Agree with you Bosty, vanity is a strong emotion. Lets hope someone puts there head above the ledge and want to spend some pennies

Why look at Toronto they were a poorly managed club. Look at Wigan and Saints they're the most successful clubs.

The question raised was what would it cost to gain promotion. Not how much would it cost to have a team that is capable of winning the league.
TWP had a team that was full of players of SL standard, ergo, thats the sort of team that is neededed, so there players wage bill is pretty indicative of costs.
How that team was managed is irrelevent, the costs of wages are the same

But our long term strategy is 70% academy in the first team which reflects Wigan and Saints. Toronto didn't have one Canadian in the squad. Do you see the the alignment, hence why I referenced them.

This thread is not about long term academy strategy though.
This thread is about promotion, and how much it would cost.
London will not get promoted with a team of 70% academy home grown players.
London need experienced and marquee players in order to gain promotion, that costs money.

Or maybe start a thread asking the question, could london get promoted with a team made up of 70% academy players

So WQ what do you think it would cost for any team to get promotion, and more important stay in SL

It would be difficult for London to get promoted with 70% of players from the Academy. This is because once they get experience and start to perform to a high standard.
Northern teams come and sign them up. We have to start again.
To stay in SL you just have to be finish one place above another team. The thing is that the dice is loaded against the promoted team. No coincidence there.

Think our last season in SL displayed a leveling off with the amount of points we finished with. Interested to see how leigh go this season with reduced funding

There was even a claim recently from some clubs in The North, even if London RL disappeared, we would still get the same talented young players from the South, one word came to mind Deluded!

Jaybs, you are so right. With the lack of resources that are committed to developing the sport by the RFL. How are these Northern clubs going to identify this talent, without London Broncos or Skolars doing the ground work.
Further, they would need to come away from their insular world to find them.

How do you think I feel being born in St Helens, and still living in the Metropolitan area, it summed it up for me when the Saints club had a ballot for the statue at the new ground, and the majority vote was for Cunningham? what a joke! like the name of the stadium or more ground! 90% did not have a clue who the like of Tom Van Vollenhoven was! as a youngster I read about the history of the club! now there is a statue of someone they sacked?

Jaybs, oddly we are going to agree on something. With you re that statue! But as it was a fans vote, they werr only ever going to vote for players they have watched. 2 very different players you mention, no doubt a talented player but i never liked cunningham, Tom would have been more deserving of a statue.
How did he come to play RL though?

It was interesting two years before Tom joined St Helens in 1955 both Wigan & the Saints were in a real what became known in books as a 'cloak & dagger operation' to sign him, my brother was 11 years older than me, so he told me a lot about him, he worked? on a large record shop in St Helens town centre, it was said he was a real gentleman, I was at the1961 Challenge Cup Final but in the arms of my Dad, as all the family went on that hot day!

Cunningham was the golden boy, knowing what went on a lot at St Helens over the years, I never trusted the vote, was it chosen in advance? it should never have included current players, in my opinion.

Both sport & politics people are rarely going to ever agree fully, that is life! one time it worried me when I was younger, but no longer lol