You got nothing from London in return for the Bulls voting against us when we are in a mess and on the edge other than 3 poor players to add to what you had already taken from us. Enjoy Div 1.

You make my point for me.

Theres always the chance of another "big" club emerging though. I mean in the early nineties who would have thought Bradford would finish that era like they did? I can't see how you can make a decision good or bad regards any team on what their attendances either are now or have been in the past.

Disagree GFB. Who was the last "big" club to emerge since Bradford?

There hasn't been one.

SL titles have only been won by 4 clubs since 1996. You have to go back nearly 30 years to find the league won by anyone else.

You could even argue that Bradford were already a big club since they'd been league champions in 1981.

I really don't see how a small minority sport like RL can afford to allow areas where it was successful to wither on the vine.

By all means spread the game to new areas but this shouldn't be to the detriment of those areas where it is already established. Clubs like ours must stick together or we'll all fall by the wayside in the end.

Trouble is that fans and club owners often can't see beyond their own self interest and parochialism. Rivalry trumps sober judgement. I'm sure our demise has delighted a lot of Fax fans but that delight will be short lived. Unless fans and clubs see the bigger picture we'll see more clubs go to the wall and the game become more irrelevant to the wider sporting world.

Let's be realistic, we have no divine right to assistance and any help was much appreciated and better than none. It may not have been as much as was offered publicly but it still did its bit. What needs to be asked is where the offers of assistance for teams like Swinton. We aren't in any situation to assist but others clearly are and yet no one is offering publicly that I'm aware of. Conspiracy nuts may say the RFL don't want members to help them out

I feel for Swinton supporters. They're told they have a limited amount of time to raise some money or the club will go into administration.

That sounds familiar. I'd happily contribute to the cause if it was genuine and wasn't just a ruse to ensure directors could avoid any legal repercussions for overspending.

I'm sure the RFL are helping out. Perhaps they could give an advance of central distribution so they can clear debts and then begin with a side that cost less?

But that is the thing, how far do you want to go back? I remember Fax playing in front of 7-9k on a regular basis but go further back we had a crowd of 29k for a home cup match. At some point we were cast aside after living beyond our means, I cant remember anyone helping us or saying we were too important to lose when we were relegated and went bust in the early nineties despite getting crowds that a lot current SL clubs can only dream of. For me that is fine and clubs should be helped to stay afloat when in a bad position but they should not be helped in the way that some Bradford fans think simply because they attract large crowds. For me its just a circle of life type thing as Bradford edge towards their lowest point in a while some other team will emerge, when that team goes pop after living beyond their means should they be saved because of their overinflated attendances caused by spending too much money?

If i were Swinton i'd want the RFL to stay as far away as possible in lending a helping hand. They're not exactly the best at getting the best result from these situations and getting the right men to take the club forward.

Anyway im looking forward to getting Swintons share of central funding. Esepecially as certain fans love to mention "rfl set a precedent" to us on social media and message boards.

Joking aside i hope they get it sorted but it's sounding a right old mess. Why the rfl keep allowing this to happen is beyond me. Surely noises were been made just in regards to the medical situation.

I really don’t think you can go back too far since how we spend our leisure time has changed massively since the 80s and Fax’s purple patch let alone the days when both clubs got attendances of 30k or thereabouts. I don’t think RL can afford to let clubs die off in its heartlands as once lost those audiences won’t come back because there is so much more out there for people to do.

Reading between the lines of our posts we both want a sustainable game. What does that mean? For me it means that clubs shouldn’t spend beyond their means. However if they do it makes no sense to hammer them for it since the culprits (owners) will be long gone and only the blameless staff, players, fans etc will remain. So no withdrawal of central monies and sharing it amongst other clubs and no points deductions. Perhaps instead new owners pay a bond and submit regular accounts to the RFL. Punishing new owners only guarantees failure – see Bulls Versions 2 and 3. People get turned off. Take my family. Five of us were season ticket holders. Now none of us are. Of us all there’s only me that goes and I haven’t been since the Dewsbury debacle. Others have got new interest and RL is a distant memory.

Will a “new” club emerge? Like I said before it hasn’t happened yet. Since 1998 only four clubs have won the league.

New clubs have emerged (and allow me to stretch the point a little), Crusaders, Broncos, Toulouse, Wolfpack, Catalans....all the next big thing and great 'for the expansion of the game' just with two tiny flaws

1) They will supply nothing in terms of revenues generated through their away support and
2) owing to their lack of travelling fans the generate little revenues for the clubs they visit.

Now i realise that technically speaking that's only one flaw but it's such a big one I thought it was worth mentioning twice...

Maybe thats the RFL plan.

Relegate the Bulls down all the divisions so that our away crowds can put money into the struggling clubs.
Brilliant idea.

Oh - but if we keep getting relegated even the die-hard fans will say enough is enough

This was early in the season. I don't know why, but I've no reason not to believe the person that told me. We can't have been far from the limit of loan players at the time? Maybe they had better players but the deal that brought Lilley and co was a case of take one, take them all to benefit both sides. I don't know. I'm speculating.

I actually meant 'big' in the sense of being the major club in its area and driving interest and player recruitment. As in the Cougars being the 'big' club in Keighley and Fax are the 'big' club in Calderdale.