been treated with outright horror by all of Wood's critics. I'm not so sure I see it the same way. It isn't the same as the RFL role he leaves behind. For a start the RFL and the ARLC run so much of the game in it's two biggest territories that it takes some pressure off the RLIF in those areas. And, some of the undoubted successes of Wood's career have been in the international game. See his involvement in a great World Cup and a successful World Cup bid that's gained significant funding to help make that great too. See the expansion of the club game in Europe and North America. The game is growing internationally, but it's not ready in many of those places of growth to jump into the mainstream. Strengthening the roots in these areas of growth and getting more countries to join in that growth is the stage we're at internationally. Let's not run before we can walk.

Wood wouldn't be great at the step where the international game is running, but right now as it's still learning to walk in many places, Wood's combination of passion for the game - a passion that famously got Marwan Koukash to invest in Salford - and his experience of running a national governing body, as well as his global rugby league relationships, is a really good mix to make a success of his RLIF role at this time. Crucially, he can't hold on to that role too long, beyond where those parts of his skill-set are exhausted in their effectiveness. That's something he may have done in Super League and at the RFL.

As always, thanks for reading. I'm sure plenty of people will have their own opinions on this topic so feel free to share them with us!

Don't forget to make your predictions for the 2018 season ahead of us being back in your ears around 29 January. Make your predictions HERE.

Mark
SLP

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