Thursday Nights - by Mark

I've written about Thursday night games before - you can read that from 2016 here - but they're still around and still a hot-button topic for lots of fans.

Regular followers of SLP will know that I'm a fan of Thursday night games, personally. In summary of my atypical view, I like having the game to watch on TV that night and if my team play if frees up the whole weekend to do things with my non-sports-fan wife. I also don't think it's that hard to get to most of the games if you really want to and the attendances, whilst lower than Friday games, aren't "killing the sport".

This is not to say I don't understand that they don't work best for all fans. People who take their young children to the game, or have a long working commute, or live well outside the game's heartlands all have genuine struggle attending their side's Thursday games.

Indeed, when we polled rugby league fans this year, over 5% had the one change they would make to the sport related to Thursday night games, either getting rid or restricting the travel distances - read the results of our fan survey here.

In the follow-up polls that we're still running, two-thirds of voters so far would approve of restricting the distance sides have to travel to 50 miles (from away team's ground to home team's ground). No voter has Thursday as their best day to attend games. (no-one has a best day that isn't Friday, Saturday or Sunday.) Over a third of voters have it as their worst day to attend games - although, lets be honest people, it isn't actually worse for these voters than Tuesdays or Wednesdays, other than you actually get games on Thursdays. Add your weight to these numbers by voting here.

Anyway, that wasn't really what this post is about. This post is more about giving some facts on who has played most on Thursday nights, since they became a regular part of our Super League scheduling in Round 27 of the 2013 season.

The facts
The table below shows who has played the most Thursday nights games, each sides average Thursday home attendance and average overall home attendances, since Round 27 2013 to time of writing (during 2019 playoffs).

During the six-year run of regular Thursday night action, Castleford Tigers have had the most weeknight matches to contend with, 41 in total. This was brought on by a frankly ridiculous 2019 season of 11 Thursday games, 8 of which were away, including the final three games of their season. One of them was Maundy Thursday, so not quite the same with a bank holiday Friday the day after, but still!

Depending on the season and the structure, it's varied between 28 and 30 Thursday games per season from 2014 to 2019. Obviously, some of these were playoff games. Back in the 14-team days of 2014, sides should have averaged 4 games each on a Thursday. In 2019, it would have been 4.67 each if the 12-sides played the same amount of times. If games were spread out evenly, you would expect the 10 Super League ever-presents over the last six years to have each played roughly 30 Thursday games. You can see that hasn't fully happened. To redress the balance, Salford and Wakefield fans should be sent out on the road for a few more midweek trips over the next two years!

Castleford and Wigan have played roughly 2 of every 9 games on a Thursday night over the last six years. Castleford and St Helens fans have had to do the most travelling, whilst Wigan fans have had their home games most impacted. 

Castleford's 11 in 2019 is the most in one season for any side. Four times before, sides had 8 in a season. Although, only once has a team had more than 4 of their home games in a season on a Thursday night - Huddersfield had 5 in 2018. Not all of these were moved for TV..

10 of the 176 Thursday games weren't televised. These were either Maundy Thursday games or fixtures moved due to stadium access issues. Huddersfield have three of the non-televised games, with London having two and a number of others having one each. 

The thoughts

Outside of Wigan games, Thursday nights don't seem to be hitting crowd figures as hard as some make out. Although, there's clearly a perception that needs addressing if we're still to be used by our broadcasters to fill that otherwise vacant Thursday night team sport spot. 

The first thing needs to be a more even distribution of games. Catalans, understandably, don't host any Thursday night games - if fans find it hard to travel the 123 miles from Hull KR to St Helens (the longest road trip Super League will see in 2020), then getting on a flight makes it even harder. Plus, their home broadcast deal is, and should be, different. If Toronto come up, same applies there. But the rest need to be handed out more evenly. For example, no side needs to play more than three home games or more than three away games on Thursdays - and we make the overseas sides play at least three away to help shape that balance. 

