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

I'd be quietly confident that DH will have multiple income streams, even in retirement. He's been setting his money on fire for decades, he's got plenty of it I'm sure.

Listy, but my point is, quite likely less than previous.

So listy, whats your thoughts on what the promotion cost would be? Irrelivent of who is going to have to or who can afford to pay for it

However much it is, i suspect it will be more than it might have cost to keep us in SL!!

Still waiting for you to submit any evidence to support this claim.

I've no idea - its not worth thinking about, it'll never happen again. We've had numerous chances and DH has flushed them all down the toilet.

He won't have any as he's just got a fertile imagination.

NB you keep going on about the cost of SL. There are many factors to take into account, but principally the strategy a club approaches being the most important; If you commit to marketing and the fan base grows then potentially your outlay lowers. If you go with a 70% academy squad the likelihood is the overall cost will be lower than what Toronto did. See how differing factors affect the overall cost? Toronto bought a squad, Wigan developed a squad and enhanced it....

Clarky said on TV some time back average salary of SL player was 60k

60 x 23
10 x circa 20-30k for kids
coach, asst coach, fitness coach (Thats minimum coaching squad, marketing, ........
Ground cost
Academy, reserve teams

You do the maths