dead man inc

Some Skolars players went to other league 1 teams including Cornwall & North Wales Crusaders, one got signed in Australia playing Q cup for Townsville Blackhawks. A number went to play for other London amateur teams like West Warriors. Only a couple appear to have stayed with Skolars in their amateur team which looks like it is made up of very young players.

Is there/who is the guest speaker this year?

Cornwall’s statement on their website… Following yesterday’s announcement regarding the Betfred Championship and League 1 structure for 2024, and the confirmation of a game-wide structural review ahead of 2025, the club will provide more context as to why Cornwall RLFC will take no part in the revamped AB Sundecks 1895 Cup competition next season. During recent discussions among League 1 clubs about the proposed competition structure for 2024, Cornwall RLFC was asked by the collective if it would consider sitting out of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup competition, for 2024 only, to ease the logistical burden for other League 1 clubs. The club felt that this decision would allow for a swifter resolution to be reached for the 2024 season structure and, after careful and considered deliberation, Cornwall RLFC has graciously agreed to the collectives request to not participate in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup in 2024. Commenting on this decision, Cornwall RLFC’s chief executive officer Rob Butland, said: “Cornwall RLFC is a club which has the expansion and development of rugby league at its core, and whilst our preference would have been to take part in the 1895 Cup in 2024, after discussions with our fellow clubs it was ultimately decided that with the interest of the wider game at heart we would agree to the request. “We look forward to seeing everyone on the pitch in both the Betfred Challenge Cup and Betfred League 1 season next year.”

Unfortunately, and it gives me no please at all in admitting it, but YES the RFL & the game over here really is that skint A relative recently had to do a return flight to Australia for work, economy flight was around about £1800 - their boss went on exactly the same flight, but went business class and the cost was in excess of £9500. 3 England players upgrades would be more than a league 1 team gets in central funding! Its sad, worrying and disappointing just how poor a state financially the RFL & the game is over here I say this partially in jest , but maybe if more of ‘us fans’ put our hands in our pocket and sold out the 3 games, rather than just taking the easy option of blaming the RFL (yes i know & agree the RFL has plenty of faults - I don’t agree with many of their decisions or strategies recently) & any other excuse not to go to the games. If all 3 had sold out the RFL would have had the funds to pay for the upgrades £15-£25 for a international game is a bargain in my opinion - especially when so many fans cry out that the lack of international games is holding the games development and growth back.

Designed for big city clubs? IMG insists Londons a massive target for growth, RFL have all the demographic of cross london ticket sales about challenge cup & London internationals, yet they use the catchment area of ‘Merton’ in the catchment score calculation. London’s other scores are fair reflection, but way catchment has been used for them is laughable.

Agree with everything that you have said. The only issue I have with London’s score is the ‘catchment area’ issue - IMG bang on about London being a massive target area for growth, the RFL have all the ticket sale data from Challenge cup/London internationals to identify roughy the demographics where London based RL fans are, yet they use the catchment area of ‘Merton’ in the score calculation

Fans moan there is no international RL calendar, then when there is a game it has vast numbers of unsold tickets Was a great game today & although it ‘looked physically at the game & on TV’ a reasonable attendance - in reality 25%+ of the ground was unsold! I fully appreciate there is a major cost of living crisis going on that may mean attending the game is not a priority or even a possibility for many people, but the tickets were very reasonable priced for a international sporting event. On forums it’s easy to blame the RFL/marketing or a myriad of other reasons out of our control for poor attendances - but do we need to be a bit more honest and admit as a sport the fans ourselves are often our own worst enemies?

Are tickets for sale on the gate or available online on the day mobile tickets - or do you have to print at home?

Are tickets for sale on the gate or available online on the day mobile tickets?

https://x.com/chris_driven/status/1713611123860087216?s=46&t=pSDHU7zh-48blzenyK4ibw t will probably go under the radar but when Rhys Lovegrove got sacked From Keighley earlier this season, he went to London who were 2nd bottom at the time. Yesterday they got promoted to SL.