The average UK travel distance in 2020 using the reasonable proxy of ground-to-ground travel will be about 56 miles, or 70 minutes in good conditions. Now, we know that 5:30pm to 7:30pm isn't always good conditions to travel across the north. 

So, as well as a more even spread of games for each side, no side's supporters should be expected to negotiate the travel conditions of both Manchester and Leeds areas on the same trip. That, for me, means no-one east of Leeds or west of Salford travel past Huddersfield on a Thursday night. I'd maybe let Leeds play Salford, as that trip is under 50 miles, so even with traffic at both ends it's not unreasonable to get between the two after work for a 7:45pm kick-off.

We know from the Super League leadership that Thursday night games are here to stay at least for the medium term. Sky Sports, our broadcast partner and main source of finance, like the slot. I've always said us fans should make the most of that TV exposure. Hopefully with these two tweaks we'll see a way to make more people like Thursday night games as much as I do!

Thanks as always for reading. Please share and comment with your own, constructive, thoughts. 

Mark

SLP

Some Ideas for Rugby League

I'm going to try and keep this short and simple, but wanted to put out a few ideas that have been rattling around my head recently...

1) Kick goals quicker to speed things up!
Shot clocks are on the table, and if we can afford to get them in effectively they are are a must! But what about changing an old rule that makes games drag on? The minute for a kick at goal rule. What about changing this so that you still get a minute for any kicks at goal, but you have to kick it within the minute - if the minute expires, you forfeit the kick. For conversions, it just reverts to the kick off and for penalties, it just reverts to a 20m drop out as if the kick was missed.

2) Make the loop games events!
We're getting them next year, so let's make the most of them. Any repeat fixture needs to be wrapped up into an event - Armed forces day, Heritage game, Charity game, Family day, on-the-road game etc. The big way to keep an audience interested is to give them something different, and if the opponent can't be then make sure something else is.

3) Get smart with Thursday ticketing!
Until we sell out every game other than Thursday games, I can't see them going (and I like them anyway). So, how can we boost crowds for those games? I'll skip the obvious of minimising travel distances and suggest two measures, one for home fans and one for away fans:

• Free upgrade of junior season tickets to adult game tickets - if people don't want to take kids on a school night, let them take a mate instead.
• Flat rate low-price away tickets for all Thursday games - £10 for adults, £5 for concessions, across the board.

Let us know what you think across social media channels and also don't forget to check out our latest show!

Super League Thursdays

I've wanted to write something about Thursday TV games for a while, but not known what to say. Or, more precisely, how to say what I want to say.

Thursday TV games are great. I love them. If my team are playing it means I get to go see them and then have the full weekend to spend with the wife, keeping her happy. It gives me some quality sport entertainment to watch during the week too - I'm not one for darts and I find it harder and harder to enjoy a football match, so having mid-week Rugby League for me is brilliant. It's something to look forward to watching.

That's the easy bit to say.

The harder bit to say is all you out there that don't like them, that moan about them, just like to use the Thursday thing as an excuse to stay at home and watch the game on the TV and not be there to support your team. There I said it. It feels good to get that off my chest.

I'm not saying there aren't genuine reasons for some people not going to games on Thursdays, just as people have genuine reasons that they can't attend games on any day of the week. Awkward work shifts, trouble getting babysitters, need to attend other functions and events, going on holidays, sickness, affordability. There are loads of acceptable reasons.

Apparently though, only Thursdays are bad. Ruining the game, No good for supporters. No good for families. I can't agree, and I don't really believe most of you lot out there really think that way too.

Fridays tend to have more 'headline' fixtures in the TV spot, but the available Thursday TV viewing figures from 2015 stack up pretty well against them. An overall average of a touch over 110,000 for the regular season Thursday fixtures and a best of 156,000 according to Rugby League on TV data. That best figure being the 5th best overall regular season viewing number. We also know from our experience that plenty of you guys tune in to the Thursday games, based on the massive amount of your reviews we get on these each week.

