Ivarr the Boneless

Largely full time. A few players who have good jobs were permitted to remain part time. It's not many. I think Will Lovell and Lewis Bienek are part time

There were a few at Oxford but the thrashing by Rochdale Hornets, watched by two men and a dog at Hemel, was a total waste of everyone's time. 4-96 if I remember correctly. I gave up counting long before the end and might be a few out, not for Oxford obviously.

I meant at a lower level. I'd be horrified if SL streaming was run using volunteers.

I'm a bit out of the loop but I think the clubs had to provide the images to a mandated streaming service. I believe the service had already cut back on streaming Conference North and South, there simply wasn't sufficient demand. Which wouldn't shock anyone with half a brain cell tbh. The imposition on volunteers is becoming a real issue in non-league football. Friends of mine walked out on a tier four club after the league mandated they had to receive a highlights package by - from memory - 10 p.m. on Saturday and that the club couldn't use the images until Monday. They decide it had ceased to be fun and they'd rather spend Saturday evening with family and friends than editing video for free. A warning for RL perhaps?

There are rumours down this way that the Football Conference has decided to drop streaming of matches as it simply doesn't pay. Not announced yet but the source was a Director at a member club. Clearly their member club gates are typically smaller than SL member clubs but...

London are mainly, but not exclusively, full time https://www.theguardian.com/sport/no-helmets-required/2024/feb/08/london-broncos-are-back-in-super-league-but-doomed-before-it-starts

That's what happens when the off field staff basically don't exist unfortunately. As ever, marketing comes last. Stick some posts in the ground, announce kick off time and then wonder why they don't sell out. I was a season ticket holder for twenty odd years and have seen it far too often. I confidently predict that, sadly, it will be just as flawed a strategy as it has been for over a decade now.

According to his biography football goalkeeper John Burridge would have played pro RL had he not chosen the football route.

The devil is in the detail but if it is a permanent shut down and there's no centrally funded replacement etc this is the beginning of the end of high standard RL in London. An absolute disaster.

Ice hockey is quite similar to RL. The top clubs are invariably bankrolled by wealthy people. The middle tier clubs largely fund themselves via admission money and match day spend. I used to be involved in a tier two side. We were invariably bottom and usually had several genuine amateurs and lots playing for petrol money.in return they travelled up and down the country, playing on both Saturday and Sunday. Tiers three and four scrape their way through financially and many teams are pay to play

I was an Oxford fan and often watched them away. The horrible truth is the majority of teams I visited with ORL are either now defunct or playing regional rugby. The alarm bells have been ringing for a while. Conscious choices have been made about how the sport responded, we now see the consequences. I sincerely hope the decisions prove to be right in the long run as, in the short to medium term, the sport is paying a high price. Best wishes to the Thunder fans. They were a good bunch, I always enjoyed my trips to both Gateshead and Newcastle.

I'd suggest London is well behind where it used to be. When Bradford Dudley Hill rocked up at South London Storm and stated they were stunned by how many juniors there were running around. There may be a plan but it's too late. I sincerely hope it's not too little as well. I moved south in 1991. I fear I saw the best of RL down south, both professional and amateur (ish). Crawley Jets were very good if you watched them after all the lads paid loads to play RU swapped codes. Probably the best game I ever saw was Hemel v Crawley when both were good southern "amateur" teams. Steve O'Reilly v Hemel basically, what a match that was. You simply don't see that down south now. Nor Storm v Dudley Hill. It was Challenge Cup and Souths first match that season. Dudley Hill said they thought Souths would have won had they been in season. Those were the days.

We may have to agree to differ but I don't view a player capable of playing step two getting stuck in basically recreational rugby as much better for Southern RL than losing them to RU. I'd also query whether the semi pro RL set up down south is going to / does rival RU in terms of either money or playing standards. You certainly won't see every southern based semi pro capable RL player jump but with such a small pool the loss of small numbers would be damaging. I fear the biggest issue would be medium to long term as fewer dual code lads of a good standard opt for league.

Not so sure. If there's no semi pro RL and a union side offers a few hundred a week? Oxford certainly lost a few to union. A local union side was paying up to 1k a match in regional rugby Some Oxford players were on less than a tenth of that with national travel. Others played both codes and were lost due to injuries sustained late in the union season. One was lost to England RU 7's squad on a full time contract The lack of a semi pro side would also make league less appealing to young lads on the fringes of professional status at rugby with dual code opportunities.

