Love Rugby League\u2019s Matt Shaw sat down with Hull KR Chief Executive Paul Lakin to discuss a variety of topics across the game. In part two, they discuss the broadcast deal, NRL investment and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
MS: Looking at the broadcast deal, where do you think the sport is at?<\/p>\n
PL: By the Spring, we should have a clearer idea of where we stand. It\u2019s difficult to tell at the moment, but the broadcast deals go in cycles. You\u2019ve got to keep an eye on what the property rights were before you, and look for some disruption. Before us, it was the Champions League and Europa League, which TNT had and lost. That could be seen as good news as they\u2019ll need to replace the rights of those they\u2019ve lost. Whether they see that as Super League or not, we don\u2019t know. Paramount have come in as a new entry to the market and it\u2019s the same as anything; you want two or more runners in the race to make it competitive. But what materialises is too early to say. We know it\u2019s been on the decline for some time but attendances have never been stronger, viewing figures are strong. I\u2019m not suggesting there\u2019s a major increase but I certainly think it should be improving on what we currently have.<\/p>\n
MS: The facts are the facts on crowds and figures, surely it counts for something?<\/p>\n
PL: I\u2019m not part of it, but I have previously been on the fringes in football and broadcast rights are judged on eyeballs. There\u2019s no doubt that more people are watching our game than in the previous cycle. There are a lot of clubs that have had increases in gates. The likes of Leigh have done a great job with pre-match entertainment, as others have. The improvement at Wakefield is superb. Super League as an entity itself is more attractive than it was three years ago.<\/p>\n
MS: I\u2019m interested in your thoughts on the NRL, and what you think should happen there?<\/p>\n
PL: There is no doubt we want investment in the sport, and if it\u2019s not going to come through the NRL, then I don\u2019t think we can sit and wait. There may be other opportunities for us to explore that are being looked at. If they don\u2019t come to the table, they don\u2019t come to the table. But somebody will.<\/p>\n
MS: It was out there that there was a bid from the Middle East for the World Club Challenge\u2026<\/p>\n
PL: I do believe, as a group of clubs, we should be talking in more detail about interest. If the NRL don\u2019t come to the table, they may miss out.<\/p>\n
MS: What do you think about the Middle East?<\/p>\n
PL: Without dodging the question, I don\u2019t know enough about it. I know that they\u2019ve made a massive surge in the last ten years to put their stamp on sport. As we all know, there\u2019s plenty of money out there. I don\u2019t know enough, but I do know we can\u2019t sit and wait for the NRL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Rugby League\u2019s Matt Shaw sat down with Hull KR Chief Executive Paul Lakin to discuss a variety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-455963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}