It also can't be financial, because ticket prices are no higher for Thursday games. We now have free away travel for all season ticket holders too, although that is a fairly new initiative. Basically, there's no reason a Thursday game is less affordable than a Friday, Saturday or Sunday game.

So, it must be getting to the games that's the problem. Well, all the Thursday TV games are scheduled for the whole regular season from the off, so that gives plenty of time to plan for them. They kick off at the same time as Friday games, so in theory people have the same amount of time to finish work and get to games - most people that work a Monday-Friday 9-5 work week will have the same working hours on a Friday as a Thursday I assure you. I can't imagine traffic is much easier on a Thursday than a Friday either - although I have no empirical support for that statement.

I know one thing for sure, it's not because of the travel distance. Using an unwieldy but not entirely unreasonable assumption (that all fans travel from the home stadium to the away one!), the average away travel distance for UK fans in Super League is 55.8 miles, with an average journey time of 68 minutes - or about half an SLP episode! The average away travel distances on Thursday games since they became a firm feature for 2014 is 42.3 miles and less than an hour travel time - it falls to 36.7 miles if you take out the two 2014 fixtures that included London Broncos. I also looked at the correlation between travel distance and change in crowd size from the same fixture the previous year - there is none. Well, there's a weak negative relationship between the two with an indication that the two variables - distance between teams and change in crowd - have almost no link or causality (a correlation coefficient of -0.110 and an r-squared value of 1% if you're interested).

I think the travel distances and times also shut down some of the criticism that it's no good for fans who work during the week. Yeah, it's no good for people who work Thursday nights! But there will be shift workers who'll miss games whenever they are scheduled for - that's the nature of shift work, and not all Rugby League fans can get to all games if they work shifts. Simple. (although I've already pointed out the whole Thursday schedule is laid out before the season, but I digress.) Many fans that stay in and watch the games on TV will enjoy the coverage until it's 10:30 end to catch Jon Wells at the touch screen with one of the stars on show. The game ends at say 9:50. Give it 10 minutes to get to the car and get going. Then your average 50 minute travel time for an away fan. Most fans will still be home by 11:00 - and with a big majority of any crowd being home fans, you'd argue they're mostly back much earlier than that, probably the same time the TV viewers are heading off to bed.

Yes, there are some people who legitimately travel long distances to see their team play, making a weekday game very difficult for them to travel to and from on a regular basis. They are the minority though. Probably not even 1%.

I think that really just leaves the 'it's no good for families' argument then. Ok. Soon I'll give you some numbers and graphs - although as always with statistics, they can be used to support different arguments and picked apart as widely as you want to. Before that though, what do we mean by families? I'd wager we mean parents with children aged between 5 and 12. Younger than that and you probably won't take them to loads of games anyway, and if even if you did, there's probably not much to stop them sleeping through the following day. Older than that and the odd later week night isn't going to do them any harm, they're probably up in their bedrooms snap chatting until late in any case.

Thursdays get the second best average crowds of any day in the history of Super League, dating back to 1996. Only Fridays have a better average all-time crowd number.

These figures are open to percentage skew because of the relative small number of Thursday games until 2013, before which they tended to just be big Easter derbies. (Also, I'm aware Fridays tend to be the normal home game of the best attended sides - Leeds, Wigan, Hull FC, St Helens - and Sundays are the traditional home day of lesser attended sides.)

You'll see from the changes through time that as Thursday games became more commonplace, their absolute and relative position in the averages has fallen. Despite overall average crowds trending upwards and being in a healthy relative position up to Round 11 2016, Thursday crowds are not doing the same. Mondays enjoy a relative bump though thanks to Thursdays no longer being an Easter preserve.

Still, they're commonly better attended than other days. You know, those days when you can get 'families' to and from the game between bedtimes, with no worry of school the next day - those days we call Saturdays. And, for that matter, in many cases Sundays too, where there may still be tomorrow's school to worry about, but not bedtimes.

