Oldbear

Cowboys with 40 points scored in the game

Titans please

Sea Eagles please

Panthers please

Make it another for Storm please

Eels for me too.

Best post on this thread to date, the need to preserve Magic and satisfy Sky meant that an 11 team comp was not on, despite it being the only fair outcome. The short timescale for the 12th club to be ready was already designed to ensure that team finished bottom, the financial distribution shortfall was designed to scare away a few more potential applicants. COVID ensured that Toulouse could not step up, so who was left and still willing?

I see that, but what actually is the future for Valencia? Is it do try to do a TWP and race for SL, hoping that they can generate good crowds and local interest, if so that means $$$, and no doubt Josh McCrone and Darcy Lussick are waiting for the phone call. Is the plan to grow steadily and develop local juniors, in which case great, but would they be competitive in L1 (and yes I know they will bring over players as there is pretty much no locals to speak of as yet), can they afford to plan and steadily progress like Coventry, do they even see that as part of their plan? Problem is no one really knows. Plus one final point, can the existing L1 clubs afford to fly out to Valencia for games? It’s always struck me as being pretty hand to mouth down there, is there potential for an airline sponsor, if so it’s a pretty bad time to be looking for one, given the pandemics effect on travel.

Not totally disagreeing with your logic, but trips to Barrow, Whitehaven, Workington and West Wales will hardly be fun either, and in the case of the first 3 all they will probably have to show for it is a good hiding, hardly conducive to launching a new club. I know road trips in France are not fun, but I suspect that in a post pandemic world flying is probably going to be not so straightforward plus my feelings were that the French comp might be a more suitable standard for them, unless they plan on doing a Toronto and filling their team with higher priced journeymen imports and Championship players (in which case where’s the money coming from).

I would have thought the French comp, logistically less hassle than flights, cheaper ( unless they have an airline as sponsor), and definitely a more appropriate standard than getting battered in Cumbria).

I worry that the whole Valencia project is solely founded on attracting visiting UK fans, plus trying to appeal to British expats in the area, and it actually has no Spanish element to it at all. Surely they have to put down some roots first, and ideally play in an appropriate competition before even thinking about joining the RFL system. Otherwise it will end up being yet another false dawn, based on social media and one mans dream.

The year 2 figures were for Southend, showing what a disastrous move it was.

Key point, use the Bears template, no more 5 minute wonders please. Remember sufficient finance to cover all eventualities, patience for a long term commitment and a stable long term home.

Great read, I remember Tony Cooper ending up at Fulham along with Frank Feighan. Those guys must truly have loved RL, given the number of times their actual pay checks must have been in doubt. I recall one story when it looked like Fulham were about to get their last rights and possibly fold. They had a game at Huddersfield I think, up at Fartown and I’m sure it was Frank Feighan who said he would have walked up there so determined he was to play. Now those were some real dark days but the club survived (like CoC said best draw a veil over the Fulham Bears episode), 2 years later my work brought me back to the North East, where I learned the true roller coaster ride of following an expansion club (first Carlisle, then Gateshead). I have never had the joy of following a winning team (except for one short lived Gateshead promotion under the charismatic Dave Woods), joy for me was would I have a team next season. This is why it’s so important for any expansion side to have 1. Money, obviously, and always expect the unexpected 2. Time and patience, don’t pull the plug partway through year 2 3. A stable home. I had forgotten about Kent Invictas pitch issues.

As well as money, patience is the key, we don’t seem to stick with anything for a long term in RL. Maybe that’s why Newcastle, and Coventry, are seen as successes as they are rare examples of RL club owners showing patience.

That was what I was led to believe too, just never understood why they went to Southend, it always seemed the last place to try to introduce a new sport.

In my opinion Kent could easily support a Coventry Bears type set up, but they need patient backers who know how finances work at L1 level and a stable, long term home. At this time I see neither.

The problem was that expansion at that time was often driven by soccer club chairmen looking to use RL revenue to share the stadium expenses for the soccer club, then eventually for RL to turn a profit to subsidize the soccer. Of course putting a competitive team on the field cost money, since players either had to be brought down from the heartlands or brought over from down under, you might have the odd local (Frank Feighan, a character at Kent and Fulham), but realistically player cost usually ate up all the gate revenue so the soccer clubs lose patience and evict their RL tenants. A key reason that with any expansion venture the need for patience is almost as important as finance.

I agree

Typical of expansion at that time. Football club thinks what a great idea to have an RL team to offset its own running costs, until the RL makes no contribution as the crowds barely cover the wage Bill, not the stadium rent. Football club then closes RL club down. Maybe they would have survived as a smaller, cheaper operation in Kent, they sure as hell weren’t going to in Essex.

You are not the only one, I have the same feeling about Leigh.

The biggest issue could be if the start of the season is delayed beyond a couple of weeks, since then we could see a fixture pile up at the end of the season as the league rushes to complete the fixture schedule before the start of the World Cup. That will put a strain on squad sizes, which will be less of a problem if you are one of the big boys, but could be very problematic for those teams running with small squads, in which case they will even more than ever need a huge amount of luck with injuries.

Wigan Saints Warrington Leeds Catalans Huddersfield Hull Castleford Salford will not be in the fight for the bottom, but won’t be involved in the fight for higher places either, they are pretty much nailed on for 9th.

Well you know what they say over here, go big or go home, guess that can apply to falling out with landlords too!

Makes you wonder doesn’t it. I wonder if they jumped the gun thinking that they would be back in SL and gave notice to Ealing prior to the SL decision, then once they found out that they were not in it was too late to rescind it? Surely even the Broncos couldn’t make that big a mistake, or could they?