The most sensible posts so far





Just one thing to add though, Perez does seem to have the drive and ambition to actually try and achieve something in North America, something horribly lacking from ANYONE involved on this side of the pond.

Perhaps we should give Perez Nigel Woods old job

I would let him carry on, and anyone else who wishes to get involved would have full support, just don't go looking in places that we do not have a Perez's or a history or RL is my thoughts, except to promote the game at lower levelsl.

What inverse snobbery! I have no issue with expansion but it needs to be done properly and not at the expense of what we already have - if you want a golden egg you don't kill the Goose thats laying it do you.

Love to see the game in London, Paris and New York but why does that have to be at the expense of the games heartland - the heartland that so many pseudo intellectuals on hear sneer at at. No other supporters of other sports seem so hell bent on junking their heritage as we do and that shows to me that we suffer a massive lack of self esteem.

People like you are not 'expansionists' you are dreamers and fantasists and they are a million miles apart. It's all quick fixes and bling or to put it in a Northern way it's all Fur and no knickers.

Get the heartland game vibrant and strong. Make the M62 corridor a fortress of the game - make it work in the hinterlands and the rest will follow - like most things it's simple, what part of it don't you get?

Absolutely spot on there vasty.

What I don't get is that, if it's so simple, why not one single person who takes issue with the notion of expansion or improving standards seems to have a suggestion on how to do this.

How do we "get the heartland game vibrant and strong"? How do we make the M62 a "fortress of the game" and how do we "make it work in the hinterlands" when the clubs have collectively demonstrated that they can't do that? Where is the investment and the finance coming from?

You accuse me of being a fantastist, but it is equally fantastical to suggest that we can do exactly that without some form of expansion when all of the evidence suggests that the clubs can't grow their revenue to invest in what is needed, that we can't increase central funding because broadcasters and sponsors have very limited interest in what we're offering to them, and when clubs have demonstrated that they simply can't market themselves properly.

I'm not for expansion for the sake of expansion as you may have wrongly pigeon-holed me. I'm pro-expansion because I see it as the best, and indeed in some cases the only, solution for deep-rooted challenges that the game faces. If that means that a place at the 'top table' becomes more difficult to attain and demands higher standards from all member clubs (heartland or otherwise), I would argue that's not a bad thing.

First of all the sport needs to be strong or, we're screwed anyway and we need people running the sport to have vision and a plan on how to grow the game (whether in the UK or further afield) and I certainly agree that we shouldn't be "junking" what we have.
Plus, we've had over a hundred years to make what we have strong and it looks as vulnerable now as it ever has.

However, who is suggesting junking anything ?

IF and it's a huge IF, the game can take off in new territory, then surely, that should be welcomed and not sneered at by inward thinking people who believe that the game can not exist outside the "heartlands" ?

Yes, "we" have planted numerous trees in numerous "deserts" in the past but, there does appear to be something different about Perez and his desire to establish RL in North America.

Personally, I dont think clubs from N. America should be competing in "our" league but, it has to be good for the game as a whole if we have additional "genuine" RL playing nations.

Well said.....(sorry about my over reaction/pm the other day)

That's ok but ffs watch your spelling

1. So France is OK, but Toronto isn't? It seems logical that any team that can pull its own weight should be considered, but it depends on the weight that needs pulling and the costs involved.....I supported Toronto at first, but have become far more skeptical over the last 12 months with the constant need to announce attendances that don't match what fans present or watching on TV concur with, rumours of debts to various suppliers, companies being opened and closed and as for being under the cap



......as I say, if a team from Outer Mongolia wanted to join and had the fiscal muscle, then why not? It's not like we'd drop them straight into SL like happened with PSG and London.....make them earn they place.
2. Ireland is a complete non-starter. GAA and Hurling rule there, followed by a fanatical football support and Union being ingrained there......the IRFU would drown us at birth and not care that the cameras were there to film it! Cumbria is just too geographically split and unless they accept a combined/merged side, are a complete non starter, Wales is growing and at an acceptable pace...I believe there were 10 Welsh born lads in their RLWC squad.....they need to get more games to push ahead with their development and the WRU seem quite amenable to the sport having a presence, Scotland on the other hand are dead in the water.....unless someone is willing to throw 2 million a year at this project for 20 years then I can't see it ever catching on. The South of England has potential, but given the current owner of the Broncos has happily ignored any advice from anywhere and instead flushed 2 million away each year as well as dragging the club from pillar to post and eventually out of SL and playing at a wedding venue, I suspect any new hope there will not have "Broncos" in its name, Newcastle has a club that is growing gradually and Kent last time I looked was in the South East......
3. Rugby League is an expensive Hobby.....Just ask Ken Davy or David Hughes and they'll show you 20 million + in debts owed to them each........Mr Perez will need to up his average gate to 10k and up the ticket price by 200% to break even once they hit the promised land....and they won't be hammering sides week in week out and neither will they be given the luxury of 10 straight games at home in a row once they hit SL.

Nice one....Merry Xmas !

Excellent post this

maybe we have reached our pinicale already

Where do people want RL to be / end up - like football??

Not at all. Clubs like Leeds, FC, Wigan and St Helens and Wire already average over 10k and teams like Catalans and Castleford aren't far away, but then it gets interesting with HKR, Widnes, Hudds, Wakey, Leigh & Salford who are between 7 and 4k,,,,,,,then the rest at present are on minimal figures.

If we are to assume that the French and Castleford remain in or near that top 7 clubs, then it is from 8 to 13 where there is a real opportunity to strengthen the game AS WE CURRENTLY HAVE IT, with no need to fastrack any clubs based on the number of beer drinkers there are in the crowd or how much they are over the cap


I would concentrate on getting those 6 clubs up to the 10k mark....a SL with all the clubs financially viable is a good base camp to build from.