Obviously, the 'family' factor is one that deserves more investigation - numbers of young fans that each club has for example - but I'm just not seeing it as the problem that it gets referred to as. The same goes for Thursdays as a whole. Like I said, I think people like the excuse - and to have something to moan about. We need to get used to it though - Thursdays aren't going away. We need to realise that the money is in the TV audience rather than on the terraces, even though we'd love them both to be bigger.

I've found that, on average, a Thursday fixture attracts a crowd 888 people less than that same fixture the year before - although these are imperfect comparisons as weather, significance of the match and also some of them being on Thursdays the year before aren't factors accounted for. 15 games saw an increase and 42 had a drop in crowds since the start of the 2014 season compared to the same fixture in the previous regular season.

We can play some very simplistic and crude number games from this. Lets assume a per ticket price of £20, which is generous given lots of children will get in free and many other attendees would be concessions of some sort. I'm also not considering if an extra 800+ on a crowd means more costs to the home side. You get an average loss on ticketing of £17,760. Based on what Leigh owner Derek Beaumont said during the 2015 Super 8s, Super League clubs can get £20,000 per TV game they host. That's outside of the per-team yearly riches that are handed out from the long-term TV deal the league is locked in to.

However you dress it up, Sky like Thursdays and the club owners and money men must like them too. Lots of fans aren't put off by them - far more than are, they're just less vocal about it. We have to get used to them. We should embrace them, they aren't going away any time soon. I say lets make Thursday nights great for the game. Plan ahead, make as many games as you can and watch all the rest. Treat the couple of home games you might get as a bonus, freeing up the rest of your weekend. Do the maths on the away games to figure out if you can make them, when you do you'll probably realise they aren't the inconvenience you've decided they are. If I can do it as a Wigan fan, who already lives almost the average Thursday travel distance from our home ground, then I'm sure most of you can too. (note: Wigan have had more Thursday games than any other side in the whole Super League era and the recent Thursday TV era.)
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Before I leave this, a couple more points on the crowd by day numbers. Why aren't Castleford, Huddersfield, Hull KR, Salford, Wakefield, Warrington and Widnes trying more Friday night games? Why aren't Saints trying a few more Sunday games? And why oh why is anyone other than Catalan playing on a Saturday? I write this on the same weekend Salford set a new low figure for 2016 on Saturday 30 April of 3,048.

Anyway, rant over. I feel cleansed. Hopefully getting this off my chest will improve my focus on my Dream Team and SuperBru performance.

Mark
SLP

Super League Round 2 Recap

Round 2 was a game short of a full round with Wigan down under losing to the Roosters in the World Club Challenge, but there were still a number of top match ups.

More on the Thursday night's game below, but the two biggest match ups came on the Friday, with four 2013 play off sides meeting each other.

Sky's live game was Leeds v Warrington. We saw an improvement from the Wire on their first round effort. There is still a question over the kicking game and they had a lot of ball in the 2nd half in good attacking territory so the creativity in the team without Briers may still be a concern. On the flip side, Leeds goal defence was outstanding and Zak Hardaker had a very impressive game in attack and defence. Leeds were the better side and deserved the win.

The other big game was an emotional affair as Steve Prescott was remembered when his two former teams St Helens and Hull FC met. A tight first half and a point a minute second half gave Saints a +12 in the race for the inaugural Steve Prescott Cup the sides will play for each year to remember the  inspirational fundraising hero that wore both club's colours with distinction. Saints fan and friend of the podcast (not an oxymoron) Andy Smith was there for the game - here his thought on the night's emotion on this week's show. Not for the first time in Langtree Park history, James Roby was a star man - leading his team in tackles, carries and tries, the second of went a long way towards sealing the win.

