IMG gradings explained: What is the criteria for Super League status and what happens next?

rugby-league Wednesday 30 October 2024 08:32, UK

The IMG gradings have now been officially released to decide which teams compete in Super League and the lower leagues in 2025, but what is the system and how does it work? Let's take a look...

The teams in Super League are not determined by promotion or relegation from 2025 onwards. Instead, the 12 teams will be those who achieve the most points across a range of criteria, including fandom, on-field performance, finance, stadium and community.

The IMG gradings system has 20 points on offer for clubs. In order to be a Grade A club, you need to achieve at least 15 points and to be a Grade B club, you need 7.5 points.

The idea then is that Grade A clubs are automatically in Super League, with the best-performing Grade B clubs then making up the rest of the 12 clubs in the competition.

As grading scores improve and there one day becomes more than 12 clubs with Grade A status, the top league will then expand, as happens in franchise sports such as the NRL and NFL.

There are nine clubs that have been awarded Grade A: Wigan, St Helens, Leeds, Warrington, Catalans, Hull KR, Leigh, Wakefield and Castleford Tigers. St Helens are top of the pile with 17.02 points, Wigan second with 16.91, and Leeds third on 16.84.

The other three clubs in Super League for 2025, the three highest-performing Grade B clubs, are then Hull FC, Huddersfield Giants and Salford Red Devils. Salford are the lowest-ranked club in Super League for 2025 with 13.97 points, Toulouse Olympique hot on their tails with 13.58 points as the highest-ranked club in the Championship.

Hull FC, on the illustrative gradings for 2024, were a Grade A club but they have dropped a category to Grade B, down from 15.05 points to 14.51 points.

Wakefield Trinity will return to Super League for the 2025 season following the release of IMG's gradings, with London Broncos dropping into the Championship.

The grading follows a dominant season on the field, as Wakefield thumped Toulouse 36-0 to win the Championship Grand Final to complete the treble, meaning they would have also gained promotion under the old system as well as the new gradings.

Improvements on and off the field at Belle Vue have helped Wakefield, with construction of a new 2,500-capacity stand completed since their demotion from the top flight in 2023.

London Broncos, despite dropping down a league into the Championship, made the biggest improvement from their illustrative grading to their current grading. They have risen massively from 8.07 points in the illustrative gradings to 12.65 points, making them the second highest-ranked club in the Championship.

Within the criteria, there are five different pillars that make up the areas in which clubs are assessed. Each of the five criteria had a certain set of points on offer, with the aim to make sure that clubs hit as many of those target areas as possible.

1: Fandom (25 per cent of grade, 5 points on offer)

The idea behind fandom is focused on attracting more fans at home, in the stadium, and online, improving fan engagement, and making sure that fandom is a "key driver for both club and central revenues".

There are five points on offer in this pillar, with those five points split into three sub-sections:

If clubs can average more than 7,500 fans they will get the full 2.5 points for attendance. More than 3,000 on average they will get two, more than 1,500 earns 1.5 and less than 1,500 gets them one.

Then on viewership, if a club gets more than 150,000 views on their games shown on television they will earn the full point, less than this they will get 0.75 of a point.

Then finally: Digital. Firstly on social following, if their accounts across social media have more than 500,000 followers they will receive 0.2 of a point. If they get more than five million engagements across their accounts, they will earn 0.8 of a point. Then, if they get more than 60,000 website visits, they will get another half a point.

If they get lower than these figures, what they receive goes down on a sliding scale. For example, less than 10,000 followers will gain only 0.05 points.

2: Performance (25 per cent of grade, five points available)

On-field performance is another key criteria for clubs, with these points on offer to clubs in the top three leagues of the men's competition.

These top 36 teams will be ranked 1-36 based on where they finished both in the league and play-offs over the last three seasons that they have played.

There is then a bonus 0.75 points available for winning Super League, 0.25 for the Challenge Cup, 0.25 for the Championship, 0.1 for League One, and 0.1 for the 1895 Cup.

Using these gradings, we therefore know that Wigan Warriors will clinch the full five points in this area for 2025 because they will get four points for their league positioning then 0.75 for winning Super League and 0.25 for winning the Challenge Cup.

3: Finance (22.5 per cent of grade, 4.5 points available)

Finance is one of the key areas that IMG is focused on when awarding points looking to make "clubs financially stable, have diversified revenue streams and reward profitability".

Now I am no finance whizz, but the three key areas in this pillar are:

1: Revenue Diversification (3 points)

2: Profitability (0.5 points)

3: Sustainability (1 point)

Revenue diversification focuses on "the total annual turnover after all central distributions are deducted" together with "non-centralised annual turnover as a percentage of total annual turnover". Basically, this means a club's turnover excluding the money given to them by the league from TV deals.

