Quote: Judder Man "So would I, Barrow and Whitehaven probably have average gates of 1500 to 2000 at the moment, we would expect that to double once into Superleague., and bigger gates when the top sides come to town
To allow expansion into Cumbria, the RFL would have to provide subsidy to allow whichever club to get up to a decent salary cap expenditure level.
The grass roots are already there...................... its a question does the game have the vision to wake a potential sleeping giant.'"
Travelling between the RL towns in cumbria is too time consuming to create any sort of combined local support.
I do think they could push Cumbria better as a rep side, though. They gave England a good game not so long ago and could very possibly turn over the likes of France and Wales. More rep opportunities would give the cumbrian championship/semi-pro stars more exposure to the opportunities of full time.
Cumbria is an area that has real RL passion - that's something that should not be underestimated.
Regarding London, a friend and I were chatting the other day and discussing the fact that trying to promote a RL club in such a RU strong area seems flawed.
I know there is lots of junior, grass roots RL giong on n London, but is this centred around the twickenham area - i doubt it (please feel free to correct me). Would we be better trying to promote RL to an audience that has less rugby bias? Rugby league started as a working class sport - would we be better looking at a less affluent area of london that has only had football in the past and trying to convert them instead?
