BY STEVE MASCORD
THERE’s a curious aspect to this atomised media world we now inhabit.
Everyone loves doing podcasts and video interviews but when it comes to sifting through the endless white noise of quotes for actual news, there are suddenly few volunteers.
In British rugby league media, that is probably because no-one is being paid very much. It’s fun to talk to sports stars and their coaches and broadcast your conversation to the world. It’s not so fun to transcribe said interview and have enough in-depth knowledge to tell people what’s new and what isn’t.
I have an interest in rock music, in case you didn’t know. In rock music, the people who do the interviews are hobbyists, fans. They will do a Q&A and actually put in “how are you today?” and “good thanks” – as if anybody wants to read that.
The sites that make money are the ones that pluck the eyes out of all those interviews and turn them into news stories. Those journalists may not speak to a musician for a whole week – they just have good news sense and a Facebook account.
I suspect that in some of the Facebook shows and podcasts kicking around, the creators are sort of grateful that reporters aren’t hanging on their every word. Some of these shows are pretty loose and the things said might not come across great when committed to the written word.
Expansionists love to have a go at Leigh benefactor Derek Beaumont and his appearance on Proper Sport’s The Full Eighty Minutes last week was undoubtedly newsworthy, especially after the Backchat show Tweeted him casting aspersions on Toronto’s attendance figures.
He said some really interesting things.“Will they stay around if they get pipped this year?” he said when asked about the Wolfpack, suggesting the club may give up the ghost if not promoted.
Asked by a viewer about “mismanagement and mess” at the Centurions, Beaumont gave a very detailed and newsworthy answer, saying: “The club was never going into administration.
“But unfortunately you’ve got to create a picture to achieve some things. I was more than happy for my character to get assassinated to bring the club to clear waters.
“This year all our season tickets didn’t go on sale until I got rid of the final contract and I knew there were no ongoing liabilities.
“So our club was never in financial trouble because of money owed because it didn’t owe. It was in financial trouble because it had commitments to contracts that it couldn’t afford after failing to make the top four.
“Going from £1.8 million (wages bill) to 1.2 was OK, I could stomach that. I did the planning: if we don’t get back into Super League we lose the £500,000 off the RFL and we’ve only got the £750,000. Am I happy to do that? Yes.
“Therefore I was happy to enter into two- and three-year deals with people to get the team that I thought would get us back into Super League.
“What I never planned for – and the is my ‘mess’ and the thing I got completely wrong – was I never gave a second thought to ‘what if we don’t make the four?’.
“We got the recruitment wrong and that’s the key alert to any rugby club. I’m responsible for that because I own the club. Me, Kieron (Cunningham) and Jukesy (Neil Jukes) did it and we got it wrong and that caused the disarray.
“I could have done what happened at Widnes – take back everything I could possibly get and pass it over to administrators, which I was advised to do.
“Write my loan off, convert it into sponsorship under a sponsorship agreement, benefit from the VAT and I’d have been five, six hundred K better off in my business bank account, the club would have been gone and I wouldn’t have suffered all the abuse and my family wouldn’t have got upset.
“If the club was stuck with the commitments of …. £2.2 million … with £200,000 from central funding this season, which was the picture, then it wasn’t sustainable for me and my wealth to be able to support that.
“So I had to carve the ongoing liabilities.
“It’s a competitive team, not needing money. That club, now if I walk away from it, will wash its own face this year.… It has money in the bank.
“I think I deserve a round applause.
“What was important to me … the fun was on my watch, with my money but at no risk to Leigh Centurions as a business.”
In other words, Beaumont says he fixed the mess he created – although some players lost out along with him.
Wow, I’ve used up too much space illustrating the point about too much good content going through to the keeper these days and now there’s not much left for me to practice what I preach with Mark Flanagan, who was the guest on my own show last week.
It was supposed to be a reunion of the Whippets & Flatcaps podcast but we couldn’t quite co-ordinate with Jon Wilkin.
The show is on hiatus because host Will Perry has been busy with soccer while Mark and John are often separated by that Atlantic.
“We are hopefully doing something towards the end of the year,” Mark says.
On continuing speculation about Salford’s future, he says: “It’s been well documented over the years that Salford isn’t won of the stronger teams in Super League.
“There’s been whispers about financial difficulty and since I’ve been there, I’ve never been a day late. I’ve never seen anything like that but you do hear the rumours and it’s no secret we don’t get the same crowds as other teams and our average attendance was quite a bit below all the other teams last year.
“Having played at the likes of Wigan and Saints, you see the commercial department and the back office and theres’s people everywhere and they’re so well-funded in that respect.
“With Salford they’re struggling with having a bit of a skeleton staff and it’s not as well-financed, and as a consequence run, as other clubs. Hopefully If we can kick on and have quite a good season on the field, that will escalate to off the field as well.
“I do sometimes enjoy playing at away grounds where the atmosphere’s a bit better. We players aren’t dumb. We know that lower attendances probably mean less eyes on the pitch and as a consequence of that, less sponsorship because there’s less interest in the club.
“And that does mean we probably spend less than other clubs. We do notice it but we’re not worried.”
Other interesting points: Mark says it’s possible players are more selfish when they’re playing for a new contract. But, he adds, that won’t affect him – he’s got two years to run on his.
“When I signed my last contract, they wrongly announced I’d signed a two-year deal,” Flanagan says.
“I’d actually signed a three-year deal.”
And there you have it – two interviews for the price of one.
