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Maximus Decimus

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Everything posted by Maximus Decimus

  1. Maximus Decimus
    Not the issue whatsoever. RL is a capitalist sport and as such if they work they will be adopted as it means more revenue. If they don't they won't. I suspect we'll see one club try it and others will then follow suit. Take the example of Bullmania and how many clubs in RL (and Union) susequently adopted their methods.
  2. Maximus Decimus
    Once again we see another positive thread derailed by people with their agenda's who just want Widnes to desperately fail.... Oh wait that only happens when it's expansion clubs. With every other club it's just a natural message board conversation developing from unexpected news. I'm fairly sure there's some creative accounting going on but at the end of the day we've ticked that box and we're out of debt which is positive news however you look at it.
  3. Maximus Decimus
    Seems like a good idea but it's not perfect. Season tickets are good from a clubs perspective because it makes people commit to going to 13 or so games. Now this is completely independent of whether or not the club does well. They make the purchase when they are optimistic about the season. I would also suggest that it encourages people to attend games even if they don't fancy it. Many people will go simply because they have paid. It also means that people have paid even if there is a change to their circumstance and they can no longer attend games. From a personal point of view it would be ideal. I haven't bought myself a season ticket for at least 10 years. I can't guarantee that I can make all or most of the games and I have rarely had the money to shell out all at once. This year I've been a few games but not all games that I could have made, sometimes I haven't fancied paying for a game that doesn't appeal to me when I'm skint. I would be much more likely to pay for a flexticket, especially one that I could use with friends or give away if I couldn't make it. The club would benefit as it would guarantee more frequent attendance from people like me. However I fear a club would see a reduction in the number of season tickets in exchange for flextickets. If the team started the season poorly, they may not get another ticket. Also in my experience many fans experience a mid-season lull anyway and may decide to pick and choose their games after that. It's a tough one. If it was my club I would definitely suggest something like flextickets being brought in half-way through the season. It will take one club to try them out before we see if they work or not. If they do, all clubs will jump on it because it's win win. If they don't then they won't. It's a bit like the season ticket, I'm sure one club started them first and other's followed suit because they work.
  4. Maximus Decimus
    Sorry that's what you get for typing too fast. I meant to say hopefully it will be a move and not for instance the end of London RL. The bit about Quins not working wasn't meant to be linked to that point really.
  5. Maximus Decimus
  6. Maximus Decimus
    Good stuff. I've always had a soft spot for Oldham and if anything their decline over the past decade or so is the saddest of all Championship clubs. I remember the last time Widnes came into Super League we defeated Oldham in the GF. That is how close Oldham came to a very different future and who knows where they would be now. They also used to get crowds that were one of the best in the league. I always keep an eye out for their results and hope that one day they get back to where they deserve.
  7. Maximus Decimus
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_leag...don/8944609.stm Surprised this went unnoticed. Quotes like this from McDermott are very worrying. I can't see them pulling the plug completely but are we looking at another move? Hopefully, I think the Quins experiment has failed. It was worth a risk but they are trapped in a situation where they are totally overshadowed by a club that 95% of people can't differentiate them from.
  8. Maximus Decimus
    http://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/article.php?id=2519 Apparently we had a turnover of
  9. Maximus Decimus
    4th is clearly better than 5th for the simple fact that they get a second bite of the cherry and at home. The 'roll on' idea doesn't work as it can be easily countered by an equally likely alternative. Say Leeds finish 4th and narrowly lose to Wigan and then go on to play Hull at home who have easily beaten the Crusaders. Who is better prepared in the Leeds Hull game? The RFL should resort back to 6th and I think most people would agree with that. I think they are keeping it because they are worried about clubs having nothing to play for with the taking away of promotion and relegation. However I don't think the race for 8th stirs up particularly much excitement because the chances of winning are so remote and most people realise that 8th isn't a great achievement.
  10. Maximus Decimus
    Recently I was in Dublin and I was looking round a book shop when I saw a book called 'sporting heroes.' Now I don't know about anyone else, but I always check these kind of books to see if they include RL or just 'rugby' and I figured being an Irish bookstore it might not. I was pleasantly surprised to find it did and the first RL hero was Billy Boston. It was the first line that shocked me, it was something like this, It didn't seem right and I'm fairly sure it can't be and that they must mean 6.9 million. Even so that is a really impressive number. For instance total attendance this year will be around the 2.5 million mark. However I'm not sure I'd call it the sports Golden Age. Whilst we used to beat the Aussies with a degree of regularity and many clubs competed for trophies, we were very limited geographically and international attendances in this country were small. Personally I'd say 87-95 will be seen as the Golden Age. I can't speak for attendances, but nationally we had a lot of stars and internationally crowds were the highest they ever were. We also had many classic events like Wigan beating Manly in 87 and Brisbane in 92. The running the Aussies close so many times as well. When do you think the Golden Age was or are we in it now?
