I was in contact with Cliff Spracklen, the RLSA chair about a year ago, with similar thoughts of a revival and also about the campaign to get SLS broadcast nationwide at a reasonable time. Nice bloke, he issued a press release in support. Hopefully he won't mind if I mention a couple of the things he said.

He explained that the RLSA members were TGG magazine subscribers. The magazine was an "influencing document" that was read by many key people in the game. He said it became more difficult to get people to take up roles in the RLSA over time, especially editors for TGG. He said new ideas and volunteers would be especially welcome. So he would probably be pleased to hear from some forum upstarts, Damo! He mentioned the possibility of relaunching the RLSA as a Supporters Trust or IPS. I was interested in doing something and offered some ideas but unfortunately didn't hear back from him (hopefully because he was busy and not because of my ideas!).

Thanks Damo, that's a much more insightful way of saying what I was trying to say. The modern communications technology is to make use of the internet, instead of organising/arranging a hall with chairs where people can sit down and talk about things/give presentations.

We already have the forums, the idea of a "magazine" style subsite that can give people an opportunity to air their views in an article format is one that the Admins were discussing a few years ago, but unfortunately it never really got going. In part, from my POV, it did get bogged down in to technical discussions over what the CMS software to be used was, and it ended up never advancing from there. You could argue that the forums already give people the opportunity to do this, but unfortunately that content gets lost in a reem of replies, flames and petty club-based arguments.

If there are a group of people who [iwant[/i to put some magazine style content together, whether that be in the form of serious articles, match reviews, interviews they have managed to get, satire, it could provide some good reading for the Rugby League fanbase as an alternative to the paid-for magazines such as Rugby League World or League Express.

I get the impression that you yourself would like to contribute to such a setup, and if so, and you are aware of others who would like to, then all I can suggest is that you speak to the admins who I'm sure would be willing to set you up with a CMS similar to the existing subsites that you can use as a quick means of posting your content to the WWW.

Having read the whole of your post Paul, I just want to respond to how I see it at the moment.

The Admins don’t have enough time at the moment to set up a fanzine which is fair enough. Then I’m guessing that running the forum is somewhat a laidback affair which is any Admins dream. Thirdly I think there’s more of a want for a RLFANS based Magazine than a need. The place is running fine without one and its showing. Hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong.

A few months ago I made a casual proposition to run a RLFANS fanzine. But in hindsight it wasn’t very good proposition. It was a happy go lucky one and I’m more than happy to admit this. Yeah the Fanzine would of run without much input (apart from basic set up) because my mate who was interested in helping, develops websites for a very good living indeed. He’s certainly a lot more ‘professional’ than me.

The only other thing I think that is stopping this from happening is that one of the admins wants to do this one day and because RLFANS is there’s – they can say no to any proposition that comes their way and I respect that. But the question is – how long is too long?

Let’s say one of them decides they want to do it in five years’ time out of the blue. That is five years of missed opportunity for the website as a whole. In those five years myself and others (like supporters direct) can get that fanzine going really well.

In regards of how I’d want to help if this thing becomes a reality. I’d obviously want to try and bring more money into the sport and to give people a good platform if they want a good platform. Obviously I won’t have all the say in this as it would be a group decision.

But personally I’d be very disappointed if it became a fanzine where profit goes into someone’s pockets for merely helping to run the fanzine. The last thing I want this to be is an all-out cherry picking project for someone to earn a few lousy bob out of. The reason why RLFANS is so good is because it’s run by volunteers. Let’s put a lot of that into the fanzine if it becomes a reality.

I may be unemployed, but I’d rather £50 that made from this go into helping the game and not my boozing habits. Anyways I’ve had Pink Dom before and I still prefer white lightening..

I can't speak for now, as I'm not involved anymore, but I certainly know that any money that RLFans has brought in through advertising/sponsorship revenue has never reached the back pocket of anyone involved, the money is there to pay for the site's operational (i.e. hosting) costs. I very much doubt that has changed since I left the admin team.

Did you not get a response to your request to run a fanzine?

I think the next step will be to arrange a meeting with Laura Harrison and I shall send an email later on. If Bramley is still based at stanningley – It’s just down the road from me as I live in Farsley. I’m originally from Bramley mind you.

As I said in that writing beforehand it wasn’t much of a proposition. I’ve personally been concentrating on my own rugby league column if anything. But I’ll let you know what happens

Abso-bloody-lutely.