How long do we give London ?

They get shocking crowds, they ain't stable financially, don't bring much in terms of being competitive these days either.

Catalan have gone very well and they only about 5 years old.

Sky never say anything about anything and nor does the RFL. Nobody knows outside of those in the know whether the presence of London makes any difference whatsoever to the Sky deal. However, if you watch any of their other sports, I can't think of one that is restricted to one region of the country.

In no way would it be a good thing for London to go. However, they continue to do the sport's image some damage by not being competitive. On their website the BBC have opened up comments on the London debacle (can't really call it a match, since London clearly didn't bother playing). The BBC never opens its match reports up for comment. They have done that deliberately to cause trouble and those of us who have contributed to the comments know this.

The Dragons may be only about 5 years old but rugby league has been going in that region of France for almost as long as it has been going in England, so the area was a traditional heartland region for rugby league.

To offer up an accurate comparison in cross channel expansion you would need to look at Paris St Germain which lasted how long exactly?

London has been around in various guises for around 30 years. That's a generation. So what is now happening is that the first generation of players who grew up with rugby league - something we in certain areas of the north have taken for granted for a few generations - are coming through. We need to give it another generation to be able to judge whether it has been successful but the RFL burying its head in the sand and doing nothing to assist - and it never has assisted London (not financially anyway) - is utterly negligent. Take one look at Melbourne, which was centrally funded for years (I think may still be), to see what can be done when expansion is managed properly.

But in all honesty how much do they contribute to super league? I cant imagine that many people from down south watch rugby league to watch London, and i guess what matters the most to sky is viewing figures. Personally I think they should go down for a couple of years till they can get enough finance together with the help of the RFL to come back up and spend above the salary cap with out being scared of going bust for a period of 5 years.

That's my point, they been going 30 years and its not worked in that time.

The south of France is also a union area. I've toured the south of France and it was heavily Rugby union but I agree its more rugby league than Paris was or ever will be.

You could say the same for Salford, given their crowds and competitiveness, but they've been going as a rugby league club since 1896.


The heartland area though was Catalonia, I believe, rather than the South of France per se.

They beat us...

Most teams do, that's nothing out the norm these days.

I just don't see what London bring. Nothing against them and I'd love them to do will but IMO its never going to work. Maybe the money keeping London going could be used in a place like Cumbria

They get the same money as everyone else in Superleague. They shouldn't, since all other organisations pay London weighting, but they do.

Cumbria is a dead duck. You think London's crowds are poor! Ha. Nothing compared to what any Cumbrian team would bring. The towns up there aren't even big enough or RL friendly enough to support lower league teams and haven't been for a few decades now.

The cumbrian teams have very large catchment areas. Barrow - Ulverston, Askam, Dalton and Millom.
Whitehaven - Egremont. Workington - Cleator, Cockermouth, Maryport.
Its London thats the dead duck it has a catchment area of millions but can only raise an average of 2000+

The Cumbrian teams have massive catchment areas full of sheep. Cumbria is supposed to be part of the heartland area of the sport but cannot attract enough enthusiasm in the region to support Championship sides never mind a Superleague side.

London is a massive metropolis of over 6 million people representing every nation under the sun with massive competition from sports of all kinds plus every other leisure activity imaginable. It takes at least an hour to get from one side of the city to another, on a good day. It would take about five minutes to cross Cleator Moor!

Some RL fans need to spend time in London. If they did, they would quickly learn to appreciate the unique challenges of making anything a success in London, never mind the northern sport of rugby league.

Cumbria has a LOT of rugby league fans who do not turn up at matches because of the current system. Whitehaven used to get 2,000 + every week in the Championship before relegation was removed.

Dump London before they go bust again and add another team from Catalonia.

Exactly having been up there for the past 12 years the potential is massive there are probably just as many amateur teams as in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Here we have lots of rugby fans who associate themselves with superleague clubs like Leeds, Bradford, Wigan and St Helens, lots of fans here feel as though the RFL are treating them as a lost cause, when in reality the lost cause is 300 miles south.

Also correct me if I am wrong but if the broncos move to Gillingham FC next year they can,t call themselves London they are just as close to Southend on Sea and Margate in Kent, any London based fans would need to travel 40 miles into another county to watch a "London Superleague Team".