For me , I don't think its about profile at all, both sport England and tennis in the uk are big buisnesses. He seems to have left them in a better place than they were before, especially from a finance and commercial angle. Add in the success of the lottery and a Wimbledon champion after 70+ years, I am happy with this appointment by the club !

Anyone who can lift the profile of the sport in general ,not just at Warrington, can't be a bad appointment .

The key difference between Roger Draper and Richard Lewis is that Roger played RL whereas Lewis was a Tennis boy and that is where his heart lay. Hopefully as well as being an astute businessman his passion for the game will shine through too.



Lewis turned down a substantial amount of money from Betfair to sponsor Super League because he was ante Gambling and traded it for a few of Stobarts Wagons to be painted. Let's hope Mr Draper is a little more astute than that. We now have the Challenge Cup sponsored by Ladbrokes.



PS Knutsfordwire we are in the same town, a small group of us watch the RL on a Friday night in the Cross Keys to show the Kick and Clap lot some decent rugby (though last weekend didn't help). Even Ian Sibbit and family joined us one night for a couple of beers.

Big appointment for sure. There are a few big challenges to face.

like competing against Friday Night Premier league games on sky from 2016..................

Know nothing of him, ask me what i think in a few years.

to continue on My premier league theme does anyone give a toss that Richard Scudamore isnt responsible for England Winning a world cup when his league have just trousered 5 billion quid for telly rights....

I believe most of the Premier League games will be in the Super League off season....

Seems to be a good appointment. Roger Draper has worked for some big organisations who, as previous people have stated, he has left in better shape than they were when he joined.



He's a Rugby League man and that is a big catch in itself. I'm sure the club will continue to improve on and off the pitch under his wing.



Getting the attendances back up following on from last year has to be a start. Saturday was good crowd but it was opening day. We need to get back to two/three years ago when every home league game was 10,000+.



The club has made so much progress since we moved to HJ so it will no doubt keep going.

Very true Nico.



I'd say the aim is to at least get the average attendance over 10k.

You don't need a £100,000+ chief executive

to work that problem out.



There's an easy formula for that...



winning well + consistently = more fans.

I'm not a big fan of Sally's posts, but they may well have a point on this occasion.



The appointment is undoubtedly high-profile.

But even a cursory sift through Google News can be eye-opening.