Let's look at the Willie Mason situation, and substitute an RFL owned London club for Hull KR.

Given allowing de-registration was at the RFLs discretion, do you seriously think there wouldn't have been screams of fix if the decision had gone in their favour?

This is one of the big problems with sports businesses , the inability of some people to separate the ' sport ' , from the ' business ' , I have no problem with it , I have suggested that clubs should collaborate in ' business ' for their common good , and have spoken to club owners about it , they have responded with refference to ' sports ' problems as the reason they will not work with other clubs to make more income

I think its called cutting off your nose in spite of your face , or plain bloody stupidity

Really valid point.

Are you sure ? , dont forget I am a bitter biggoted flat cap wearing supporter of a club in the heartlands that despises any form of expansion as it makes my club poorer , and blames all expansion clubs including yours for Leigh not being in SL , or so you would think from some of the replys I get to posts on here

I want all clubs to survive and prosper ,

I agree with alot of what your saying, in fact all of it, sports administration is like anything you have to have a certain level of conviction in order to make a franchise popular in untested waters, and only part of that is finance led, it is as I mentioned conviction. Even if it's likely to upset other teams the RFL has to take the Bulls by the horn and make rugby league popular in london.
We don't need Abramovich type money or an AFL budget in order for a London RL club to succeed, just wise decision making, consistency and the right branding.
Other AFL teams dont complain about the level of investment pumped into Sydney, Brisbane or Gold Coast because they have a certain vision where they understand that the success of the sport in these areas will add value to the product and television rights. The value of the recent AFL TV deal is $1.25 Billion so they know what they're talking about, but again it's not just about the size of the investment it's conviction and the idea or concept that as a sport we will do everything in our power to make the sport in london a success at this level and that needs to be backed up by the sport as a whole. Unfortunately there are too many people in Rugby League who only care about their club and the sport suffers as a consequence.

Dont get me wrong , if what you and I have suggested , you would hear massive amounts of moaning from the non SL clubs and their fans , and in a way they would be right as some of those clubs are probably as strong as the Expansion clubs , although the idea is that eventually even they might see some benifit , but only in the very long term

But you would also hear it from SL clubs fans as well , even though it is their clubs that would be benifitting in the short to medium term

The problem would arrise when you had some success on the pitch , which as I said earlier , many sports administrators are very short sighted when it comes to separating the ' Sport ' from the ' Business ' if their club is on the wrong end of the sports competition

I thought this had been happening since 1996 anyway?

Hi Chaps, Flat Capper here.
RL needs a successful London Franchise. The current one is in the wrong place and plays in the wrong colours. Let Sky/SLE own the franchise, take £100k a year from all other clubs share and make it a success by moving it to an area that plays RL at junior level - even linked to a soccer club as a viable summer option in the locality.

When teams are struggling in the MLB, the MLB takes control of said teams. Last year they took control of the Texas Rangers who then went on to the World Series the same year, and got purchased by some very, very rich people. This year they have already taken charge of the LA Dodgers.

This shows that it works in another sport, and the RFL taking charge of the every day running of Quins, whilst looking at a hugely rich new backer will help the club move forwards, the way forward would be while the RFL have control market the club all over, get cheap tickets on the go and give them a name that as soon as you hear you don't think Union.

The only problem with this, of course, is that it will give the conspiracy theorists a field day.

Totally agree!!

The problem is that governing bodies in the USA have the merchandising rights for all the teams and leagues and keep a significant portion for themselves before sharing (unequally) the remainder among the teams. The governing bodies are therefore quite large wealthy businesses in their own right and can afford to step in and help failing clubs.

The RFL on the other hand are not a wealthy organisation and would need to pour a lot of money and resources into Quins while waiting for this [ihugely rich new backer[/i to come along.

Its a good idea in a perfect world but alas they just don't have the means to do it without all other clubs agreeing to a cut in their income to subsidise it - that just isn't going to happen when you look at the finances of some of our other SL clubs.

The Quins need a sugar daddy so they can put an awesome team out every week and pay people to come to the games so they can play infront of a full-house.

Well, they tried free tickets, maybe this is the way to go .

How much would it take for non-converts to endure a couple of hours of RL, I reckon at least a tenner a head, but then again, I would have to be paid more than that, to go watch a Union match.

Call it Team Sky, dress it in blue and buy up the best players. Have Sky ever done anything similar?

oTo' Not a very good bike I will admit