  11. Maximus Decimus
    I apologise, I must have mistaken you with another group. I'll delete the above post. Keep up the good work!
  12. Maximus Decimus
    Dissappointed that he'll leave this way. He's been the best servant of Widnes RL through a very difficult time and wish him all the best hopefully at a Super League club.
  13. Maximus Decimus
    Get a life. You know nothing about me and don't try and imply that you do. Instead of resorting to a pathetic personal attack, try and point out where I've been wrong or haven't used facts.
  14. Maximus Decimus
    I don't think there is much negativity on this topic. I certainly didn't aim to come across that way, I would always suggest caution with getting carried away but pretty much the whole game thinks they deserve their chance and they do. There hasn't been a single person on this thread who hasn't said that. Handled well this could be great for RL but some of that success would have to go down to the work done and the lessons learned in Bridgend.
  15. Maximus Decimus
    I'd agree with Dally, there was no personal abuse. Simply a disagreement. Without disagreements nobody would ever go on forums.
  16. Maximus Decimus
    Edit
  17. Maximus Decimus
    It amazes me what some people expect from a discussion board.
  18. Maximus Decimus
    Care to name an example where a relatively minor sport with little money or exposure has managed to take off and establish itself through top level expansion? The only example I can think of remotely linked to what you're saying is the Belfast Giants Ice Hockey. There are many, many more examples that go the other way. I'll tell you one, the AFL has managed to get 25,000 people playing the game in SA. Great expansion, but funnily enough there isn't an AFL franchise yet. Look at the A-League which you probably heavily deride. Awareness of Football is massive in Australia and it is the most played sport. Yet just a few years in of a massive relaunch with many new franchises, it is really struggling with crowds dropping at an alarming rate after initial highs. They plonked a team in the Gold Coast that struggle to get a few thousand to a game.
  19. Maximus Decimus
    Or we'll carry on with your opinion and await our first success of top down expansion. I've never said anything like what you're saying at the beginning, that's putting words in my mouth. The RFL are going the right way about it in putting more money into the grassroots, getting people actually playing the game there. Making people aware of the game before you stick a club in at the top level. Wrexham have done some good things, but they are much better placed for the 4 years that CC had in Bridgend, for instance they can play actual Welsh players, they actually have an Academy team full of young Welsh kids. They are 4 years ahead of where they would have been without CC and their Championship years. When you plonk a team down from nowhere you don't have any of this and have to spend time getting it right which you often don't have.
  20. Maximus Decimus
    What has this got to do with bottom up expansion? I'm not for one second suggesting Hunslet should be included but your suggesting that Crusaders were given 3 years to prepare for Super League. I've pointed out they are in almost exactly the same situation as Crusaders were in less than a year before the licensing decision. How well do you think you would go, how prepared for Super League are Hunslet right now?
  21. Maximus Decimus
    Why don't you add 1895 to it while your at it? Aside from the fact that none of these were 'top down expansion' in anything like the way that we see it today and were in fact more akin to grassroots expansion, especially in the case of France. Amateur clubs springing up all over the place that developed a vibrant local competition.
  22. Maximus Decimus
    How would Hunslet go next year then? By your reckoning Wrexham aren't top down either as they only have an excellent chance of succeeding because of CC. I don't even know what that middle line is supposed to mean.
  23. Maximus Decimus
    How many people played 1 hour of RL in North Wales last year? Has there ever been a successful example of top down expansion in an area that has no RL played there?
  24. Maximus Decimus
    There's always excuses as to why these clubs fail, but the problem is that as soon as anything goes wrong the club is built on too shaky foundations to survive. Gateshead didn't work very well, they were much better on the pitch than CC but their crowds were no better, dropping as low as 1500 at one point. You haven't addressed the point that CC were not bottom up at all, they were as prepared as Hunslet are now. Do you not forget many, many people suggesting that they weren't ready and were another example of ill thought out top down expansion. You also haven't addressed the fact that Wrexham are reaping some of the benefits of this 'bottom up' expansion. What makes me laugh most is that anybody who called CC a failure this time last year would have been shouted down and derided as a fervent traditionalist, when now every Tom, Dick and Harry is doing so.
  25. Maximus Decimus
    There are 95,000 registered AFL players in NSW and ACT. There are 100,000 registered players in Queensland. Many more are aware of the sport as it is a truly national sport in Australia, probably the largest. How many people play and are aware of RL in North Wales, Gateshead or Paris?
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