BY JOHN DAVIDSON
IT HAS been two and a half years since Robert Elstone took over as the CEO of Super League.
Thirty months since he was appointed, since Super League split from the Rugby Football League, and he started with the aim of improving the promotion, marketing and selling of the competition.
At the time, as he left Everton to rejoin rugby league, he said: “At the heart of the Premier League’s success is compelling football played by some of the world’s best players in great stadia that are almost always full. And, whilst there are many obvious economic differences, it is the quality of the product that has underpinned its appeal and growth.
“Super League needs to start at that same point by investing and improving what we offer to fans, partners and broadcasters. That’s a big scope, which includes formats, calendars, rules, refereeing, facilities and player development and I’m looking forward to working with the Super League clubs, and building a team around me, firstly to determine that way forward but, most importantly, to begin to make it happen.”
The split from the RFL did end Nigel Wood’s control at the top of the sport, which was one of its undoubted but unclaimed aims. But more than 900 days on, what else has the breakaway and Elstone really achieved? Not a lot, it seems.
Part of the issue for Elstone is that he has never really had control. He has not been a dominant leader; it has been power by compliance alongside the different views and agendas of the 12 Super League clubs. He has not had sole control to do as he pleases.
Part of the issue has been a faction that has tried to undermine him at several turns. A certain alliance exists that has sought to unstabilise him time and time again, with those individuals obvious in both clubland and the media.
Another component has been Covid-19.
The pandemic has put a screaming halt on the competition, on its revenue streams and any spending plans. The marketing program and content creation instigated by The City Talking, for example, has been canned because of cost cutting.
But also Elstone has played his own role in his lack of success.
Part of the whole point of hiring him, and splitting away, was to give Super League more publicity, more media air, more oxygen and headlines and interest. To keep people talking and noticing the competition more. This has not happened.
And a central tenet to this is the fact that the ex-Blues boss has not engaged with journalists or tried to stir the pot. He has not made it his mission to get the media onside or make himself available. Peter V’landy’s? Nope. Dana White? Not even in the same stratosphere.
When it comes to the media Elstone has been missing in action.
Now he may want to do his work behind the scenes. Focus on planning and governance and issues below the surface, such as private equity and the TV deal and fixtures and the like. That is his decision.
But you can’t have it both ways.
You can’t claim to be out to get rugby league to ‘break out of the bubble’ in the UK and at the same time be invisible to the vast majority of fans and media. It simply doesn’t work. You can’t do that if you don’t have the runs on the board.
It may go against the culture of British rugby league, it may go against the working-class mentality and the DNA of the sport, but Super League needs a talker, a showman, some razzmatazz, a pit bull, an agitator.
It needs a focal point who will get people talking, get editors taking notice, get fans energized and get brands involved.
V’landy’s understands that. White understands that. Maurice Lindsay certainly understood it.
What we don’t need is another lawyer or accountant to quietly go about their business, change little and ultimately fail to deliver.
So two and a half years on it is time to take stock.
Private equity investment has been knocked back. The TV deal is set to be less than the previous one, but Elstone is not solely to blame for that and current economic circumstances have to be taken into account. Attendances have not really gone up, or down. New sponsors have not been found or brought in.
The profile or newsworthiness of Super League has not increased. In fact, it’s probably the opposite.
The shrinking of the general media industry and Covid-caused retraction has not helped, although Elstone and his staff have not done enough to try and combat that.
Yes, Wood was kicked out of Red Hall, but his influence still lingers. He is the owner of Bradford Bulls. He still retains close supporters in places like Headingley, Dewsbury, Batley, Featherstone, the RFL and elsewhere.
Not a whole lot has changed in Super League since June 2018.
And now with money tighter than ever, and return on investment more important, we need to look to the future. If Super League’s split from the RFL has failed to achieve its aims, and cost cash that we no longer have, then where does that leave us and Elstone?