Round 2 results and tweets

Home			Away			Attendance
Wakefield	10	(4)	Bradford	23	(10)	4049
Leeds	18	(12)	Warrington	12	(6)	16164
St Helens	34	(6)	Hull FC	22	(10)	13448
London	18	(6)	Salford	44	(26)	1246
Huddersfield	24	(24)	Hull KR	24	(6)	7180
Castleford	32	(12)	Catalan	6	(6)	5104
					Average attendance	7865

Wakefield v Bradford
Dean Williams, Wakefield fan (@deanofthenorth): Bulls better defence earn win in scrappy match riddled with errors. Inconsistency from players and officials. #forgettablerl
Alan Cale, Bradford fan (@shoddynmungo): scrappy but Bulls fought hard, Disko and Gale played better behind a good pack performance. Adjusted well to losing Gaskell

Leeds v Warrington

Steve, Warrington fan (@wildywotsits): better performance this week. Second half particularly. Great effort from the new boys and the half back combo much better.
Martin Ramshaw, Warrington fan (@martinramshaw): Was always a tough one for Wire. Encouraging signs but fear it may be too late by the time we get our season up and running

Huddersfield v Hull KR

Marie Wright, Huddersfield fan (Wychwoodlady): Poor 2nd half from Giants, plenty of opportunity that we didn't turn into points.
Joseph Ward (@johjohn114859): Giants far too casual HKR never say die spirit  deserved their draw great kick by Burns  under pressure . Respect opposition

Observations and star performers

Its appropriate this week to start this section with two outstanding defensive efforts. Jamie Peacock, 36 years old, completed 54 successful tackles on Friday night against Warrington - his inspirational efforts are still setting standards despite his senior status. Tommy Lee went even better, with 57 tackles for Salford at old club London in an 80 minute display than he isn't necessarily renowned for. A count of 57 tackles was only bettered three times in the entire 2013 regular season, that should signal just what a special effort Lee, and Peacock, put in. The other defensive effort we want to applaud was young Danny Bridge - 36 tackles, no misses. 

Justin Carney deserves special praise as the only man to get a try hat trick this week. He also totted up a massive 197m on 22 carries. However he was outperformed in the metres gained by Jake Mullaney of Salford, who got 198m on 17 carries as he constantly knifed through the London defence. 2 tries and 1 try assist, 8 table busts and 147m as well, means Zak Hardaker had a noteworthy Friday night in front of the Sky cameras. 14m per carry for both Tom Briscoe and Kris Welham led the week for this particular figure.

All those singled out for attack above are exciting backs, but a special mention is deserved for a forward too - Alex Walmsley led the way for tackle busts with 10 in his 168m. Ben Westwood led forwards in metres gained with 184m in his try scoring exertion at Leeds. Gareth Hock deserves a mention too as week 2 leading offloader with 6.

Not everyone had a round to remember off course. Danny Kirmond had a rare poor day with 8 missed tackles against Bradford and to be frank he didn't look fully up to speed on Thursday night. Scott Moore of London and Ben Pomeroy of Catalan joined him on this figure, showing missing tackles in such numbers is likely to mean a loss for your team. Lots of players had 3 errors but Ryan Atkins had the distinction of leading this category with 4.

Unfortunately after pondering last week if this could become the year of the 40-20, there was only one in round 2, kicked by Tony Gigot in a losing effort down at the hive.

Last week we talked about the incidence of dirty play and all the calls from the TV commentators for cards to be shown. This week, we've started to see the cards coming. 

Many won't be surprised that Gareth Hock was the first to see a card, seeing yellow and a 10 minute cool down just after half time at London. We talk more about it in the show, but basically he felt wronged by an apparently accidental poke in the eye and decided to take retribution at his next chance. Sin bin sufficient for us but needless action by Hock who never seems to learn. The yellow cards flowed at Huddersfield and Castleford too as first fights were the order of the day. It was 11 v 12 at one point at John Smith's Stadium.

As well as cards, we've seen some bans handed out again, Catalan being the major recipient with Julien Bousquet being the second Dragon to get a 4 match ban for dangerous contract already this season after Oliver Elima got the same from round 1. Eddy Pettybourne and Dean Collis took 1 match early guilty pleas and Justin Poore got a 1 match ban for his part in the Huddersfield brawl.

