It's not about deserving, it's about providing the best facilities and atmosphere.

How do you know?

Ashton Gate.

In Bristol.



That is all.

Remember the 2000 world cup and what happened when we took games on the road to places that dont care about rugby league? We got crowds of 2000! 2000 for a world cup game, it was embarassing.

There is no point having games in Bristol, Gloucester, Cornwall, Wrexham, London or any other place where no one cares about the game. They need to be in the heartlands.

Why did you need to log out and log back in as someone else to say that?

Agreed. What a muppet, at least Barry was a funny persona

Is Bristol are willing to market this then I don't see why it's not worth a try.

We also got crowds of 2,000-3,000 in the "heartlands" of Hull and Cumbria whilst games in the "heartlands" of St Helens, Castleford and Widnes struggled to get more than 5,000. There are probably many reasons for that but RL fans in general are notoriously apathetic to international and representative rugby. If we can't be bothered watching games is it really a great loss to let another part of the country enjoy the sport?

The Bristol bid (and the bidding process in general) is addressing one of the key failings behind the 2000 WC and that is promotion. Bristol City, Bristol Rovers, Bristol Council and the local tourist authority is not going to throw money and effort at a venture if it doesn't think it can get a return - it is in everybody's interest to promote the game - unlike the previous WC where the only interest for many hosts was the size of the rent cheque.

Heaven forbid that we might attract a [unew[/u audience....

It's not about the RFL just dumping a game somewhere to try and attract a new audience; Bristol is actively bidding for this and will actively promote, not just the game, but Rugby League in the area too. Read the press release again - lots of avenues of support and schemes in place.

Name 3 rugby league teams in the area other than the Sonics that I might have heard of.

I can play along; Bristol Sonics "A" are represented in a West of England Division which is more "local" than the Midlands West division that the first team play in, with Wiltshire Wyverns (Corsham), Gloucestershire Warriors (Gloucester...) Swindon St George, and a bit further out but with a good profile, Oxford Cavaliers. Obviously they're not Super League sides but that's not the point, is it?

Gloucestershire, Somerset, Devon, Wiltshire... were all represented well in the County Championship Festival season launch on Bank Holiday Monday. Leeds Rhinos are growing a partnership with the region that will allow promising players to train with the Rhinos, support community RL events (Swindon cross-code RU vs RL earthquake relief event for example) and strengthen the profile of RL at universities, colleges etc. I wouldn't be so adamant that the region isn't ready for RL - the sport's been taking steps in the right direction for some time now.