skep155

I honestly don't get why we don't publicise this more, is it really that hard to approach one of them for an interview about RL?

Any idea what format the changes will take/some of the proposed changes themselves?

Any new clubs joining championship 1 next year? Anyone heard any rumours? Not expecting anything to happen but it would be great if any clubs did make the step up.

Incidentally, when is this new stand due to be completed? I haven't heard anything about it in a while or seen any pictures of the building work.

I suppose you have to take into account the recession and the fact people don't have a whole lot of spare cash at the moment. I'm hopeful we'll see a significant increase in some averages over the next few years. Leeds redevelopment of the South Stand coupled with better on field performances should see them back up to the 17,000 mark, Wigan have some good marketing going on so perhaps still room to grow? St Helens crowds should get a shot in the arm once they move into their new stadium, then there's Bradford's season ticket offer next year. I suppose Hull KR could break the 10,000 barrier one day if they redevelop Craven Park to the extent that they can pull in some real big crowds for the big games. Any other teams with new stadiums *should* see their crowds rise.

I don't think it's over yet, I personally think they'll attempt one more move before they pack it all in. The season tickets packages not being announced and players not being signed just could be down to not knowing where they are playing next year, no point signing players on the promise of playing in Twickenham if you might be moving to another part of London or out of London all together. I think if there's one certainty, it's that they aren't going to continue under the Harlequins RL moniker for much longer.

What sorts of crowds do they get and where do they get them from? According to wikipedia there's only 10,000 people in the village.

I think our own national stadium would be a big boost to the image of the sport, it's just getting the money for it. Then again I can think of some large stadiums that have been built at a relatively low cost, I think the Stadium of Light (48,000) was built for 23 million.

Your a troll of the highest order.

England, but I was just saying that technically, the game wouldn't die.

I'm not quite as pessimistic. The game is big down in Australia and I can see them making real gains over the next ten years, Perth look a certainty for 2013 and a second NZ team or even a PNG team could follow a few years after. Yes the game could sink into obscurity in Britain, but I'm fairly optimistic that we'll win the war of the codes down under. So in a sense, even in the most pessimistic scenario in Europe, the game would be strong on another continent.

The European Super League was founded with the intention of being a European competition with continental teams playing in it, it was never intended to be an entirely domestic league. Only in Rugby League would people propose kicking a team with decent crowds and a decent stadium to the curb because they bring 200 less away fans than Salford, Huddersfield or Harlequins. I

Just shows the retarded mentality were going up against. What's the point in anything that isn't immediately successful? Let's just go back to semi-pro and play the Grand Final at Post Office Road.

What people advocating this idea don't seem to understand is that we currently don't deserve more than scraps. Let's see it from Sky's perspective, they are essentially an entertainment industry, they are going to hand out the most money to the sports that entertain (or have the potential to entertain) the largest number of people and sell the most number of Sky dishes. They aren't going to give 50 million to the World Curling Federation because people wouldn't subscribe to their channels to watch it, and hence they would lose a lot of money. They have to operate this way or there is no Sky at all because they go bankrupt. No where in the real world would you demand to be paid significantly more than you are, but offer nothing knew to the company and insist that your job should remain exactly the same. You can ask for a promotion but you have to be willing to do something that makes it worth the company's money. There's a limit to how many terms you can dictate to your employer, you can't turn up to a job interview and say "well I don't think you need an investment banker, I think you need a mortgage advisor, so you should pay me to do that instead". What you are advocating, is essentially dictating to Sky what they should want from us, retreating to the M62 (From Sky's perspective this means the potential for a decrease in subscriptions to their sports channels, and hence a loss of money), yet at the same time asking to be paid more money, and given more promotion than we get currently. Then if they refuse we should tell them to stuff it and go live on the dole. Get real, we wouldn't even have time to tell them to stuff it, they would metaphorically say "clear your desk, your fired, get the f*ck out of my office and don't come back tomorrow".

Allegedly they are going to sign more British players instead of Aussies 'cause they come cheaper.

Please, for the sake of expansionists everywhere, just stop making multiple posts per week about which French teams you'd like to see in Super league. Your insistence that they should be shoe horned into SL in 2012 is actually damaging the credibility of the Toulouse bid among supporters who would otherwise be very open to the idea. Have you not noticed that people on this forum are now actively taking up the contrary position just to spite you?

Ditto, minus the two Neath games Crusaders have a higher average than Salford this year, and a better stadium, and a better team, yet we don't have weekly posts deriding Salford for making a mockery out of the competition.

On a side note, its funny how nearly every time I hear someone say "great game" in connection with Rugby League, in the following sentence they talk about kicking expansion sides to the curb because nobody outside the heartlands is interested.

You do realise it was played in Neath right? Please improve your grammar, capital letters go at the beginning of sentences and full stops go at the end.

No more games in Neath next year please, it should be Wrexham Crusaders playing in Wrexham.

Maybe they need somebody who can set reasonable goals for everyone to work towards? As opposed to lets say, completely unrealistic goals that defy sense. We can all doodle our plans/ideas down onto a scrap of paper whilst were bored, some exceptional people can even produce very sophisticated ideas that might work in principle. For example Da Vinci drew some very interesting designs for a helicopter in the 15th century, but it doesn't mean that he could understand the workings of a Chinook, let alone build one. In other words, your 'plan' relies on too many if's and but's for it to be considered as a serious a plan. Most of it's just pure speculation based on what you'd like to happen.

The crowds of Celtic Crusaders and South Wales Scorpions both hold up favourably compared to many heartlands Championship clubs. A few more succesful Welsh sides at Championship level could strengthen the leagues considerably. I believe there have been proposals for a team in Bridgend and Carmarthenshire. Three sides in the Championship leagues averaging 700+ and hopefully one in Superleague averaging 5,000 plus should get us decentish coverage in Wales, even if its just articles in local newspapers a lot more people will be aware that RL is active down there.

Crusaders taking a gigantic dump on Salford, they aren't even easing up, looks like they might go for 70 at this rate.

Can honestly see Catalans giving us a real tough game here.