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.

being reported today warrington may be invited again to take part.

I was pretty comfortable with the club not participating last year as Wire clearly finished higher than us by virtue of getting to the semi-final. They also finished higher than Cas. And as I recall, the official club line was that we didn't qualify, which given the play off results seems plausible to me.

But this year, there are not other clubs higher than us, so it should be us.

The idea that Saints should get the game ahead of us is pretty galling, but Warrington? Who didn't even make the semi-finals? That's utterly ridiculous. Castleford and St Helens have a better claim on the game than Wire. Even Hull KR, as beaten Cup finalists, have a better claim on it than Wire.


I'll be beyond ed off if the club turn down the chance to play in this series. Really, I'd consider packing it in and switching allegiance to Batley. That's how deeply frustrated I am with the club's management.

i've heard and read( i don't do rumours but just putting it out there) that us, saints, Hull Kr and Cas all were offered and all turned it down, wire according to rumourmongers are the only ones willing to stump up the £180k bond.

now this is probably all a load of bull, but if it's true, should the governing bodies, and i inlcude SKY in that, not be paying the cost of the Australians to get over here? they are wanting to expand the series and turn it into a big global event but yet the competing clubs are expected to pay all the costs?

not sure that's right?

last year i wasn't bothered about it, but this year i am, we are by right, the 3rd best team in the northern hemisphere and should compete in it this year. if we have been given the chance and turned it down then it's not good IMO, yes it's a lot of money, but it could also be a big missed opportunity for us.

time will tell though.

can see that, be an easy get out for the rfl saying warrington should be in as they took part last time

like i said previous dont blame them either after the way we treated it

do we know for definate that we turned it down last year? have the club ever said anything or is it just that that was what was accepted at the time?

I'm pretty sure Richard Thewlis told the HGSA at a meeting with the committee we were never invited or qualified ...i could be wrong though but i'm sure others can confirm or correct me !!