here we go again!

fc have a water tight agreement to play at the kc for 25 years! nothing not even the premiership of football can alter that!

And nor would we need to. We have a decent little stadium of our own now thank you very much!!

It's taken alot of money and hard work from Rovers the council and other sources but finally Craven Park is starting to look like a proper stadium.

dont worry, wasnt asking if you would

the kc will always be the stadium for your cup finals though !

TBH they can't be very good 'businessmen' if they ever assumed anything other than that, as owners, they'd have to continually fork out to prop up the club. There are very few profitable professional sporting clubs around. Breaking even is a dream for most.

rlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22060533rl

"Why should we lump in effectively half a million a year just to stand still?"

Interesting that the club were only about 2.5k fans per game away from reaching his 10k goal......has everything that could be done been done to attract this extra 33%?

Sometimes he came across as a bit arroganet, in that he EXPECTED the public to flock to games.....you have to ask them first Nige'

Don't think he ever came across as arrogant. He's said for many years that he doesn't enjoy being the chairman and wants to enjoy the game from the stand again instead of being stuck in the corporate facilities...etc.

He'd be our main sponsor for years to come and would still pump many thousands in to the club via this method but he wants someone to come in and take over the role he does and the investment he currently does. He's looking for someone to bring in 500k per year so that he and Mr Crossland can do similar but without the stresses of the role.

Rob and Neil have saved our club time and time again from going to the scrap heap, we were getting 1200 fans through the gates before they took the helm. The millions they have invested is a credit not only to the club but to the sport too.

As for paying over the odds for players, what were we supposed to do? How do you produce a squad of players when only a season or two before coming in to the SL we didn't even have a youth team! Since then we have produced a fine crop of youngsters, signed younger players from other clubs and brought them on while fought well above our weight on the pitch through some adversity.

If/when these two leave their positions they will leave it in the best of health, they will spend every hour of the days before the end of this season searching for an investor who wants to take over the club. I have no doubt they'll do this as he's already alluded to, he's had plenty of interest but it's about doing what is best for the club first and foremost.

There'll be no merger, no ground share and we will have a useable North Stand come 2014! There is some major investment coming in to the city over the next decade and that allows for more sponsorship opportunities, however we are at the mercy of the local authority who are not the smartest when it comes to these things!

Just hope the RFL can come in to the club and offer some advice and support (they may already have done this).

Now I'm not aware of how things work at Leeds but hearing Adam Pearson's scathing attack on Kath Hetherington and the way the finances were reported under that regime at Hull FC, I'm not quite sure I'd trust that Leeds are in such good health. Just to recap, he stated that while they'd been reporting being one of only a few clubs making a profit, they were far from financially stable when he took over and he had a lot of work to do to address this. That has to throw up questions about Leeds surely?

Leeds have millions of pounds sitting in the bank, they make a regular profit, don’t have any large outstanding loans, own their stadium which sits on a prime bit of real estate and the catering concession contracts for the neighbouring international sporting venue. They have multiple varied income streams and turnover millions more than any other RL club in the country.

Adam Pearson finding a scapegoat isn’t any worry for anyone.

You're right. You're not.

Neither are you aware of how things work at Hull FC, other than the obviously completely unbiased version of events offered by someone with a vested interest in painting the previous regime in as poor a light as possible.

Still, don't let that stop you from putting two and two together to make five. It's what these message boards thrive on. I'm sure the auditors of Leeds C, F & AC would be interested to hear your completely unqualified opinion though.

As Hudgell himself says, put the money into quality backroom staff and facilities instead of players, especially into youth development. Spending at or near the full cap is no guarantee of success, as both HKR and London (for example) have shown.



That's where the bulk of the money should have gone. The player wage bills of the two sides on Easter Monday were pretty much equal.

Not much point in having an army of back room staff and a sht squad! Clubs like hkr have to pay more than clubs like Wigan to attract lessor players. That and some dubious salary cap stretching, IMO!

Both are needed and that is the point he is making.

It wasn't a statement, it was purely based on what Adam Pearson (someone who's done great things in a much bigger sport) had said after taking over a club that had previously been ran by the same owners of Leeds Rhinos. While Kath was at the helm she stated that the club were one of only a few clubs making a profit, something Pearson claimed was a load of tosh!

But still don't let his opinion get in the way of yours, he's just the man that has to pump in much more money than he originally thought he'd have to because of the creative accounting by the previous regime!

The post before yours explaining the Leeds wealth is much more constructive and shows how unique Leeds as a club are. It would be crazy to think anyone could replicate that over night or even over a decade tbh.

The Hetheringtons dont own Leeds Rhinos

Paul Caddick does.

There is a lot to what Hudgell is saying about back room staff.
At Wigan it starts with recruitment, we used to have a guy Brian Foley in charge of youth development and had a big say in scouting and signing of the younger players. All the curent players in the first team who have come through Wigan academy and our current U19s were more or less signed by Foley.
When Lenegan brought the club he had a fans forum within a couple of months and told us Wigan fans that we were miles behind the top clubs in Super League. He insisted we would have to be patient as it would take years to get level never mind pass our opponents. That was prior to the 2008 season. Wigan won the 2010 Grand Final and were League Champions.
So maybe it doesn't take that long, the most expensive player on the books then, Trent Barratt left at the end of 2008.
Hull has over three times the population of Wigan and I can't see why with a bit of re-direction the best younger players can't be signed by Rovers.
For the past three years Wigan have made a profit and won a trophy. That might be difficult for Rovers but to stay in business the profit angle perhaps is the one to look at first. As we all know, keep making a profit and you stay in business.
Difficult times I'm sure but the Wigan game was just that, one game. The next one along and you beat Saints. That's got to be good!
Best of Luck, hope you all come through it with a very good SL club hopefully making a profit.