With London being relegated and not even a win on the board yet, is it time to wash our hands with the London project and look for somewhere else outside of the heartland to grow our game? Or will them being relegated create a renewed buzz down in London with them possibly winning more games than they lose (pundits' opinions not mine). Honestly I thought it was over with when they moved away from the stoop and weren't even based is London and I do miss the hospitality in the bar at the stoop.

Every attempt???

Catalan seems to be making a fair fist of things despite all the travel they have to do?

I believe London could have a good chance of moving forward but like all clubs they need the financial backing. Once they have a decent team, in a decent location the fans will follow

Speaking as a Londoner as well as a Rhino's fan

But they did and they did and they didn't.

I said "outside the heartlands".

I don't know who has called you a t, I agree it's getting to be a pain, you can challenge opinions without calling people idiots.

What I would say is that "Heartland" is very much an artificial term when it comes to RL. It's a real matter of opinion as to exactly what the Heartland of our sport is. I would say that as the sport is played all over the world a geographical limit placed around the "M62 corridor" (which I am assuming is what you call "Heartland"icon_wink.gif in the UK is fairly meaningless. There are clubs within the heartland that have failed even more spectacularly than London seem to be going and I'm not just talking about Bradford. Older supporters could probably reel off a list of clubs that are either gone or effectively never going to challenge for honours again at the top level. They could all be classed as being in the heartland.
There either is or there isn't a market for a well run RL club in London. I believe there is, and for a while it was proven to be the case. I can remember rugby in or around London all the years I have been a fan of the game - starting with Fulham. To be able to have a club of some sort active for nearly 40 years is a sign that there is an interest.
Another example would be RL in Australia. In the early 80's when I started watching Leeds there was no top grade league in Queensland, top class RL was tthe Sydney competition. There was no RL in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth etc. Now look at the competition. local supporters are parochial, not sports.

I think the thing which ultijmately killed London was consistency.

In order to stand a chance of survival they need financial clout to be able to compete, and attract decent players.

Coupled with that they need a salary cap level which is appropriate for the part of the world they live in. Looking at the quality of life you would have on 80k in London compared to Castleford, and its no reason that they lose all their promising youngsters, and struggle to attract people to move down from the heartlands.

They also need to put roots down somewhere and grow a committed fan base.

It has often been mentioned that the sport needs the Broncos for a media perspective. I'm never that sure about it to be honest, but if the RFL believe it they need to put the work in to make it happen, and some leg ups off the pitch is entirely fair.

Where the RFL seems to struggle is that it has ideas of expansion, but does not plan it on a long term scale. The Welsh team could have worked, but it wasn't given the time and resources to succeed. This is probably in part due to the RFL not being a cash rich operation that can invest in the future of the sport at the elite level.