Another previously class team hits the black spot of Administration.

To all Widnes fans, batton down the hatches and hold tight, this will be a bumpy ride. But like the others before you lets hope you get through this and manage to rebuild.

Regardless of what some teenagers or drunkards on here might state, losing any club is bad for the sport in general.

During licencing we have the same 4 or five teams at the top and the same three propping the league up and the same couple of teams in the championship banjo'ing everyone every week with no where to go from it. Licencing IMO actually weakened the Leagues. It allowed below par teams to stay in a leage they were not suitable for recieving Sky money that could have been gained from a championship team.

Our owner Derek Beaumont is keeping his 'hands in his pockets' for this season, but don't rule him out, coming back and deciding to 'go for it' once Toronto are out of the championship. With Widnes currently 'in the poop' then next season, the championship will be very exciting, and one of 5 or 6 clubs could gain promotion.

You may be right about Toronto gaining promotion but, I hope not.
Also worth remembering there will be another (relegated) SL side that comes into the mix, so it will still be a tough ask (unless they too, "do a Widnes"icon_wink.gif.
As far as the Championship goes this season, it's a real sham that both Fev and Leigh, after finishing outside the top 4, couldn't compete.
Certainly with a strong Fev and Leigh, plus Toronto, Toulouse and Widnes, it could have been a really competitive league.
Sadly, this wasn't to be and with Widnes implosion, it looks like Toronto all the way, almost like the last stage on the Tour De France, when nobody can challenge the leader.
Once again funding (or lack of it) has killed the competition.

You may also have to throw York and Bradford into the mx for next season. Certainly Bradford will be stronger and you would expect pushing for promotion.

So in your view history (both older and more recent) counts for nothing...sad.

Widnes were one of the founders of RL IIRC and won the league (and World Club Challenge) in the late 80s as well as being multiple winners of the CC in the late 70s- early 80s. My first trip to Wembley was the 1993 CC final to watch Widnes play Wigan.

More than just the wins though, it is also about the some of the players and coaches. Just look at some of the players that came through Widnes - Alan Tait, Martin Offiah, Jonathan Davies, Andy Gregory, Joe Lydon, the various Mylers and Hulmes. Some great names!

RL existed long before Super League!

May as well talk to the wall, a lot on here have no clue about pre SL.

It is a sad day when a club like Widnes has to go into administration. I for one hope James Rule never gets his mits on a rugby league, or any business for that matter, again.

I believe O'Hara was the administrator for Trinity, he sold our best players at the time.

He’s talked a lot about this being an option already, the same will happen.

And as for whoever’s comment about teams like us playing in front of a man and his dog, twice we were bottom of the league and twice we brought 2500-3000 fans all the way up to Newcastle. I’d like to think we brought something to superleague, even if it was a good away support every now and then.

We’ll bounce back, I couldn’t imagine Widnes without a main rugby league team.

He made a speech as well when he left about how he’s left the club in a good position and signed a good squad to compete in the championship

In fairness KK, and administrator has to keep the business going by whatever means they can.
They will cover their costs no matter what and if that means selling players, so be it- they dont actually have much choice, unless there are other assets within the business that they can sell to raise money for running costs (including their own charges).
If you remember it was Mick Carter that was selling "a player a week" to get us through to the start of the next season, which was done with loanees and cast offs, plus a couple of players, including Kirmond, who was at the top of his game.

Once the dust settles and assuming that there is someone willing to step in, you would expect Wire and Saints to help with a few players.

I still wonder whether Koucash & co knew about this when they were talking about starting a club in Liverpool (and yes, I know that Widnes isn't in Liverpool but), there is a slight whiff with the timing of all of this.

Koukash and Luke Backhouse held talks recently about a takeover, only when they saw the amount of debt, they backed out.

Now might be the perfect time for them to swoop now eeee gone into administration. Granada reports suggest £250k would be the minimum number for someone to take over with. This is now far healthier than the price of the real debt (pre administration), in the region of £800,000

I think Koucash knew about this from day 1 and he's just sat back to see what unfolds now, he may still put a bid in but if the players drop out that will surely sink any deal that he may want to offer, looks like a poker game between the administration and Koucash who will show their cards first

I watched the Sky match last night. Did not hear one mention of the Widnes situation . Nothing outside the top tier seems to matter to them. Perhaps the Vikings are the first major casualty of the new structure. And perhaps there are a few existing SL clubs who might go the same way if they were to be relegated this season.
Last week’s Observer had a superb full page article on the rebirth of the Cougars. A better advert about the community values of Rugby League than anything produced by the RL authorities with some great quotes .
And the incentive for any prospective new owners of Widnes and the actual new owners of Keighley? A 12 point deduction.
I despair

They definitely discussed it, but I think it was during the build up to Thursday night's game.