Profit is what it says on the tin - this is three years of profit for the club pre-tax.

Sustainability is a mixture of ensuring that there is a substantial ownership investment that is continuous, plus the strength of the assets that the club holds when compared to its debts.

4: Stadium (15 per cent of grade, 3 points available)

The three points available for stadium facilities are split into five differently-weighted areas.

There is 1.5 on offer for the facilities score. This means that your ground has a minimum capacity of 5,000, has a minimum of 2,000 seats, has sufficient facilities for sponsors, corporate partners, directors, broadcasters, media, and photographers. If a club's stadium does not meet these standards, they will score 0.5.

Then, a club can get a point for "utilisation" of their stadium. This is just their attendance as a percentage of their capacity. For example, a 50 per cent attendance gives a score of 0.5.

Additional points are on offer for owning your stadium (0.25), having LED advertising boards (0.125), and having a big screen (0.125).

5: Community (12.5 per cent of grade, 2.5 points available)

The 2.5 points on offer in this category are split into 1.5 points for how well the club represents its local community (population of local area divided by the number of clubs in the area) and a point for how well the club interacts with the local community (annual turnover of the club's charitable foundation).

For example, you will get the maximum 1.5 points for having a catchment area of over 260,000 people and the other point for a foundation turnover of £1m.

Keighley, the most vociferous critics of the grading system, and one of the few to vote against it, proved to be the biggest beneficiaries, rising 11 places to 19th and a Grade B score of 9.02.

Grade A: St Helens (17.02), Wigan Warriors (16.91), Leeds Rhinos (16.84), Warrington Wolves (16.27), Hull KR (15.97), Catalans Dragons (15.52), Leigh Leopards (15.13), Wakefield Trinity (15.09), Castleford Tigers (15.02)

Grade B: Hull FC (14.51), Huddersfield Giants (14.48), Salford Red Devils (13.97), Toulouse Olympique XIII (13.58), London Broncos (12.65), York RLFC (12.42), Bradford Bulls (12.15) Barrow Raiders (11.22), Feathersone Rovers (10.75), Keighley Cougars (9.02), Halifax Panthers (8.79), Sheffield Eagles (8.77), Widnes Vikings (8.60), Doncaster RLFC (7.52)

Grade C: Workington Town (7.26), Swinton Lions (7.15), Dewsbury Rams (7.13), Oldham RLFC (7.00), Hunslet RLFC (6.98), Rochdale Hornets (6.47), Midlands Hurricanes (5.66), Cornwall RLFC (5.29), Newcastle Thunder (5.20), North Wales Crusaders (4.72)

Score incomplete: Batley Bulldogs, Whitehaven RLFC

In the illustrative gradings provided to clubs in 2024 to give them a sense of how they were performing and how they could improve for 2025, seven teams were awarded Grade A (Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, St Helens, Catalans Dragons, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR, Hull FC), with 17 clubs then given Grade B.

Of these 17 in the second category, Salford Red Devils, Huddersfield Giants, Toulouse Olympique, Wakefield Trinity and Leigh Leopards would have made up Super League, Castleford Tigers in the Championship, if the gradings had been used.

Grade A: Leeds Rhinos (17.49 points), Wigan Warriors (16.87), St Helens (16.78), Catalans Dragons (16.73), Warrington Wolves (15.75), Hull KR (15.52), Hull FC (15.05)

Grade B: Salford Red Devils (13.80), Huddersfield Giants (13.49), Toulouse Olympique (12.97), Wakefield Trinity (12.52), Leigh Leopards (12.45), Castleford Tigers (12.16), Bradford Bulls (12.02), Featherstone Rovers (10.65), Widnes Vikings (10.17), York RLFC (10.05), Newcastle Thunder (9.30), Barrow Raiders (9.18), Halifax Panthers (9.06), Batley Bulldogs (8.62), Sheffield Eagles (8.36), Doncaster RLFC (8.11), London Broncos (8.07)

Grade C: Oldham RLFC (7.39), Swinton Lions (7.21), Dewsbury Rams (7.10), Rochdale Hornets (7.03), Hunslet RLFC (6.94), Keighley Cougars (6.58), Workington Town (6.54), Whitehaven RLFC (6.27), Midlands Hurricanes (5.92), Cornwall RLFC (5.75), North Wales Crusaders (5.07)

The clubs will be re-assessed every year. Teams will stay in the top flight if they keep their Grade A status, with the best of the Grade B clubs them making up the rest of the competition.

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