Very much what I have suggested in the past, even to the point of the RFL actively searching out stadiums ( possibly council owned ) in towns/citys 40/50 miles from the heartlands and providing extra funding/management to get them up and running tied in with junior club development

Very much what I have suggested in the past, even to the point of the RFL actively searching out stadiums ( possibly council owned ) in towns/citys 40/50 miles from the heartlands and providing extra funding/management to get them up and running tied in with junior club development

Good post.

Although I agree with the above (non-troll) statements and endorse a creep out of the M62 corridor, we also need to ensure we hit towns where there is already an interest in the oval ball. Sheffield is a football stronghold and so the Eagles have had an uphill struggle. Nottingham failed. We cannot just parachute the game into football areas.
Preston? Further help for Coventry?
Well done Newcastle.

I don't think we should try and keep away from football cities at all.
Although the seasons of football and RL overlap, it would be crazy to ignore the larger towns and cities, just because they have a football club.

As some have already said, the most sensible option to grow the sport is to spread out from the games geographic core and if we were still n the
franchise era, this would have been relatively simple to manage.

The problem that we have now is, the fact that nobody is likely to invest significant sums of money in a club that, at best, may get a chance to play in
an annual qualification league.

Although the franchise idea spectacularly failed, it was certainly a better option for expanding the game, either in the UK or France.

Sadly, our governing body wasn't capable of managing the franchise idea properly.

As for Gateshead/Newcastle, why not, but it will be a hefty challenge for the people involved.

Why is being 'Newcastle' preferable to being 'Gateshead'?

Newcastle: population 280200, 2 x elite pro-football clubs

Gateshead: population 200200, 0 x elite pro-football clubs

Disagree : let's keep the marketing simple. Thanks (partly) to a Mr Wilkinson and his boot, Newcastle has a rugby ethos that we could use. The superb efforts of the RL activists in Gateshead cannot be ignored but there is a potential in Newcastle we cannot ignore.

Completely agree. I think as a sport we should be doing more to create more players at grassroots level, by getting the sport played in more schools and creating more strong amateur clubs in these areas.

It sounds like Gateshead have done a good job in the North East, with 14 amateur clubs up there, which can all feed into Thunder.

There are still some big towns/cities close by that the RFL should focus on. The ones you mentioned, plus Sheffield & Manchester, which for the size of them have very few clubs, Liverpool too.

After the challenges that particular club has had, it would be brilliant to see some level of success at Thunder.

If that's getting into the Championship and no further then so be it.

The people at the club work super hard as it is, so this will be no more of a challenge than keeping the club alive.

Aye, that was the new merged team in 1999 wasn't it ?

Has it been 150 years already....lol

You talk about the non-M62 parts of the country and then suggest Bradford .. Have you seen a map of the UK at all????

Why Bradford over Castleford or Widnes? What makes them more worthy? 3 towns/cities that are all sitting on the M62 so why suggest that dumping 2 of them in favour of one that has shown no greater ability to successfully manage a team in recent years?

So "North East Thunder" then?