the game can afford it.......the clubs wont stand for it and as a result, the game will continue to blossom along the M62 but will wither as a national entity.

Wigan shut the North Stand for some games. Presumably we're doomed to fail as a club also.

So do Hull KR. Although the stand we close isn't actually in the same postcode...

Actually if the Rhinos were only getting crowds like London are I would, because out of the four sides at Headingley, the southstand should be the last to close.

Errr, were Crusaders NOT that very club, they collapsed in a tenth of the time London have taken.

Besides, I repeat this information AGAIN.

At the birth of SL, there were TWO clubs in the SE.

There are now 33, plus over 200 schools teams (60 girls teams too), AND 8 University sides as I keep saying, it's not ALL doom and gloom down here, it just looks it from up there!!

Now if we were REALLY serious about expansion, we would gradually expand out from the heartlands. North Derbys, North Notts and North Lincs all already have strong amateur sides, then theres CUMBRIA, Cheshire etc. This should have begun in about 1895 or there abouts!

Right there are the cold, hard facts that a lot of Rugby League fans (particularly from up North) seem to overlook. They'd rather take one look at the London Broncos attendances and come to the quick conclusion that RL in London has failed.

We weren't and still aren't ready for Super League, that much is clear, it was pretty clear to most of us back when they "gifted" us a SLE berth, but we were silenced and have had to endure a ridiculously slow-motion train crash!

What upsets me most is the London Crusaders were competing at the top of the second tier and doing well and then..........................

Maybe if we had a better marketing and strategy team it may have been different, but we didn't and it isn't, BUT we will survive, always have and always will, there IS a small, but HARDCORE fanbase down here!

I accept that this discussion is about London (whatever that means .. city, area, SE as a whole) but I cannot fathom this quote:
"Best bet would be to look at a merger between Rochdale & Oldham, brand up as 'Manchester' and take the East half of the city, with Salford taking the West."
Why would Rochdale and Oldham merge? (I live in one and used to work and coach RL in the other: they do not get on at all.)
Why would a team called "Manchester" take the east half of Salford: Broughton and Pendleton would not be interested?barton is in the west of the Salford.
You realise that there are two cities in Greater Manchester (and probabbly three when Bolton's dreams come true!)
You cannot parachute RL into Manchester. You could get a successful club there but with the local impact of what has been achieved at Sheffield Eagles (and no discredit to them at all).

Personally I felt there were real prospects at Wrexham.

On the main thread, although I am an outsider looking at London, in my many years of following RL, I cannot grasp London Broncos/Fulham/etc as a concept. It feels like a rich man's toy and about as intrinsic to the game as a poodle in a fox hunt. Skolars look the real deal. Even if I lives in London, I could not support them as I do not know what I was supporting. I know what Fax, Salford, Rovers mean. They have the impact of the top shelf in a working class pub: you need it, you use it occasionally but it does not feature in why you go there.

P.S Apologies for the typos
and I am aware of the history of poodle dogs: a chosen example.

Well Hillbilly, what Skolars are now is about what the London Crusaders were (only we were the larger club, about twice as big as Skolars are now) then Brisbane Broncos took over, and SLE "gave" us a SLE place and well the credibility went clean out of the window.

It was then taken over by Branson, who quickly decided the bubble had burst and since then it's been a series of rich blokes bailing the club season after season whilst watching the crowds dwindle back to pretty much what they were when Brisbane took over.

That just about sums it up.

I'd be looking at a ' creeping ' expansion , look at traveling distance, say 50/60 miles, a council owned lower/non league football stadium ,an RFL appointed general manager ( ex player looking at admin side of sport ) and coach ( again ex SL player ) , extra £ 250 K per season, extra DR and loan options

Look at local RU converts and using players as development officers, extra marketing finances , in Championship 1 and stay there until they can stand without the extra cash

I suspect a lot of us oop North don't get what London is all about. I don't mean we are all hillbillies but we seem to want to make the futile comparison between the demographics of a geographical area called London with our own home town and cities.

taking skolars as an example. I am wholly ignorant. I have literally no idea where they play. Is it near Tower Bridge or somewhere near Watford? And more to the point what business model do they have that means they are sticking around year on year on modest crowds?

so I essence I know Jack shi... About rl in London so I personally try not to pontificate on their existence. Instead I just scratch my head and let them be.

As long as David Hughes owns the club it will never flourish. He hasn't a clue.......and rather than take advice from those that do have a clue he'd rather flush his money down the crapper.....the most upsetting thing is that it all was avoidable.

Spot on Starbug, spot on!

Yep, your right, I really can't see his angle, surely he'd want it to be a success after what...£12 Million is it? He seems to show extreme loyalty to a CEO who is at worst clearly a liability or at best not up to the job, I admire loyalty but......surely in business it's a trait that can't be afforded!