I don't think any of us are deluded enough to think we'll do better than anyone else but we can't do worse than a loss! We deserve a shot due to the position we finished. It's just the right thing to do.

It shouldn't be about fans but fans will go. Neutrals would go. It's an occasion people would turn up to.

floating support i imagine, bradford fans pining back to their glory days, wakefield fans wanting the aussies to win etc
and leeds brought 3003 so not quite upto 4k.

but if we don't build things then people can't come can they?

www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/sai ... this_week/? No one knows

www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/sai ... this_week/? No one knows

dont go talking sense, not to mention all the other exposure the club would get.

would be shocked if the rfl picked us, they wont want us anywhere near, cant blame them

If you look at the length of time it takes to drive to the stadium, there's a lot of people in the area - all of Huddersfield, Halifax, the heavy woollen towns, much of Bradford all living less than an hours drive away.

I'd start with the 422,000 people who live in Kirklees. Which for those who don't have a detailed knowledge of local government could perhaps be described as Greater Huddersfield. Then, there's another 200,000 in Calderdale. Some of them might be Fax fans. But not many. Plus maybe the near half of Bradford as well - another 250,000 people.


I reckon there's a potential audience of a near on a million people sat on the Giants doorstep, with the Giants as their local SL club.

We'll have three months to sell it to them. If you can't pull 20,000 out of 1,000,000 for a big event like the visit of the Roosters you're in the wrong game.



If you actually do this properly and use Mappoint to plot the area within a 30 minute drive with absolutely no traffic it includes all of Huddersfield, all of Halifax, all of Wakefield, all of Bradford, most of Leeds and stretches over to Rochdale along the motorway. Perhaps two million people within a nominal 30 minutes. Within an hours drive, you get to all of Manchester and most of Sheffield, which brings in another two million making four million people that could comfortably drive to the match. So I'm being pretty conservative in suggesting a catchment area of 1,000,000.


What will actually happen is that the club will put a couple of press releases out in the local rag offering a discount if you book in advance and they'll get 8,000 if it doesn't rain.

I would bloody hope they would.


The problem last year was that we didn't qualify. Warrington were the highest place semi-finalists. The question of whether the club would have put up the money is a moot point.

This year, we are the highest placed semi-finalists. If we aren't in the World Club Series it can only be down to one of two things.

1. We didn't want it and turned it down - in which case everything I believe about the poor running of the club and the total lack of ambition will be true. If that's the case, we may as well watch Batley.

2. The powers that be decide completely arbitrarily that the team that finished fourth should get the nod ahead of the team that finished third, purely on the basis that they are Saints - "a big team" - and they should get preference because they are Saints. I think most people in the game would be disgusted by that. In that instance, if I were running the club, we'd be looking for a detailed explanation of the decision from the RFL. And it had better be a bloody good one.

You mean like Warrington getting in ahead of yourselves and Castleford last year (btw yes, you did qualify last year, no matter how you want to spin it)

*shrugs*

The club didn't make a semi final last year so couldn't have been the highest placed semifinalist.

This year it is.


The story is really, to noone surprise, one of RFL incompetance. In no other sport would the qualification criteria be decided after the event. I can tell you now that the 2017 Champions League final will be in Cardiff on the 3rd June. The top 3 teams in the Premiership will enter competition in the group stage, the fourth will enter at the play off stage and the fifth will go through the Europa League.

That's for a competition that doesn't even start for almost a year. Every team in the Premiership knows now, today, what they need to do to qualify for the Champions League.


Meanwhile, in rugby league, the Rugby Football League have just realised that they haven't a clue who'll be entering a competition to be held in February because Leeds went and ruined things by winning two competitions. I mean, that hardly ever happens in rugby league so it's no wonder they got caught out.

Making stuff up on the hoof. What a shambles.

My memory is that we turned down the opportunity last year, but I could be wrong.

I really hope we don't make the same mistake twice.

We all know we have issues with big matches, so getting a big match against an NRL team can only help. Also many of us loyal fans would love it too and as Steve says if we sell it properly to the surrounding area it could be a real PR triumph.

rfl will give it saints, can you blame them after we said no last season?!

small club mentality and i was not happy, gone and shot ourselves in the foot after it was a success and will get better.

Yes you are bang on there. We did qualify last year but the club were not prepared to cough up the £75K prize money (not £170K as mentioned earlier). Whether we will this time remains to be seen.

if they get the chance and turn it down, l,l ask for my ST money back. as for dragging in supporters from around the region, we would have to promote, and market it, and we don,t do marketing.