I think some people make the huge mistake that RL and RU are in a fight to the death with each other and other sport.
On a talent basis there is some evidence for this, players can cross codes, but the demise of RU to RL and RL to RU has been way overstated by bothsides for decades.
In terms of a watching market the fight to the death senario is way off mark.
A supporter can be a RU fan, a RL fan or both. They are not mutually exclusive. Same for playing. Tescos has been the biggest Super market in the UK for some 20 - 30 years. However this does not exclude other supermarkets from taking a market share. This is in a market where competition can be exclusive. (If you buy a ready meal at one super market then that same meal would not be bought elsewhere) were as you can buy both saints and sale tickets for most matches as they don't compete at the same time frame.
I fully understand that football is the behemoth in the UK, but this does not mean other sports cannot run and run alongside taking a market share.
The thinking that the biggest has to take all just shows an ignorance of markets and economics, it's very rarely winner takes all, or Apple would have given up years ago when Windows was the behemoth in opperating systems and intel in chip manufacturing.
It's about developing your own market base regardless of your comparitive size.
I can't recall a time when crowds where as big as they are now. Yes in the 80's and 70's you got 30k watching Saints Wigan, but that then ignores the 5k crowds for oldham, barrow etc.
We get consistently large SL crowds nowa days and the fluctuations between max and min crowds for each team are much lower.
Trying to tackle clubs overspending is almost impossible. Fans demand results, boards chase results, results are brought by players, who cost money and the best players tend to cost the most. Therefore the best teams tend to have to spend more so the most successful clubs also tend to be the highest spending, however income is limited as fans are not like shoppers. People don't tend to buy sporting success. A wigan fan will not change shop to Saints because Saints win. Where as in other markets if Tescos spend more to get try and get extra customer they can take it off a rival.
So in sport you can spend alot short term, but the turn around in income from fans has a large lag to that success. So for alot of clubs that short term investment will never produce the required income as they cannot spend at that level with the lag being so slow to follow success.
RL could impose rules to protect against the spending short term beyond clubs income. But whether clubs would vote for this, knowing it would mean that you could never shoot ahead but would have to evolve your way up the league is doubtful. Sport works on that level of hope that this year is your year. And clubs are no different to fans in that respect.
