Why? Whats wrong with quins stadium. What makes Barrows ground any better than salfords?

I know this post is old but whatever. The problem with Quins probably isn't their stadium it's the fact that their fanbase is pretty low. However I think that we should have a London team in the league providing they are competitive as it would be a bit wrong to have French and Welsh teams but not a London team. What I don't understand though is why people are looking at another French side rather than for example Barrow or Whitehaven? Or Widnes. I think Salford may be a lost cause also. I have a friend who is a student at Salford University and she cannot find a pub in Salford which shows Rugby League EVEN IF SALFORD ARE PLAYING! I am not sure how well she has looked but I know she has rung in excess of 10 pubs near to the uni and all have said they don't show any.

its surprising but lots of eareas around here dont put the rugby on . southport for one
i know we need to expand it but for me france is not the way to go

But weren't most of the clubs in that league semi-pro at the time?

I doubt SL will get any more money off Sky to fund an expanded league and so unless the money is there to make the teams competitive I don't see how it could be done. I quite like the idea myself of a bigger league but now the game is professional money comes into it.



It does but so does the guarantee of one NL side getting into SL in 2011. They could well be poorer on meeting the criteria than all current SL teams so why should a SL team drop out of they meet the SL criteria better?



I think Widnes will go up and that will allow the RFL to meet their guarantee of promoting a SL club without too much opposition if any. Who knows if Toulouse will be fast tracked with them but I suppose if two sides go up one of which is Toulouse then given the other will be a side from the heartlands the RFL will think they have done their duty.

Dave

I think we're already struggling for quality British players without expanding the league, a quality league of 16 with the new rules about imports is not going to happen.

I would love to see a team from Cumbria in Super League but the rivalries up there would make it pretty difficult to do. Any of the existing Cumbrian teams alone are going to be limited crowd-wise by the relatively low population in the area. I reckon if they'd had a merger years ago when they were talking about it, it would have gone down like a lead balloon at first but they would be in a position now to have a competitive/popular team in Super League, even though Barrow is miles away from Workington/Whitehaven, which would pose the obvious question of where they would play.

Workington and Whitehaven would work well geographically but Barrow could never really be included due to them being over an hours drive away from Whitehaven. I think a "Cumbria" side somewhere in the middle of the three would be brilliant for expansion but I don't imagine you would find any fans (except maybe at Workington as they're in Championsip 1) that would be willing to allow it. Imagine if someone told Widnes and Warrington they were to merge to form "Cheshire" or if Leeds and Bradford were asked to merge too. It would feel pretty bad for those fans tbh. I love the idea though the Lake District would make a nice long weekend for the Rugby. Somewhere near Windermere Ambleside perhaps ha. I think the only way a merger will happen is if one of the teams is going under and need it to survive.

It would also depend on the benefits for the other club(s). The Cumbria SL team is something I just can't see ever getting off the ground.

When SL was first envisaged it included "made up" teams like Calder (I think that was supposed be in West Yorkshire) to make sure areas had a competitive team but it did go down like lead balloon.

Regardless of that there is a snag of having just one team in a region and that is if they fail for any reason then the region loses it's team. In RU Sale look likely for the drop and so that could be the end of top flight RU in the North West. That's s big area to leave without representation at the top of the sport so any regional RL sides such as a Cumbrian one, Quins in London and the Crusaders need a lot of support and I wonder how much willingness there is to give it seeing as how easily South Wales was left behind with the Crusaders.

Dave

A rugby league presence was guaranteed in South Wales in the aftermath of the Crusaders' relocation. Wales now has two professional clubs with the emphasis of at least one on developing and bringing through Welsh talent.

Yes I know but I meant if the Crusaders went from Wrexham as easily as they went from South Wales that would be a problem. I don't think they would leave another pro side behind them and in any case I don't think doing so when that pro side is a lower league one is much compensation.

There are lots of RU sides such as Macclesfield and Chester who do well in the lower RU leagues but the interest is in Sale with many supporters from those areas following the top flight club because they are in the top flight. I am not convinced if Sale get relegated they will transfer their allegiance to the lower league sides as actual pay on the gate supporters and I don't see this being any different in RL for what you might call a "regional" side.

Dave

I'd argue that the situation in south Wales was pretty exceptional and that the Welsh RL/club's hand was forced. Fortunately there aren't too many Leighton Samuels knocking about and hopefully the club will have learned many valuable lessons form the whole experience.


Fully agree. Sale getting relegated would be a disaster for rugby union in the region. If they go down I really can't see them coming back up anytime soon.

A club in the middle of the three is a complete non starter for a few reasons. I have lived and worked near Windermere and Ambleside so have seen the area you suggest first hand.

There are no large population centres in these areas, they are filled with small towns (not much larger than villages in some cases) with small populations and villages and the size of these is restricted by the landscape so there is not a large potential audience to draw fans of this cumbria club from.

Fans would have to come from this area though in the main as it takes as long to get from Whitehaven and Workington to the Ambleside area as it does to get from Wigan, Warrington or St Helens to Ambleside and is an awkward journey. Fans from Whitehaven and Workington would not want the hassle of travelling miles to support a club they have little affinity with as even if they lost their semi pro clubs there are still many amateur clubs in the area that they could more easily see. Similarly why would the fans of Barrow want to travel into the middle of the Lake District or put up with the RFL disbanding their club (in the league since 1900) in favour of creating one miles away that is harder to get to for away fans with a smaller population rather than helping them get the stadium up to scratch. They would be alienated.

The area you suggest also has the problem of being within a National Park and so is subject to strict regulations regarding planning, building and alteration. Even if there were a site large enough to allow for a stadium of SL standard along with all the necessary infrastructure it is unlikely that it would recieve planning permission. There is a RU club in Ambleside but they play on what is basically a field with rugby posts at either end.

The only way cumbria will get a club that meets the standards is if Barrow can get a new stadium and then meet the other criteria and enter as Barrow or if a new club was started in Carlisle leaving the other three as they are in CC and CC1. A merged club won't happen and would fail anyway within 18 months you would have a white elephant stadium in the middle of nowhere and three phoenix clubs in Barrow, Whitehaven and Workington.

Basically agree with me then. I thought of Carlisle but i was trying to stick to the original points of speaking of mergers and Carlisle is a long way from the other 3.

The Irony is somebody did try to form a Cumbria side, and somebody did tell Warrington and Widnes to merge. The same person also suggested the 2 Hull clubs should merge and form 'Humberside' (which nobody from Hull would ever have classed themselves as belonging to).

This forward thinking genius was Maurice Lindsay while chairman of the RFL and negotiating with Murdoch about the formation of Super League.

You know, the same guy that can indirectly be blamed for our big financial problems and losing all our best players......

It's funny how 15 years later things go full circle.

Extend the league to 18 and have a relegation playoff at end of season as well as the winners playoff. Relegation to championship every season instead of this license bull, excitement at both ends all season.