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IMG Grading Process - Director Response to Questions

01/11/2023

Following the release of the RFL Gradings last week, Sheffield Eagles gave the fans, sponsors and stakeholders the opportunities to ask any questions on the RFL Gradings process from the club’s perspective.

As a reminder, the Eagles scored 8.36 (which achieves a Grade B) and saw us ranked 22nd out of the 35 professional clubs.

We remain in discussion with the RFL on a couple of areas, but with the release only being an indicative grading, we have time to ensure all is correct for 2024 release which will determine the competition placement of the men’s team in 2025.

As part of our approach to transparency, the club would like to share the detail of the scoring of the 5 pillars of RFL Grading system:

 

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions which are answered as follows:

Q: I understand there is no relegation from Super League next year. Does that mean there is no promotion from the Championship in 2024?
A: Competition placement is based on RFL Grading Points for the 2025 season onwards. Any club graded “A” (scoring 15 points or more) will be placed in Super League followed by the next highest ranking Grade B clubs. As clubs achieve higher points, places in Super League in future seasons will be allocated accordingly. There is still relegation and promotion between the Championship and League 1.

Q: If there is no promotion, what is our incentive to perform well?

A: Performance contributes 25% (5 points) in the RFL Gradings so the better the team performs, the more points will be scored in this section. There are bonus points for winning the 1895 Cup and the Championship Grand Final. Those points could be vital in the overall grading system.

We also know that a well performing team attracts fans and sponsors and increases engagement, which benefits the other areas of the RFL Grading System.

 

Q: Surely it should be all about how well we perform on the field, rather than the quality of our burgers?

A: That is one argument, but as a sport our clubs need to invest in facilities, fan experience, increase revenue into the game and appeal to larger communities of people in order to grow and remain relevant in an even more crowded professional sport environment. Performance remains a vital part of the process, but it is now only part of it, rather than the be all and end all.

 

Q: Will there still be play offs at the end of 2024?

A: Yes- At the time of writing this the league format and structure will be the same for 2024. A 0.25 points bonus is awarded to the team winning the Championship Grand Final.

 

Q: We have been given a mark of 8.36. Are you concerned about our score which is currently below most other Championship sides, when in fact our performance on the field and recent improvements have been so good?

A: We have done a lot of work to understand the RFL Gradings system and we were predicting our score to be 8.14, so we are pleased it is slightly higher. The Board of Directors has been planning how to improve our score over future seasons and has plotted the impact of improvements on this and we are confident that we will see an improvement.

 

Whilst our performance on and off field has vastly improved in 2023, you have to bear in mind that some of the RFL Grading system is based on three season averages, which includes the 2021 season when we were not playing in Sheffield. In 2024 we will replaces these lower attendances and poorer season results with increased attendances and hopefully continued on-field improvement.

 

Q: When the scores reviewed? How often are they reviewed? When is the review to decide which league we are in for 2025?

A: The grading points are reviewed annually based on both centrally audited figures (primarily Finance and Social Media) along with a Return-on-Investment Audit form which is completed Annually. The next review will be in time to place clubs into the respective competitions for 2025 shortly after the end of the season.

 

Q: Has Sheffield Eagles been given a breakdown of our mark, so that we know which areas need a boost?

A: We have a very detailed breakdown of our grade and it corresponds to our own tracker which we are using to chart our improvements.

 

Q: What are Eagles’ high-scoring areas and those where we need to perform better?

A: There is clearly room for improvement in all of the areas above and in some cases improvements can be more easily achieved than others and give us “better bang for our buck”. In simple terms we need to increase our crowds, increase the amount of revenue coming into the club and our foundation and improve our social media reach to make the biggest strides.

 

Q: What plans do we have to boost our mark?

A: We have been aware of the RFL Grading system for some time and have been planning significant improvements for some time. At the start of the year we employed Becky Higgins as our Customer Experience Manager who has led on our ticketing and merchandise sales, with significant increases seen in both. Becky will also be looking at reintroducing a club lottery to increase revenue.

 

We have made great strides with our media exposure and we will replace Dan Fowler who recently departed with a full time Media Executive to build and continue on his good work.

 

Our Foundation has grown its turnover to record levels and this will further increase which is a key measure in itself, but helps us with reach and engagement and ticketing strategies.

 

Finally, a series of exciting events such as luncheons, dinners, golf days and of course match day hospitality are in place to help grow revenue.

 

Q: Why have Newcastle came out well above London?

A:  Without seeing a breakdown of each clubs it is impossible to tell; one reason will be that they were playing in a fully Super League compliant stadium and have had significant investment. But our focus is on Sheffield Eagles and getting it right here. We need to be aware of our competitors of course, but our focus has to start at home.

 

Q: Is the stadium being part complete a problem with the RFL/IMG?

A: Our stadium is not Super League compliant, so we lose 1 point for that, but only having a capacity of 2000 is also an advantage to us when it comes to the “utilisation” scoring.  A digital scoreboard and LED advertising boards would also increase our points, but the investment is not yet warranted into those – there are other areas as mentioned; fanbase, social media reach and revenue which are more important to us at the moment – but we remain committed to working with the Scarborough Group and other partners here at the OLP for the future of the park.

 

Q: What can use fans do to help the Eagles improve the gradings?

A: Easy – we need to fill the OLP game in game out! Please bring friends, family, business contacts – anyone really – to a game and get them hooked on Rugby League and the Sheffield Eagles!


On a daily basis we need as many people as possible engage with our social media – so please ensure that you are following us across all our platforms and like, share, repost, comment on, click the links to our website and watch our videos for each and every post! This alone would make a ginormous difference!

Our social media channels are as follows to help you follow us everywhere:

 

 

 

Q: Fandom is a big thing with the RFL/IMG, what plans are there to drive new fans to the club, outside of social media, and also drive engagement outside of the foundation?

A: We have to main sources for this- Fans and Corporate.  We have been working on a new events schedule for 2024 which we will launch soon, and Becky Higgins has taken the initiative to run trips to the international fixtures and away games. This will be further extended to include the RFL’s major finals in 2024.

 

From a corporate and business perspective, again we have plans in place and will be launching a business club in 2024 to engage with companies who may not be aware of ourselves or have a big advertising budget and give them the opportunity to engage with our club partners and sponsors.  These are business doors they may not have been able to open themselves.

 

Becky is also working on Ambassador programme so we can work with businesses on ticketing offer for staff incentives for example.

 

Then we have the local tourism industry.  There is a number of people who come to Sheffield for tourist related reasons such Gulliver’s Valley or the museums and other events.

 

In the coming days we will launch a poll on Social Media to gauge the interest in a fans forum ahead of the 2024 season.  Please vote on there and if there is enough interest we will organise one with Tubbs, members of the  2024 squad and some of the office staff to go into more detail on questions!  If you don’t have access to Social media please drop mark.hannigan@sheffieldeagles.com an email or call to register your interest.

 

If you do have any more questions on the RFL Grading system that have not been answered, please feel free to get in touch!