Feature game - Wakefield v Bradford

Tom had a great trip to Wakefield, one of those rare good days to be a Bulls fan in recent times. 

As for the trip as a whole, we enjoyed it. Neither of us had been to Wakefield for a good few years, not that the place has changed much. We arrived about three quarters of an hour before the kick off time. Free on road parking very close to the ground was easy to find, which was a bonus - we got in and out faster than we had at the shinier newer Salford Stadium.

There isn't so much outside or assertions the ground but another thing we preferred at Belle Vue were the refreshment stands in the ground. They were well stocked and reasonably priced. 

The pre-game 'entertainment' was just a string of young dance troupes that the club announcers seemed very proud of, but not much to inspire the crowd. It gave time to browse the reasonably priced match programme, which at £2.50 had a lot to read with plenty of general rugby league content rather than just specific Wakefield content.

On the field the game was largely a poor affair. The ground looked very heavy and two sides with plenty of issues and little pace were never going to serve up a classic game of attacking rugby, particularly on a short turnaround. Sloppiness and plenty of errors made this a game a poor watch but because of what is at stake this year there was still tension, which does help create some sporting drama in what was mostly a subdued atmosphere.

Although the game was littered with dropped ball and missed tackles, there was the occasional flash of quality - Brett Kearney's catch and spin for his try, Dean Collis' excellent offload for Peter Fox to break clear and Adam O'Brien's quick play out of dummy half to grab his try and help seal the game were bright moments of quality.

Manese Manuokafoa impressed us both throughout with some very strong running making him the Bulls top metre maker whilst others like Sidlow and debutant Mullally did some tough work too. Matt Diskin got Sky man of the match but we were most impressed with Luke Gale who organised the team around and was very active in attack and defence. He looks to have copied with loss of last year's partner Jarrod Sammut by relishing in the extra responsibility of being a real team leader and is one Bradford player who deserves real credit so far in 2014.

Gale's drop goal finished the scoring and the small group of Bradford fans in the crowd were able to smile for a brief time until the whole ownership issue unravelled again following the hefty points deduction this week.

We left with a happy Tom and gambled a bit on the petrol, just reaching the Tesco at the end of the M55 in time. We talk about all this and some more in Episode 6 of Super League Pod.

Round 2 - Wakefield v Bradford Preview

Two of the favourites for the drop face off on Thursday Night Super League this week, so it could be an early season four pointer.

On previous episodes of Super League Pod bad news stories from both Wakefield and Bradford have been a common occurrence in our news round ups.

One interesting sideline to the game is the recent release of Jarrod Summut to join the Wildcats from the Bulls. Tom isn't too disappointed - he thinks his Bulls need solid, consistent and determined players who will work hard in defence as well as attack. In short, he isn't bothered Sammut has gone.

On the flip side, Wakefield needed attacking flair with Tim Smith gone and fans criticising the pedestrian nature of the half back combos they've had play in the trial games. Now with Sammut and Godinet, they should be able to complement the grit and determination that Richard Agar has instilled in his team in the past with a bit of skill.

Last season


Bradford had the better of things in the Super League meetings last term. The Round 1 win was as dominant as they would be all year in terms of metres gained and was the game that they saw the most possession of the ball over the course of the season. It didn't matter on this occasion that the Bulls tackling was woeful because they hardly had to do any of it. The attacking kicks numbers suggest most of the game was played close to the Wakefield sticks, but it isn't hard to understand why. High numbers of errors and penalties by Wakefield gave Bradford plenty of opportunities with ball in hand. Bradford were making so much ground with a very high 24 successful offloads putting Wakefield on the back foot and making them work even harder.

The reverse meeting was a closer affair on the scoreboard and Wakefield had much more of the ball than the first encounter. Most of the numbers that were skewed in favour of the Bulls in Round 1 were much more even in Round 23. In the end, the big difference was the missed tackles by Wakefield - their defence wasn't strong enough and it allowed Bradford to outscore them...just!