Can't agree. The loss of either club would be awful for Southern RL. There's too few kids playing the sport down south already, wipe out either junior set up and the issue exacerbates. Skolars also play an important role in allowing lads with potential to develop up to Broncos performance levels whilst playing at step three. Look at Will Lovell - bombed out by Broncos, went to Skolars and now a mainstay of the Broncos set up again, or Jarred Basett. It's unlikely he would have stepped straight from West Warriors to second tier rugby. Without a professional Skolars it's quite possible the next Lovell or Bassett will be lost to union.

There was a bit of strategy left when Oxford etc joined. The third tier was first seem as development, somewhere teams could try to develop an RL infrastructure and pass the odd talent up the line. The likes of Oxford had zero interest in Superleague, they knew that was never viable. The the powers reduced Tier two and dumped the unwanted clubs in Tier three. At that point Tier three ceased to have any real purpose. It wasn't a true pro league and it wasn't a development league. There still doesn't seem to be any strategy or vision. When they folded, Oxfords owners privately stated they thought the third tier would be cut adrift within five years. They will be wrong on the exact timespan but I fear they won't be too far out.

The people who drove Dulwich Hamlet FC from an average crowd of 170 to around 3000 on Saturdays are League fans. One has passed but the other would almost certainly share ideas / results with league clubs if asked. He certainly has with various non league football clubs. Obviously with staring gates of 170 there wasn't much of a marketing budget in the early days. They don't posses a miracle cure and it's unlikely anyone could pick up and run with their entire plan but their experience and knowledge could help shape other teams strategies. The duo offered to pass their ideas on to Broncos for free, one is a season ticket holder the other was a reasonably regular attendee. Broncos cancelled the meeting and refused to re-arrange. Apparently they have nothing to learn about how to grow crowds

Marketing the move to Wimbledon on trains during the work from home order is no reason to abandon marketing. Though it may give you reason to review those in charge. Likewise the dumping of free ticket leaflets in random cafes in Ealing not working doesn't mean marketing can't ever work. The honest truth is their strongest marketing tool was the fans. (Word of mouth.) Unfortunately they alienated most of them and had no marketing strategy of any value to generate new support What followed was as inevitable as night following day.

London Irish want in, that has been confirmed. That's the first time I've heard it suggested Broncos actively want out. (Edited for clarity, Irish have held exploratory talks with Dons about moving in. It's not known to have gone beyond that yet.) If true, I'd suggest it may mean they have finally worked out people want to be entertained and not just to sit in a nice new stadium. Consequently, simultaneously moving to an expensive stadium, slashing the wage budget and doing no serious marketing in the new area (we had a few ads on local trains during the work from home ruling) was utterly daft. As widely predicted by the core of few remaining loyal fans, who were promptly reportedly derided as internet whingers by the club.

Think it's a mixture of things. Union players unable to commit is certainly a factor. Players finding playing twelve months year on year is too much for their body and taking a season or more off is an issue. (They invariably cease playing League as we don't provide a full season down south, union does). The decline in junior set ups is meaning few players coming through into senior ranks. I also get the impression some long standing league volunteers down south are deciding they've done their bit. Given the paucity of volunteers that may be seriously impacting some clubs. The cost of living crisis can't be helping either given the matches often aren't that local. It's a bit of a mess. I'm afraid

Used to watch them on Tuesdays as Prescot had no lights. Souths folded at the end of my first season. Best goal I've ever seen live was by South's Dave Massett. The local TV crew were there as South's had announced they were probably folding. Sadly they packed up minutes earlier. Anyway back to Whitehaven...

Liverpool. I started watching RL at Highfield / Prescot Panthers. Growing up in the Midlands I had only seen the sport on Grandstand before moving to Liverpool.

I believe Lewes are Community Interest Company. A totally different set of laws apply to their share offers. I own one share in Prescot Cables AFC CiC, I supported them at university and renew the share annually. It's a very different model to a privately held company. I repeat I wish Whitehaven well with this.

I believe the law around a private company publicly advertising shares for sale is quite strict. I'm not a lawyer so make no comment as to which side of the law this falls. What I will say a quick Google will turn up non league football clubs openly offering shares for sale.

Even if they are shares in the main company it's still best viewed as a donation. Some of the shareholders hold thousands of shares according to current Companies House data. You'll probably get extra information as a shareholder but your 20 shares won't go far at a shareholder vote if it goes to one share one vote. Also the shares aren't listed anywhere so not the easiest thing to sell on. Nothing wrong with it if you want to bung the club a few quid and stick a share certificate on your wall though. To be fair, they don't really build it up as anything more. This is a bit like the steam railways and micro breweries that sell shares. It's more a way of funding something you believe in and probably getting a few free tickets (steam trains) or cheaper booze (brewery) than something you would expect to make money on. I'm a minor shareholder in a non league football club for long winded reasons. Suffice to say, that won't be helping to ultimately fund my retirement. Good luck to them.