whatever but they were hardly the source of some crafty income for samuels as was being suggested. the guy has ploughed lots of money into the sport whatever anyone thinks of him.

my eyes are open thanks.

yeah yeah just make it up as you go along. there is a difference between making reasonable predictons, whether optimistic or pessimistic and the blind hatred we have had to endure over the last few years. i have never had any problems with people from the heartlands showing concern over the nature and inherent risk of expansion.

i have always argued that the risk was worth the benefits. to argue otherwise s obviously not being a flatcapper. i restrict that term to people who believe that there is some bizzarre inherent inability for people in other areas to enjoy the sport and become seriously invested in it. these are two distinct arguments.

the world has moved on massively from the time of psg. union has got into top gear and anyone who believes we can sit still and that will not have a serious maybe even fatal impact on out sport is the really deluded one.

stayng in the m62 corridor is death

Yes, you have. You still do.



You thought it was worth the risk and so presumably you are enjoying the current mess.

Personally I don't.

I wanted expansion into Wales and it has seemingly been thrown away by reckless idiots.



Cliched rubbish, the game is enjoying a boom in non-traditional areas such as Essex (piece in the Independent last week no less).

It is also played in France, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands and to some extent Spain, the USA, Serbia, the Cazech Republic et alia.

It would be nice for Wales to be on that list but it's massively overstating things to say that Bridgend or even Newport were the difference between survival and oblivion.

And he was given quite a bit of RFL cash into the bargain. Let's not forget that.

The main pity is that when the game had support in S Wales, primarily from the councils of Cardiff and Swansea in the 90's the RFL backed out leaving much bad feeling. Regarding the present, incidentally very easy to predict when you know the answers, was not to strengthen the side when they went into Super League. It is impossible to attract new supporters when the team is always losing, this is very much reflected in the crowd figures for the Crusaders.
It amuses me that people love having a go at the club about players on incorrect visas, which is exactly what other non super league clubs were doing. Unfortunately only Crusaders were the only club left with players prior to the 2009 season who had played on these contracts. Apparently one other club still had oneleft but not enough high profile to matter for the powers that be.

According to the Crusaders website Season tickets are on sale.

For 10 matches at Newport & 3 on the road.

Surely if they were going to move to Wrexham then they would stop selling these.

I think a lot of that Guardian piece is rumour.

Excellent news

Not like you guys to be negative about us!! My parents just bought two seasons tickets and they were informed by the club that they will be playing 10 home games at Newport one in Wrexham and two other games on the road probably in west wales. Swansea and neath or Llanelli are they most likely venues. We will not be playing every home game at Wrexham.

So? Who do you think supported the original Gateshead and the original Sheffield? Why, the RFL of course! But then they changed their agenda and decided that Hull was going downhill rapidly and so merged the Gateshead team with the Hull team to save Hull, and ditto for Sheffield with Huddersfield (I think it was). Gateshead were pulling in a few thousand in those early days but all those fans were just dumped by the RFL. The same is happening in South Wales. The RFL has changed its agenda - new stadia, new stadia, new stadia - and the fans in South Wales are being dumped. If the Crusaders move north I am fairly sure they will die. If they stay where they are, as they should do IMO, then they have a good chance of survival because a lot of groundwork has been done and once they start having some success on the field, the fanbase will grow. But all this uncertainty will do nothing for the chances of RL in South Wales. In fact, it just makes the RFL look like the bunch of clueless amateurs they are. I don't think for one minute the club would have considered moving out of Bridgend until they absolutely had to (to make way for a new stadium there) without the pressure from the RFL and their bloody new stadia agenda. Idiots.

The drive (nay requirement) for new stadia has been on the cards long before Crusaders were ever concieved. Keithley were famously denied entry into super league because of theirs. Crusaders as part of their license were going to get one sorted. Everyone else in the sport whose stadiums are not up to scratch are going through the exact same thing.

As I say, the rfl have bent over backwards for the crusaders. To blame them for anything is absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, they are, and I think that is just as bad because we are in the middle of a recession and the last thing struggling RL clubs can afford is bloody new stadiums. The RFL should have relieved the pressure until the financial situation is better and so the Crusaders would not have felt the need to move before they were really ready to. But that would be to grant the people at Red Hall with some nouse, which they just don't have.


You clearly didn't read my last post so your comment is worthless.

Are you on drugs ? it is not the RFL that are forcing anybody to move anywhere , the move to Newport is a Crusaders decision , probably to try to build a bigger fan base in a bigger town

Who knows what the rfl has or hasnt done, but are you suggesting that the rfl put cash in samuels pocket or paid running costs for the club? big difference i would suggest.