A leaked letter over the April 1st weekend and in the week leading up to the derby,

Exactly my thoughts, it is not always advisable to consider diversification until your core business is stable and profibable, it something the RFL should have been giving prority to for the last few years imo, walk before you run springs to mind.

So why bother with this then?

They probably look at the profits of the RU world cup and are told to expand for bigger tv rights.

But the fans want it small time so I don't why they bother.

I'd love to have a thriving international game like ru but I'm a realist and understand it will never happen. People will not swith onto a new sport like that.

The only way it would work is if a hybrid rl/ru sport was devised akin to 20-20 cricket. even thats a long shot.

I'm not a big fan of RU but one thing i will say in its defence is that it has a far superior maketing department than the RFL, it never ceases to amaze me that the RFL have appeared to blow so many opportunities to aggressively promote the game of rugby league in the past.
Its marketing strategy has been at best very averarge for many years imo.

We had a big international game, we didn't try to expand it well enough.

Could you imagine some of our fans reaction if they lost players mid season for internationals?

RU fans seem to accept the games bigger than the clubs.

Of course it does, they have educated people with great networks running it.

Expansion isn't being targeted for the lols - it's being targeted as the only viable method of growing the game and thereby increasing income. A game played only along the M62 corridor is less attractive to sponsors and TV companies. There's also little evidence that the RFL is actually ignoring 'heartlands' teams or offering them less assistance than 'expansion' teams, with the exception of a few tweaks to the quota rules.

The RFL already loaned Bradford a hefty sum to bail them out of what they were assured was a temporary cash flow problem. Guess what? It wasn't temporary. They then bought the lease to Odsal to help them out again, and STILL Bradford's board couldn't make the books balance. What else were they supposed to do? Falling crowds at Odsal and their BOD's serial failure to spend within their means has nothing at all to do with 'chasing expansion'.

Yes it does but, can you remember a few years ago and the quote from Will Carling on rugby union,? "If the game is run properly as a professional game, you do not need 57 old farts running rugby."
Afterwards they had a complete clearout at the top with a more dynamic type of personell taking over who changed the way the game was run, perhaps the game of rugby league would benifit from such a change at the top.

I'd agree with that. Crusaders was a disaster, but I imagine in was inspired to some extent by the promising start Catalans had made and continue to build on.
On the International game, I understand the comparisons with RU, but the diverging histories of the two codes mean that they are only valid up to a point. In some ways I'd even consider de-coupling more from the Aussies, as it'd give us some flexibility in adapting our competition to suit our needs. Personally I think SL has to come before international game, looking to association football in this country/continent as our example, rather than RU or cricket, in that one area.

It's been an appalling mess these last few years though.

If Bradford do fail, or even if they don't (which of course I hope is the case), then there needs to be a debate. 3 clubs in administration in 2 seasons would be worrying.

I would agree on that point inparticular.

Coincidentally the 2 seasons following removal of the 50% rule...