Players that were brought through their formative years by the development coaches who were made redundant recently. Seems a lack of joined up thinking to me.

Completely agree! I can't work out the thinking behind this decision, these are things The RFL should be involved in, sadly they have too many more serious problems at present! Super League Clubs have to follow the football and rugby union plans which have brought them success, looking after their own destiny, this chance can't be wasted, just hope the 6 club chairman who walked out will stand firm and others will see sense, miss this chance and we may regret it for a long time to come.

Its desperately sad if the people running our game believe this. Crusaders and Broncos are the 2 worst examples of top down expansion possible. No stadium, no business plan, rushed in without thought. Had they done a proper business plan and started in Wrexham, Crusaders would have worked IMO. Broncos was never going to work without a home or a plan.

Why is it one or the other? A new franchise straight into SL can work, but not like these 2 clubs tried to do it.

Did we not start off at Craven Cottage? was that not a proper plan, just unfortunate it did not last!

Our franchise started with Broncos when SL started.

Crusaders owned the Brewery Field, Fulham RLFC were owned by the football club and had their home at Craven Cottage.

They may have both failed (short of a miracle in Broncos' case) but neither was entirely unplanned. The problem was that when Plan A failed, there wasn't really a Plan B and this led to the clubs moving around and changing their name. Never a good sign.

Yes, but we had been around as a London RL Club before that and Ernie Clay was a rugby league enthusiast, it was just not a football club thinking of having a rugby league side. It was not just franchise time, lets have a London Club.

As Hedgehog King states Crusaders had their own ground as well at the start, give them credit they seem to hold their own in The Championship like Sheffield Eagles and have attendances which are better than many Northern championship clubs.

For some reason the sport does not seem to work big outside of that M62 corridor, however development area sides seem to try, that is why if the Broncos went down to The Championship, unless there is big money will they ever develop. London Skolars have been semi professional now 10 years and so much hard work goes in, but how far have they developed as far as attendances go?

I agree clubs should have their own grounds, that is their roots then and you build from that base, I just wish Wigan had their own stadium still.

The nearer you are to the M62 corridor the more likely you are to make it as although your own support base may be low initially the much larger away following on your doorstep makes up a lot of the shortfall. The less the owner has to dip into his pocket for the more likely he is to hang around for the long run.

Crusaders did not own Brewery Field and had no sound business plan.

We did not own or have long term rights at a stadium or have a sound business plan.

Both clubs rushed in with fingers crossed at best.

Crusaders did own Brewery Field at the time that they were awarded the SL franchise. They sold it in their first year of SL.

There are top RL teams in Aus who attract massive crowds that have had and continue to have success with no ground-Explain that.

Do Saracens and London Irish have grounds?

Of course that will always happen, but I think having property/land gives a more firm footing/security, and you are more in control as a club, very likely you will remain in that area/community.

Saracens do, it is called the Allianz stadium.

As far as I know, the only NRL club that owns its own ground is Cronulla.

Regardless of other sports in British RL when a club is going downhill, it sells its ground. In 95% of cases, this seems to accelerate events and the club generally gets turfed out of one ground after another being unable to pay the rent. Each move is heralded as a chance to begin again and attract new fans but it never works like that.

Clubs need their own stadiums or a share in a stadium to be stable.