Rumour that they're folding tomorrow. Desperately sad news.

Blimey, Gledhill tweeted some heartbreaking news tomorrow. League 1 is knackered at the moment

That would be a massive shame if correct.

Confirmed on twitter/x whatever it is today. That's gutting. Thought they were building well

It is cited covid 19 and no participation as being the deciding factor

SL greed has a lot to answer for.

Gutted for the fans. Hope they bounce back.

RL needs a serious and frank discussion about expansion. Some are suggesting putting all 8 L1 teams in the champ. Sorry but putting Cornwall against the likes of Bulls, Fev and York doesn't do anyone any favours.

Does leave a bitter taste in the mouth Newcastle were given an elite Academy license and six figure funding towards it and we got ours taken away. A generation of Bradford players would have been lost if we had have decided to give up our Academy from that decision.

Perhaps the licence and funding was last gasp by the RFL to save what they had before the world went to sheeeit.

wouldn’t reformatting the 1895 cup be better add them into that group stages?

Gutted for everyone involved in the game up there. They always seemed to have a decent grassroots set up so it's a massive shame. They never got great crowds but that's the same for a lot of championship or L1 clubs. Not sure why they've gone under whereas others haven't (yet).

What this means for the rest of L1 is anyone's guess. I can't see how adding them to the championship would help as it would weaken that competition. There would need to be some messing around with the fixture list to accommodate the extra clubs which would potentially lead to some unfairness in who plays who since you couldn't have everyone playing each other home and away. Having said that, what's the alternative?

Sad to see any side struggle, we know all too well how painful it can be for the loyal staff and supporters.

The strategy has been wrong for a long time, in RL we expand in desperation rather than building on solid foundations.

Terrible news for the Newcastle fans and the people losing their jobs. Worrying times for the game.

I know this was rejected at the chairmen’s meeting last week but the remaining 8 L1 clubs are in a league which is unsustainable. The rfl need to show some leadership on this

They must have seen this coming the RFL.

Any club dropping to L1 now is going to look at the cost for a short season with a lot of travel and I guess most outlying clubs would say it's no way sustainable and with the set up Newcastle had it probably adds up to a massive loss for the year.

Interesting statements from some clubs. Keighley and Hunslet keen to see a combined conference style structure, but they would, wouldn't they as both would benefit from visits from Championship clubs. Swinton, however, having worked extremely hard to stay in the Championship, are loath to see that hard work potentially diluted by losing fixtures against some other Championship teams.
Clubs like the Bulls are already into selling season tickets based on agreed fixtures and format so I doubt there'll be support from club owners at the Bulls, Featherstone, Wakefield, Halifax, Sheffield etc for a conference. The 'Rugby League Family' is a nice phrase but, in reality, sport is a business. No easy answer to any of this but dilution of the Championship doesn't solve the problem.