The TV deal is always a frustration for me. At the moment, Lebron is right. The only company who would pay a workable rate would be Sky. Premier Sports would probably bid for part coverage, possibly ITV too. But certainly those bids would be tiny in comparison to the Sky deal. Doing that tender may well make Sky look for alternatives.
But it's a frustration because the RFL are so, so weak commercially. Going back 10 years, domestic league had bigger attendances than the Union competition and far, far bigger viewing figures. Yet when the TV deal came around, theirs was always higher. Union has that snobby 'inner circle' ability to attract sponsorship and commercial deals that they don't even attempt to equate to a financial return. We need some of that. Get some commercial big hitters on board and get them doing the deals for us, not big Nige and his RFL cronies.
The sport over here is in a true mess. I'll bet we're back to semi pro status within 5 years. Any problems at Sky, which is not impossible if they lost the football deal or a better TV alternative came along, would probably see us lose half the teams in SL in one go. It goes further than that, there is no investment or funding for the junior game or amateur game, it's not growing as a sport and other sports are. Union is looking to go truly global and predictions are it will rival football for TV saturation within 5 years, with the US joining Japan and China in having domestic competitions with funding way, way in excess of the NRL. League is at a crossroads, Super League kept the sport going for 20 years, but it's now back to semi pro status or have another reorganisation. The latter really isn't an option with the clowns in charge of both the clubs and the sport over here currently.
As for raising the cap, it's not possible. There isn't the money to fund it through anything other than unsustainable owner-generated injections of money. You might get one or two to stay, but you'd end up with a warped competition and a very real risk of even the big clubs going bust. We're just going to have to accept being a feeder competition for both the NRL and Union for the foreseeable future, until someone comes up with a viable plan B to move the sport forward.
