Derek Beaumont is a very forward thinking owner and we have seen that with the way he has taken Leigh forward recently including their rebrand from the Leigh Centurions to the Leigh Leopards.
This gives him a good position to talk about IMG and their re-imagining of rugby league which will also see the re-introduction of licencing into Super League.
Speaking on Talksport, Beaumont spoke about IMG and leading the way.
He also called for more clubs to spend big money like Warrington:
“I’m a person that likes change. I like leading by example and driving forward, we’ve got some great clubs coming on. You see Warrington, Simon Moran spends his money, we need more clubs doing that. We just want to add to the best clubs and lead by example.
“With something like IMG and bringing all new and fresh ideas, it it’s always only ever about the game of rugby then some will go home disappointed. We need to attract more people with things in and around the game.”
He also weighed in on the new licencing idea having gone up to Super League through a number of different means:
“I’m probably one of the best people to ask about this because I’ve experienced coming up to a Grand Final from a Championship standard in 2016, through the middle 8’s system. And that was actually a better system because you had to actually beat a Super League team and finish above them in a mini-table, which we did.
“We didn’t finish bottom in Super League so we proved it worked but we still got relegated through the playoffs and then in 2020 we got in through the infamous Super League bid, when Toronto came out of the competition.
“I’ve been there, you’re froze and cast in ice. You can’t recruit because you don’t know when you’re going to get relegated or if you’re going to get promoted. And you can never come up and stay up, that’s why nobody has ever done it.
“I put my neck on the block in May when everyone was recruiting and that’s when I said we were going to make it. This time we’ve got a very good chance.
“In terms of stability, and growing the game and getting better facilities, it’s the right way to be. Make everybody drive the standards to be a Class A club and if we’ve got 20 of them, we’ve got 20 teams in Super League. If we’ve only got 12 then we’ve only got 12.”