In 3 consecutive seasons Jarred Bassett has gone from amateur Southern Conference with Wests Warriors. League 1 with London Skolars and gained promotion to Super League with London Broncos.

London may have & still been run like a basket case, their move to part time may have been a significant contributing factor in Skolars demise, but to say achieved nothing may be rather harsh… (information below copied from another site) ‘Random bit of trivia - Wigan's win last night continues a run now extending to 6 years of having a London junior league product winning the Super League grand final 2023 Pearce-Paul 2019-2022 LMS x4 2018 Sarginson & Clubb In 2017 Mike McMeeken was on the losing side which broke the winning run. He was also on the losing side in 2021 and 2023. Pearce-Paul & McMeeken last night also continue a run of 10 consecutive Grand Finals that have had at least one London junior league product playing: 2016 Sarginson (Winning team) 2015 Clubb (Losing team) 2014 LMS (Winning team), Sarginson & Clubb (Losing team) The last GF not to feature a a player who started in the London junior league was 2013’

If the travel/hotel costs were met centrally, I believe there could have been a good chance that Skolars & Newcastle might still have been able to stay financially viable in league 1. (For Skolars their travel expenses was a significantly bigger cost than player wages.) Last year, league 1 central funding was ~£15,000 (it’s rumoured to be about £3000 less this year) It didn’t even cover Skolars 3 longest away trip travel/hotel costs last year! I genuinely wonder how many league one teams are going to be able to survive on under £15,000 central funding. Do any league 1 teams actually turn a profit? The last 8 years i have really enjoyed watching league 1 games - it was a great competition. Even with Skolars regularly losing I got the chance to watch some fantastic games, see good teams/players & meet some great & dedicated away fans. I fully understand money has to be cut somewhere due to the reduced TV deal, but cutting the largest % from the bottom end that in reality actually needs the most help & support is devastating.

Your son can still play league in the regional trial games as part of the England university squad selection process…. Basin on the universities location students train as squads from Midlands, South West, South East, North East, North West, Yorkshire and play a couple of games against each other. Best students are then selected for the North v South game & from that initial England university squad is created. The England university squad play against GB police, Uk armed forces, GB teachers, Prison service & squad is again cut down to form the final group of players who play in the university 4 nations against Wales, Scotland & Ireland, The England squad is pretty good standard with a few league 1 players and NCL players.Gsmes against the police and army are usually pretty close, but England usually comfortable winners against the other teams & countries. Players do not need to be playing league at their university (as majority of universities do not have a rugby league team.) The player has to resister to take part in the regional process - that is normally advertised pretty soon in 1st term. Best way to get details is to look on twitter @EnglandUnisRL or @UniversityRL the RFL do put some stuff on the website about it.

Definitely off… heard nothing officially from Skolars as yet, but the below statement was doing the rounds on the web last week:- ‘AUSSIE company Arc Sports has withdrawn its offer to take over London Skolars. A statement issued to rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads says: "The offer was adjusted on the back of the IMG formula being formally released. Prior to this, an offer was made on an assumption of what the criteria may look like and how the clubs would be ranked within the RFL structure. Once the criteria was officially released, London Skolars ranked last in nearly all areas relating to the scoring matrix and was ranked 36th out of 36 FL clubs by IMG." It's important to note here that IMG have not formally ranked the clubs yet and that any such prognostications are still guesswork - but guesswork that has been done by many within the sport. Arc continues: "When confronted with these numbers it was purely a prudent business decision to adjust the original offer. The amount of capital needed to raise the profile and success of the club far outweighed the original asking price. We felt the our new offer was sufficient plus we said they could keep their sundries which they offered as part of the original deal. These were valued at £25,000 by them, meaning they would only have had a loss of around one third of the original asking price. London Skolars advised us that they believed they could still get more for their license so we have politely declined and said we will not stand in their way. Arc Sports Global have formally withdrawn the offer altogether and wish the London Skolars nothing but the best of luck for their future endeavours."’