Except London do have fans. In 2019 they averaged a home gate of just over 2,000. Leigh’s in comparison was 3,259, now for a town that’s only got one professional team and claims to have huge support, that’s pretty poor. London meanwhile compete with high flying PL/RU sides in a huge metropolitan city and still draw 2,000. That’s pretty good in my book, even better when you consider the most RLWC tickets have been sold in London. We’ve missed a huge opportunity and instead of going for a meaningful expansion have take a safe, warm and cuddly bet in Leigh. A side who have never managed to stay in SL for more than 1 season.

They’ll give it a decent crack but so would have the other 5. If by no fans you mean away support then that’s a pretty poor argument brought up when there’s no other leg to stand on. If we’re reliant on away supporters, we’re doing something demonstrably wrong in the first place.

Also just to add. I know there is an element of hypocrisy in my post as we sign young players from other sides not even in our region, Smithies, Pearce-Paul etc but that is the network we have in place. It's not just a case of nabbing all the best youngsters it's hard work and due diligence on the clubs part to sniff these lads out. Rugby League is played all over the country. London Broncos have found a good number of local lads and have made strides as a club as a result. They made it back in Super League and were very unlucky to go down. Every side that comes up is always going to have the cards stacked against them but that experience of playing at that higher level is all good for the future of the club. They won a lot of friends the season before last because they were a well coached and well drilled unit. Pretty much all the lower league clubs need to have a look at London's business model and follow their lead.

Oh for sure it's pessimistic. I think there are benefits to going to 14 teams eventually but we can't just pretend there aren't hurdles. History tells us that the promoted teams tend to bring in experienced journeymen at the expense of youngsters because they need to stay up. Already I, and others, are saying we should be touting Clark and Hankinson to Leigh, for example. Players who weren't good enough for SL last year, but may be starters next year even with one team coming up. What standard of player ends up on the pitch when you add in a further two teams and one of them picks up a few injuries?

More youngsters would inevitably get opportunities at some point as well (e.g Clark goes to Leigh so Kilner gets the odd game here). That's OK at Wigan because we have the best academy. Are the clubs further down the pecking order ready to cope with that demand, or do we end up with players on the pitch who should really be playing at a lower level, or more NRL has-beens over for one last payday? That's the biggest hitch IMO. Same number of players available, 60 or so more required to play Super League regularly.


Not sure how familiar you are with League 1 so apologies if this sounds patronising. The quality is bloody awful, worse than amateur level in many cases (hence NCL sides regularly beating League 1 sides in the CC). The sides with a shout of coming up aren't the exciting expansion teams. It would likely be two of Barrow/Keighley/Rochdale. They aren't building for the future, they are in a permanent state of trying to keep their heads above water. In fact I've long argued that they should just merge the NCL and League 1. West Wales wouldn't even be in the top two divisions if they did that.

Forget that bit though, what about the remaining Championship teams? They were all reliant on some loan/Dual Reg players every week to fulfil fixtures. The players they would have loaned will now be playing SL for whoever. What quality of player can they loan now? The problem trickles down.


Agree with all this. The reserves league needs to be in place for three years before we can consider 14 teams IMO. That way you may have enough players ready to step up.

If the league to be expanded to 14 nominate the 2 clubs to be come into SL 12 months beforehand so the said clubs could accrue personnel to at least compete in SL and give them financial help to do so.