Take it from someone who actually lives here there is a great interest in Rugby League here in South Wales.
Go into a pub here on a Friday night when the SL match is on and there plenty of people watching it often over whatever football might be on as well. Unfortunately the Celtic Crusaders was the vicitm of poor timing and bad financial managment in building too quickly enough , why Heartland fans expect a club in a non traditional area to suddenly compete with them in terms of attendances and set up is astounding to be honest. The Celtic Crusaders was not given enough time to settle and establish local support and playing foundations either , I sincerely hope the Crusaders are on both fronts. Then we might finally be able to see some real long term benefits and establishing Rugby League professionally as a Sport of choice for the people of Wales, North or South.

The great Behemoth that is Union here can't honestly testify to that yet either.

I will take your point but the fact was the south Cru were brought into superleague to soon and should of been in NL 1 for a couple of years to build up a good fanbase bring in some welsh talent to get rid of the team full of aussies argument. But the RFL are expansion mad and forced a ill prepared Cru side to take a leap about a hundred feet to far for the club at that time.

you obviuosly dont no much do you the reason crusaders moved away is because of bad attendences and to try something new and it payed off according to the 10800 that went to the first game of the season and the game in south wales was in neath not in bridgend where they used to be

they are also playing hull fc.

in south wales the scorpions are playing in and they are getting bigger crowds than the rugby union team in bridgend (where the cru were) and they get 1000 on decent games which is good attendencee for a championship 1 game so there is rl interest in south wales is just all don turn out to games they need to play a cru game near begining of next season at bridgend where they used to play and advertise it alot round bridgend and cardiff or wherever so people that are intersted will show up maybee a couple of hundered from wrexham and see what the crowd is like if it isnt bad do another game but dont do often so it is a big occasion for fans down there so they most turn out

But not at home. The probable 12,000 plus attendance at the KC won't affect our average home attendance!

Can't see RL ever taking off in South Wales, it never worked in 1996 with the South Wales Dragons, never worked for the Celtic Crusaders and with an attendandce of 1,122 against quins for the Crusaders what does that say, this is the 3rd attempt and they still have finiancial problems, having read some posts on Wrexham football club websites there not too happy with the Cru's either, I think Wrexham has been a blessing fro Cru's, improved gates, possible play-offs, but they need to sort there finance out of they will not have a franchise fron 2012 onwards....

In the first year of superleague, the crusaders had an average crowd better than two superleague clubs. Salford and quins. People talk about the game going nowhere in south wales, quickly forget all the facts. There is no reason at all why the game can't work in south wales.

We had some nightmare things to deal with

The british lions tests. Terrible timing for a team looking for big crowds.

The leighton samuwell factor, I know a massive group of supporters that would not watch the crusaders because he was funding them.

The two games played down south this year were beyond a joke, for reasons you can find everywhere.

What the previous attempts show scudley is that poor attempts at expansion and the failure to set up an effective playing base due to a range of factors economic and political stopped Welsh development in its tracks. in 1996 Union had just become professional and all the Welsh talent in League moved back to Union and to more lucrative contracts. Now we can't compete with the four 'regions' and the WRU in terms of money but we can offer the vast Rugby playing pool here in the South an option that wasn't there before, local professional Rugby league, It might never be No.1 here, but I certainly think we can have a competitive side competiting near the top of the game on that basis we are better suited to succeeding than in Wrexham I think they'll agree, but this isn't North v South.



You need to understand the problems to provide effective solutions here, simply saying League won't take off because of a couple of lowish crowds is missing the point entirely.

I agree RL will never be the No1 game in Wales, and the expansion will take time and effort, but fans vote with their feet, and RL is a business after all, money through the turnstiles provide revenue for the club to invest in Players, if no fans are coming through the turnstiles, no money to invest, and then you have a shortfall in finances, and with the Franchise coming up next year all these factors will be looked into, Wrexham has been a blessing for the Crusaders due to the localaty to the NW and Yorkshire and that has shown in increased gates, from Wakefield Wrexham is 2 hours away Bridgend / Cardiff is 4 hours away, meaning overnight stays, more petrol money and so on, Wigan / Warrington / Saints, are closer to Wrexham than Cas/ Wakey / Leeds / Bradford. Fact's dont lie Cas 1,495 Salford 2,412 Quins 1,122 there 3 away games and the 3 lowest attendances this year ?. Stick to Wrexham it's working...

my dad went to pretty much all the celtic crusaders games at bridgend and newport and he agrees that moving to wrexham was the best thing for the cluba nd it has been proved by the gates increase and there current 8th place in the league but i think that the celtic crusders would have developed after a few years and got decent crowds but they were just unfortunate not to be given the otpion to show that as if they had bad crowds they may have had to go back down to the championship so it had to be rushed to get everything better as quick as possible.

Agreed but that was poor marketing on the Club's behalf, they should have been shouting it from the rooftops all way down the valleys