What evidence whatsoever do you have that Crusaders increase the money from Sky?

They'd rather show a good game I'd imagine

i dont think there is any evidence that the crusaders have currently increased the viewing figures or the dosh we get from sky however the logic of your argument is flawed. wales vs england in the six nations doesnt get good viewing figures merely because it is a good game.

It can be an absolute crock of a game - the worst game of Union ever imaginable.

Unfortunately to the vast majority of welsh (and english thinking about it), they'd still prefer it to a great game of league!!

but thats my point the popularity of a game as a sport in the purist sense is not as important (most people in wales are as baffled by union as anyone else in reality) as having played england year in year out for over a hundred years. Sky dont care less if its a good game as long as people watch and they dont care why they watch.
When the crusaders are competitive with a decent crop of welsh players and are playing st helens say in a grand final qualifier, the welsh will watch in large numbers as much because its 'our' boys beating up the english. Its no accident that the crusaders are uping the welsh content of the club (apparently there were going to have daffodils as large feature of next years shirt but the rfl objected to the covering up of the squad numbers).

When!!!!!!!!!!

If/when that day comes around - i'll tootle off back to my hole with only the abolition of P+R to bang on about!!!!

I think it'll happen - quicker than London are filling their side with Londoners - what is it - 30 years or so????

I know celtic will be stronger next year. Know for def! I hope that it inspires more leek gobblers to take up our sport. It's NOT a closed shop and doesn't just have to be played along the 62! That's never been my argument. - but you know that by now.

But when the day happens when a welsh RL team has the 'welshness' about it that people in the province can readily identify - I hope you feel a sense of belonging, attachment and pride as I've felt when my team won the league and the cup!

I just wished the game was fair enough to allow it to happen again!!

Nothing like a bit of flatcap b0ll0x to cheer me up before a BH weekend.

London was implanted with northerners up until the start of SL. Then we got the same allowances to play crims for a few years and given LMS and Clubb were 9/10yrs old and are now England internationals.......born within the sound of the bells (cockneys).....yes, it is working. It's just not quick enough for some. Gone are the days of Offiah jumping ship and here are the days of londoners in every age group england/GB league squad....
Wales will take 10+ years to get there but the won't get there without a senior pro team.....but feck'em...let's get a small pit village back into the top tier.....

c'mon dude. 20 years in sport is a starting point. I got grief somewhere else for saying ten years - thats a blink of an eye. Sports develop in generations. Did Cumbria and castleford get up to speed in 2 minutes. Its only the toughness of the sporting market that means any serious development needs to be done with the crusaders in the superleague. In the past i would have been happy for us to be in the lower leagues for at least 5 years (and i enjoyed the time we did spend their enormously).
Also welshness is a little more complex then just welsh born players. If you can catch the clip of shane howarth (who turned out not to even have a welsh granny) when he was playing for wales rugby union you will get an inkling of what i mean. The welsh like having an emotional attachment to the sportsmen that represent them but that develops in a more obscure way. Just as long as they are beating the crap out oif the english.

Workington were the League Champions in only their 5th year, and won the Challenge Cup in their 7th year. HTH.