If an astute business man with pockets as deep as Branson pulled out from the Bronco's...why do we feel that the bafoons at the RFL know better then he did, and can somehow make it work. Business IQ Branson Versus the RFL...who's your money on?? C'mon get real!!

There are decisions made every year in the RFL that we all simply have to accept and move on from. The RFL have been and tried for many years and it hasn't worked. Wrap up it up and move on, don't go throwing more good money after bad money.

The Challenge cup weekend has just been and gone, and was attended by fans from clubs....big and small. I attended and saw three Quins shirts and not a single London amateur club shirt. It isn't working down there, lets just accept it and move on.

Is that how success is judged these days

Branson is a money maker-No one who owns a sports club makes money generally

I disagree about Harlequins having any effect about the amount of money Sky put into the game. Very very few Southerners watch the game. But I know plenty of people in Cas that would cancel their sports package if rugby league wasn't on. Some even cancel during the off season. So the fear of losing Northerners sky money is more of a factor than having a failing Southern team made up of Northerners with a sprinkling of Southerners and forgieners.

On TV? I'm sure I saw a statistic that the majority of Sky viewers of RL were based in the south.

EDIT

I don't undestand why we find it so difficult to get them to turn up to matches then! Something is going wrong somewhere.

The fact that it takes people living little over 10miles away an hour to get to the ground by car (which the majority on Londoners don't have) and an hour and a half by public transport probably accounts for a lot of it.

London is a time consuming place to travel across, it's not as simple as saying '8 million people live in London, if Quins attract 0.01% of them they'll be profitable'

Not that it will happen but RL fans need to go to red hall on mass to Protest about this sort of stuff, But they wont! The RFL is like watching a family member on Heroin at first you try to help but after all the lies and pain you end up washing your hands of them!!

R.I.P Rugby League

But have you ever tried watching a match in a Pub down South. Almost impossible. Londoners would rather watch a division one game of football than put on RL. Indicates to me that those watching the match are actually Northerners living down south.

Is there a more corrupt league in any sport than this superleague ?

I just wonder when they are going to start the financial aid to Cas, Wakey Salford , even to saints cos they posted a big loss this year ........................................ My advice for this one is "dont hold your breath".

It makes the championship more attractive if just to get away from these bent s

Living in the south now i can assure you that is not the case.

Like i said above they must all be watching it as home as some form of curiousity as they certainly are not watching it in a pub.

By the way its Hatfield in Hertfordshire not South Yorkshire.

Also ever seen a school RL game down south as there are no School teams in Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire. All ths developement in the south must be in South London as it certainly is not in North London. St Albans Stags i belive it is or Luton Vipers are both based at RU teams. development hey

i dropped on a guy who was a director of a now championship club when i was a player their. we got onto talking about the game and he said he had resigned has a director at the club recentley because the game was bent,im also lead to believe he was at one stage on the rfl council and again he resigned because in his words things were done under hand with hidden agenda`s.no suprise their then because thats what we all know anyhow,what worries me is how many more of these people that keep our championship clubs going are going to pull out and walk away because of richard lewis and his hangeronners pipe dream of expansion at all costs and forget the rest,this guy is convinced that the franchise system was brought in to save the likes of expansion clubs because in time and reduction in overseas players will almost certainly mean they spend years lingering at the bottom end of super league before finally one year they finish bottom and would be beyond saving,has it stands at the minute we still have promotion and relegation the only difference is that the rfl choose who goes up and down not results on the field.

I can watch RL in my local.

Anyway, why does it matter whether they're watching at home or in the pub? Surely somebody watching it at home is more valuable to both Sky and the game as a whole. More people will see ads Sky sells, making them more valuable, making RL more profitable for Sky, encouraging Sky to keep hold of the rights.

Could you please expand on this puzzle you have posted.

Would I be right in thinking what you are saying is it is only southerners who go into pubs?

No but it's not a bad inidactor for the level of interest in the game...which we are always being told how massive and growing it is down there. Yet at one..if not the biggest and most traditional Rugby League event on the Calendar, this massive interest by Londoners just isn't there!

Well how shall we judge it? What actual measurable factor whall we use to judge if it is / has been successfull down there?....because every angle which the realists look at it isn't working! Ok we hear on tv a few persons saying how well it is taking off in the background...all the youngsters playing the game etc etc...yet there is nothing physically to support this suggestion, were there any London schools in the Schools finals before the Challenge Cup??? - NO!. Are these just pundits employed by, or saying the right things by SKY etc....possibly?

The factors that we use, are those that we can actually see.....not claims! actually physically see as facts.

Attendances at their home games - Poor, an not seemingly growing either!
Attendances at their away games - almost none existant!
Attendances at the big community finals Challenge cup or Grand Final - Rarely!
Financial viability - Clearly failing!

........So where is this most illusive of support? After 20 or 30 years and we are still not seeing it, it's not unreasonable to think that it doesn't exist and that it is just talked up hype and tripe!

For the few fans who do genuinely follow the Quins...credit to you. However, in terms of their eligibility for Superleague....all they do is tick a box for the almighty SKY, whose pocket our game now lives in!