Josh Harris

Giving a deadline on something you want that the other side cannot commit to is a gun to the head approach akin to a ransom. I will make clear here the position of me and therefore @LeighLeopardsRL something I have also previously told PVL. It is not right to just put London in SL. The rules at the start of the year were that IMG grading determines SL. Therefore if clubs were to agree to expand then it would need to be Barrow or there is risk of legal consequences. If the expansion is not at full funding and barrow didn’t want to enter then it’s not simply next team down it would need to be an application process as per the precedent set the previous year to increase to 14 teams. Therefore I will not vote to add London to SL without due process and most certainly not because someone insists upon it without substance and hadn’t previously done so. When PVL met with clubs via teams he inferred that SL would like 15 teams. I asked him where had he obtained that information. He stated only from London. Well off course they would like 15 teams so would salford and Widnes and Doncaster to name but a few if they were the 15th team. There was no insistence in that meeting that London were a part of it however having wet the appetite in the pitch it then became a condition and furthermore that the guaranteed funding to clubs would have to be reduced to include them. Let’s pause here and remember that this person as chairman of who would control SL under the deal has in a short space of time significantly changed the goal posts from what he said to what then became the offer. If I am to vote to give control of our game it must be with unequivocal trust and unfortunately that is not possible. Then there is the reasoning for London well he quoted in the meeting 750k Australians are in London. In our post meeting we all felt it was a mistake and the number closer to 75k yet he is still making that claim in the press. Again I need to be sure we are working with accuracy and I am not. London is not in London it is in Wimbledon and despite being in SL for long periods it has never achieved a fan base nor has it captured whatever the number actually is in the UK that despite a blow away season winning all bar one game. Furthermore I would argue that not all Australians support rugby league. Then there is the fact that the NRL through DAZN I am told has an app that these people can subscribe to watch the NRL yet only 12k subscribe. How it is perceived having London in SL will drastically change that is explained only because they know the Brisbane broncos. I am sorry but that doesn’t make commercial sense to me. Then the bigger issue. Including London means they don’t play in Magic and are granted a 2 point by. It also means that not all teams play each other and therefore an unfair skewed league all be it different it is akin to loops. The calendar proposed I will not support even if London was correctly entered by a fair and robust process. Now the important part. I have wasted a lot of your time reading this far because that’s just opinion on a sticking point to an offer that does not deserve such a description. It is unbalanced and is a purchase through broadcast with any risk underpinned with equity that terminates after five years when PVL will walk away with an app that has acquired all UK eyes on what I must confess is a better product of the game as it stands that people will have become accustomed to and won’t cancel and we will be left with no IP and starting again. Lastly the craziest part is we are being asked to support this with no business plan or presentation being told that these crucial elements will be decided within the first 6-12 months of the deal when they will have already been handed control. Unfortunately many will vote in favour because they see the sugar shot of a short term increase in funding that in reality is the most expensive loan with the worst conditions attached that the sport could ever obtain!