64 replies to this topic

[saints10coach]

Funny how the RFL do not want you to have a sloping pitch. But seem to condone an un-level playing field, when it comes to SL entry.

[The Art of Hand and Foot]

The irony is , and I said this last year, people ridicule our ground, but at least you can touch it.

Unlike Swinton's ground!!!

We have the seeds, the beginnings of a home.

What we need now, is a team.

A winning team, that will bring in the crowds.

[allroughyed]

The irony is , and I said this last year, people ridicule our ground, but at least you can touch it.

Unlike Swinton's ground!!!

We have the seeds, the beginnings of a home.

What we need now, is a team.

A winning team, that will bring in the crowds.

You can touch Swintons ground, it's derelict ground, but you can touch it !!

Edited by allroughyed, 27 September 2012 - 05:41 PM.

[Roughyedz]

Was Watersheddings any worse than Knowsley Road, Wheldon Road, Wakefield? No.
Yes, Watersheddings did need upgrading, but it still was a reasonable sporting arena to watch Oldham. With the location, the slope and the intimidating nature of the ground, and the walk to te pavillion, made it a fortress for the home side. Something visiting teams hated, and visiting directors.
Being involved with the Bears at the time, I certainly believe that selling Watersheddings wasn't the clubs only option, and that the 'powers of SL' were forcing the arm of Castleford, Workington, Halifax and Oldham to ditch their gorunds, or risk being expelled from the competition.

When SL was launched there was an article in which two leading 'chairman', who incidentally became the big chiefs with SL, came out and said clubs like Oldham were an 'embarrasment' to the elite clubs, and shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as clubs like .....Bradford. With attitudes like that, Oldham would never be respected in the sport, yet as long as Saddleworth, St Annes and Waterhead develop the 'elite' players to the sport, who gives a monkeys about Oldham?


Fast forward to today. Featherstone and Halifax have proved that they are more than worthy of a SL place. More so than Harlequins. Yet as the game is stacked, neither club will ever be allowed in the elite competition due to some 'clause' or another. The Bradford debacle says it all. One rule for the rest, one for the other. The whole game from the top to grassroots is run by idiots.

The Only thing that stops ANY team getting into Super league is .................MONEY ...............Fax and Fev dont have any , just like all the other teams outside Super League ......... If any team outside Super league had the backing of a rich benefactor ....and i mean millions not a few grand .....they would be in Super league , have a ground etc etc et cin 12 months .....Oldham , like all the rest dont have this .......................FULL STOP

[oldhamer]

Do you honestly think that a majority of SL clubs have a healthier bank balance than most Championship or Championship 1 clubs? The only reason that SL teams have money, is the money from SKY, and all of that goes straight to players contracts. Any team outside the top flight with the same payout from SKY can acheive what they do. You could argue that the lower teams are better managers of their finances, as they have to be more or less self funded, and the reduction of withdrawl from central funding would have little or no impact at all.
I will ask you two questions. Withdraw the whole money SKY gives out, and how many SL would go under within a month? I would say 85%. How many teams would fold outside SL, under the same conditions? I would say 5%, if not 0%. And that is where most of the problems of our game.

[HARRYRUBY]

Super League is virtually a closed shop.They protect the teams they want in their league by breaking the rules laid down by the RL and applying their own for self presevation. Why should the the Super Leage teams be able to influence and govern ( as they have more voting power) the teams outside super league.

We should break away and govern ourselves. If Sky money stopped it would be the Super League clubs who would be hit harder not those in the Championship. They cant manage without Sky we can.

[saints10coach]

Whilst in theory I agree with your views on SL Harry, I do not think a breakaway is the answer. The problem we have, as soon as the lower league clubs have a valid argument against SL on any subject. There is usually an offer of a small amount of money to go away and keep quite. Most clubs in their greed learnt from SL clubs, take the offer and do so. Until the lower league clubs stand strong and rebel, nothing will change.

[HARRYRUBY]

In regard to super League I cant see any more than three clubs that would be considered for Super League in regard to their present positions.

These being Halifax,Leigh and Featherstone, the rest of the teams outside SL just exist from year to year playing with limited ambition.

That will remain unless a club gets a serious backer to come on board to be able to front a franchise.

How much debt are each of the SL clubs in.It would be interesting to find out how many could survive without the SKY money they receive each season.

[oldhamer]

Hardly any. I would say Leeds and Warrington would survive. The rest ? Not a chance. Look at the crowds for the play off semis? Can't fill either Saints or Wigans ground for them ? To me that's a major problem, and its not just because they are on tv. Maybe the huge admission prices that SL clubs now charge has a major bearing on he attendance, but wasn't that an attraction for our sport? It was much cheaper for people to watch the game, compared to football. But now the two sports are similar.

[rugbyman1]

SL prices are too high I agree but they have to fund the stadiums somehow.Clubs like Oldham are trying to balance the books whilst developing (albeit with caution) their ground and so our £12 doesn't sound too bad we just need more people to pay it.

