yup there was ... players and officials walked down to the pitch at the side of the stand. my memory as a kid was peering between the seats held by wooden beams and looking down under the stand at all the cig ends and garbage that was thrown from under the seats. fire hazzard? lol

I find the current state of affairs a bit baffling all round really. How are we signing such quality these days? What have we planned for Odsal? Does the club know something interesting we don't (league getting bigger?). I can't cope with boom and bust again. No more false dawns!

As Greg said on the other thread, I can't see SL clubs voting to increase the size of the comp to 14 teams. It'd mean even less money to go around. I can't see how we're breaking even unless some of the new directors are prepared to lose money. You certainly don't get involved in RL to make money.

My guess is that the directors believe we have a chance of getting a high enough IMG grade to get into SL over the next few years. A lot depends on the on field performance and getting various upgrades to the ground. The ground itself has been cited by many former owners as a significant cost. Whether having the lease makes maintenance and upgrades easier I don't know. It didn't stop us going into admin in 2012 and we had SL crowds and income back then.

I'm at the stage now where I'm not worrying too much about the off field stuff and just trying to enjoy the rugby - and that has improved a fair bit in the last year or so.

I thought the rumour was that the 14 club SL would include two French sides who wouldn't take a share of the funding? Whatever the plan is, the loop fixtures are a joke so that cannot be a permanent solution.

To be honest I'm fairly neutral about SL. The Championship is a great competition and we generally win more than we lose. If went into SL it would take many years and a lot of money to get to a similar position. What I would love to see more than anything is some stadium improvements. The current situation with the pitch cannot be a long term situation.

Your investor has said his money can only be used on the playing squad or that is the rumor that seems to be doing the rounds. Anyone any idea how much he actually won?