Form guide

Both sides had some disappointing trial games that give us a clue that these clubs will, as was already expected, struggle in 2014 and be in or around the relegation zone before restructure.

Bradford fans would say not to read too much into the Dewsbury game as it was a very young side that ran out there, but the Castleford trial game was an ominous scoreline. Things weren't quite so bad in the repeat fixture for Round 1, but Bradford still lost and that will put extra pressure on them for this big clash. By all accounts it was a lack of concentration and execution in the second half that saw Castleford take control and Bradford run out of steam.

Wakefield may also say not too much should be read into the trial games, as they didn't have any of their new signings yet. Something can be read in to their season opener though, which really they only lost from poorer goal kicking on the day, and Ali Lauititi was convinced he should have had another try but we were too far away to judge. What we did see is Reece Lyne drop a great chance to score near the end. Wakefield showed flashes of threat in the first half and controlled the second half against Salford. They looked further ahead of where we expected them to be with a quarter of their squad only just getting on board, but debutants Pita Godinet and Matt Ryan imposed themselves on the team and grabbed tries, with Paul McShane also very impressive.

Wakefield certainly played the full 80 minutes and its something Bradford will have to match them on if they are to take anything away from this early season relegation four pointer. It should be tense and enjoyable for the restricted attendance that will be in town. If you're going to the game, we'll see you there!

Other games in Round 2
21/02/2014 20:00 Leeds v Warrington *live on Sky Sports
21/02/2014 20:00 St Helens v Hull FC
22/02/2014 15:00 London v Salford
23/02/2014 15:00 Huddersfield v Hull KR
23/02/2014 15:30 Castleford v Catalan
TBA Wigan v Widnes *re-arranged due to Wigan playing in WCC, live on Sky Sports 22/02/2014 09:30

Listen to our predictions on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.

Thursday games
We saw a few Thursday night games at the end of the 2013 Super League season and they've been brought in as a more regular feature in 2014.

Despite them being played for a number of seasons in the Championships, bringing them to Super League has brought a whole lot of discussion from fans.

Mark thinks they should be a good thing for the sport commercially, as TV coverage is significant for club revenues if the sport is to progress and this will give the game exposure with less direct opposition from football, six nations rugby or prime television than Saturday evening games give us. The only real drawback he sees is it started the marginalisation of the Championships that resulted in that competition getting no live TV coverage in 2013 sadly. The moans of fans not being able to get to games is a less significant factor for Mark, its no different to a Friday night game for post-work travel issues and away followings aren't huge all across Super League anyway. Also, many of the announced Thursday night games are local affairs, and others have been announced long enough in advance that people can book their holidays appropriately if they feel they can't miss a game live. Maybe, it might have an impact on the amount of young kids that will be able to go to these games, but then again, its only one game a week and a couple of games each team.

We put the question of Thursday night games out on Twitter and here are some of the opinions you gave:

Ady Heaton ‏@wiganadheaton: Good for sky only.

Andy Barden ‏@Electric_gig: Good for the Sky Sports viewer, if its a big fixture. Also easier to watch then weekend afternoon games. You try watching afternoon games with Wife and Kids.

Paul ‏@mozza_Leeds: I personally think Thursday and Monday games are good. The only stipulation is that they should be derby games only. Cross Pennines games and London/France home games are not fair on the core fans, SL seem to forget about core fans.

Alan Cale ‏@shoddynmungo: Gives us a clear chance to showcase the game with little competition from other sports, let's see how attendances hold up

Martin Ramshaw ‏@martinramshaw: They're more conducive to a happy marriage than Friday nights!

andrew ‏@nuttyboyzok: Rubbish and stupid idea worse than Monday night games. The atmosphere is usually flat as not many away fans make it especially from Yorkshire

Listen out for us discussing all this and much more on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.