Without a very rich benefactor RL will only survive as it is if it continues to feed the grass roots, bringing young boys and girls through the ranks filling their idle hands and contributing to the local community. Oldham tick most of the boxes here and with the solid base of younger players (if we can keep hold of them) then i'm cautiously optomistic. With a new coach who i'm told will be his own man then perhaps we can have some stability in the team this year and not let the SL "duel reg" unsettle the squad as it did in 2012.

Are we going the way of wendyball, maybe. A moderate amount of money will make big improvements for CH and CH1 but if you pump cash into SL i'm not sure RL on the whole would see big benefits.So maybe the answer is if you are fed up of paying over the odds to watch second rate Ausies then half your cash and watch CH/CH1.

[oldhamer]

Most of the new stadia are owned by management companies, rather than the clubs. Where at one time every penny spent inside the ground went to swell the funds of the club, it goes to franchised outlets, and the rental of these businesses to the stadia management. So fans are hit twice, at the turnstile and with the over priced rubbish they serve within the ground. And the rugby club has less money coming in, and have to increase the price to help cover costs. From what has been said before, Salford have to hit 6k in attendance to even break even on the ground, and that is progress? At least with our ground, every penny spent does go back to the club.

Edited by oldhamer, 01 October 2012 - 08:46 PM.

[Roughyeds Return]

Most of the new stadia are owned by management companies, rather than the clubs. Where at one time every penny spent inside the ground went to swell the funds of the club, it goes to franchised outlets, and the rental of these businesses to the stadia management. So fans are hit twice, at the turnstile and with the over priced rubbish they serve within the ground. And the rugby club has less money coming in, and have to increase the price to help cover costs. From what has been said before, Salford have to hit 6k in attendance to even break even on the ground, and that is progress? At least with our ground, every Lenny spent does go back to the club.

Trouble is there has been very few Lenny's spent on our ground - and where the Lenny's come from to actually make it a viable little ground remains to be seen. So perhaps a stadium owned by a management company isn't such a bad thing.

[oldhamer]

Even so, it's more profitable than playing at BP

[Bedford Roughyed]

Even so, it's more profitable than playing at BP

Not if no one turns up.

[saints10coach]

I think that to be fair to the club, we must wait and see what the decision of the planning meeting is and also see how quickly what, if it is approved will happen and how quickly. You only have to look around to see that some things are already waiting to be implemented and would expect some funding to come from central resources. Only time will tell. I hope that there will be some visible improvements at Whitebank before the start of next season.

[roughyedspud]

just read through this thread...........


heres a idea....how about some of you stop going on about what happened 20 years and worry about whats happening NOW!

[oldhamer]

No one is harping about what happened 20 years or so ago, but to be honest, the past is relevant. Not just applicable to Oldham, but the game as a whole, has to learn from the past 20 plus years, and my viewpoint, it is not. Learning from the past, is vital to continual development, and is an integral part of product development. Whether that product is something physical or not, the principles are the same. The game is bungling along, and shutting its ears and eyes to what is going on around them, and the game is suffering both on the field, and off it.

[davewd]

Lets talk about well over 20 years ago. When RL was just 1 league ,all the Lancs clubs played each other then mixture of Yorks clubs so every team played the same number of games.liverpool / blackpool/etc and the smaller clubs were not playing each other and living on the scraps of the big clubs. They played the top clubs every season, they stillstruggled and occasionaly not so often turned over abig club .I remember when Oldham players paid at the turnstile at Liverpool when Oldham were the best team in the league at that time Lost there was some red faces that day.Today the championship clubs need more league matches to play .Cup matches are only money spinners if you are succesful.Championship 1and 2 could be put together all the top clubs play each otherplus amixture of the rest. More games means no more 2/3 weeks break in the season some teams playing others not .The current fixtures are hopeless for the day to day running of clubs . just a thought .

[oldhamer]

The same situation is relevant today, but more clubs are struggling to survive without getting the scraps off the bigger clubs. Attendances are very poor across both divisions, especially in the Championship as there is nothing to play for. Since the SL inception, they have devalued the Challenge Cup, it's not the same anymore, and more or less tried to kill every club outside SL off in the process. To me, that's not progress, it's criminal.

[HARRYRUBY]

The way that Rugby League has been managed since sky came on the scene as devalued the game. The RFL having drove a wedge between SL and those outside are now driving a Wedge between the championship sides. There used to be only one league in Rugby with sides playing far more games than they do today. The RFL should put Oldham & Rochdale in the Championship and develop a fixture list based on their locations with cross matches. If they were allowed to play for three years without fear of relegation they could plan for more stability instead of playing year to year trying to win and aviod promotion and relegation.

The championship one league could be used to try and introduce about ten clubs outside the traditional heartlands and when they are established say after three years look ar relegation between the two leages. Northampton were gong to come into championship one but pulled out because they did not consider it to be viable for next season What about trying to get a team in the Midlands, in Lincolnshire,in Anglia and Cambridge and areas where they have played in the summer competition .Give them three years to develop with teams in a similar situation and it would benefit them.

Include them in the Northern Rail cup and give them better opposition and possibly more pay days which can only be good for them.

Any system than the one they envisage for next season has to be an improvement.