Super League CEO gives IMG timeline and verdict

Back in the summer of 2022, it was confirmed that sports marketing agency IMG would be partnering with the RFL to try and move Rugby League more ‘commercially viable’ but two years on, what’s changed in Super League?

That’s a question that many fans will ask with plenty unhappy with the progress made under IMG but one Super League side’s chief executive officer has given his verdict of when the progress can truly be judged.

That man is Wigan Warriors’ Kris Radlinski, who has previously accepted that it’s been ‘slow progress’ but he’s now spoken again prior to the confirmed gradings that are revealed at the end of the year.

In late October the official IMG grades that determine the make up of Super League will be announced but Radlinski has insisted that grading is simply the start, “a place to get us to the next step” is how he described it when speaking on the BBC Sport 5 Live Rugby League podcast.

Officially, October 23 has been labelled as the date for when grades will be revealed and we will know who is in and who’s missed out on Super League for 2025.

Has IMG been good for Super League?

One man who has refused to wait for IMG to make changes is Kris Radlinski with the Wigan CEO taking the bull by the horns and going above Super League and straight to the NRL to organise the club’s game in Las Vegas next year.

However, Radlinski and Wigan are typically an exception to the rule with the club being one of the dominant forces in Super League, thereby safe under IMG which is something that can’t be said for all clubs.

Asked on BBC’s 5 Live Podcast, how he would review IMG’s influence so far, Radlinski argued that progress had been made at each and every club.

He explained: “I think all the clubs have looked at the different criteria, the different areas, and you can see if you go to stadiums, there have been improvements made.

“I think if you speak to anyone from IMG, they will admit that they’re perhaps not as far along as they would like to have been but I can visibly see that clubs have improved things.”

However, he pointed to the crucial grading reveal, noting: “I guess the acid test comes once the grading kicks in and we’re tracking how many Grade A clubs are in there. We’ll see how that process is going. They’ve said all along that grading is not the answer and it’s a place to get us to the next step.

“So we have to back these guys in the first instance because we’re only just going into grading so let’s see where the first year is and then going into the second year and we’ll see where we are.

“We’re a couple of years away from the new broadcast deal which is the next biggest change in the sport to see where we sit there. So then we’ll be able to see how good IMG have been at that point.”