RFL treatment of Manchester Rangers a disgrace

[Clogiron]

4 minutes ago, Oliver Clothesoff said:

I think there’s too much of a gulf in quality to do that. In principle, it’s a great idea and one I’d be behind but I fear that there’s a hell of a gulf between the top end of the Championship and even the top end of League One, let alone the bottom end. 

Agree with your point about the gulf in class but over time would hopefully even itself out with improvement in finances that more local derbies and less travelling would bring about, however when has RL ever given any thing time?  We continually chop and change the format with no noticeable result, if the participating clubs could agree to one system and knew what they were playing for, not some unrealistic dream of promotion,then you might see a evening out of playing strengths too. All a bit 'pie in the sky' I suppose but the current model patently doesn't work so something has to change and at least the operating costs should be more realistic

[Mr Plow]

27 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Weren’t Manchester Rangers willing to forego any central funding for a period of time? 

Can they not buy out one of the existing licences? I keep hearing about this being a possibility but is there any evidence for it?

I think foregoing any central funding was an option put to them by the RFL but I don’t think they were planning on doing it.

Manchester Rangers also said they didn’t want to buy and relocate another club but that it was an option. How much is a third tier RL club?

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

14 minutes ago, Mr Plow said:

I think foregoing any central funding was an option put to them by the RFL but I don’t think they were planning on doing it.

Manchester Rangers also said they didn’t want to buy and relocate another club but that it was an option. How much is a third tier RL club?

Rangers were going to for go funding.  In one of the articles it says that Rangers would have funded a reserves setup for Salford playing as a feeder club for Salford in the reserves league that would be around the same costs as playing in league one.  But the RFL said no to that option.

But the the 500k killed that off.

It was not the money, relocating Oldham would have involved renaming them to Manchester.  No way are going to get any support\blessing from the council if you dont play under the name Manchester.

That and the guilt\hate would have been too much of killing oldham.

Your start off wanting to secure the future of Rugby League in Manchester, end up killing someone else lifelong club.

Also add i know the club turned down an offer to join the Rugby Union.

So the RFU had a different view on the club than the RFL did.

 

 

[Gerrumonside ref]

What do Manchester Rangers plan to do next?

 

[DoubleD]

40 minutes ago, TheLegendOfTexEvans said:

Rangers were going to for go funding.  In one of the articles it says that Rangers would have funded a reserves setup for Salford playing as a feeder club for Salford in the reserves league that would be around the same costs as playing in league one.  But the RFL said no to that option.

But the the 500k killed that off.

It was not the money, relocating Oldham would have involved renaming them to Manchester.  No way are going to get any support\blessing from the council if you dont play under the name Manchester.

That and the guilt\hate would have been too much of killing oldham.

Your start off wanting to secure the future of Rugby League in Manchester, end up killing someone else lifelong club.

Also add i know the club turned down an offer to join the Rugby Union.

So the RFU had a different view on the club than the RFL did.

 

 

But what’s stopping them buying out the defunct Oxford or All golds license? 

[newbe]

Why don't they enter the NCL and get themselves into the top tier, to see if they can handle it n people want to watch it. Very tough n skill full comp.

[Gerrumonside ref]

11 hours ago, Clogiron said:

Repeating myself but outside of SL it should be a Eastern & Western division, part time with the winners of each playing a final to decide the Championship. SL will no doubt include the Bulls & TWP in their set up and end P&R so that seems the best option to my mind. What part feeder clubs, DR play in it remains to be seen

I’d split things up further and create sub divisions to reinforce the local derbies within those East-West conferences similar to the NFL.

Seems obvious that Swinton, Rochdale, Oldham and maybe Manchester Rangers should all be playing against each other at least twice a season.  

Certainly seems that some clubs maybe have to accept that at this point in their history that acting as a feeder club in a minor league might be the best way forward (until a rich benefactor can be found to make them a Super League proposition).

There is no perfect solution though (where would Toulouse fit in for example).

 

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

2 hours ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

What do Manchester Rangers plan to do next?

 

The professional club is dead,

but the charitable foundation continues to run the amateur teams in Manchester Rangers, Belle Vue Bees and the high schools league.

Senior players have stepped up and taken over the amateur side of things.

One of the articles said the name can be used by the amateur club as the company has no objections.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

1 hour ago, newbe said:

Why don't they enter the NCL and get themselves into the top tier, to see if they can handle it n people want to watch it. Very tough n skill full comp.

They applied and got turned down, i remember that being put to trevor hunt on radio manchester.

NCL has stricter criteria than the League One clubs.

It might be a goal now they are a completely amateur entity.

 

 

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

2 hours ago, DoubleD said:

But what’s stopping them buying out the defunct Oxford or All golds license? 

I would assume that neither club wants to release or can't.  Or the RFL revoked it.

I assume Lionel Hurst can answer this and it tied up the business at Bristol.

That or the size of the league one  has been reduced.  We are not the most transparent of sports.

 

[DoubleD]

1 hour ago, TheLegendOfTexEvans said:

The professional club is dead,

but the charitable foundation continues to run the amateur teams in Manchester Rangers, Belle Vue Bees and the high schools league.

Senior players have stepped up and taken over the amateur side of things.

One of the articles said the name can be used by the amateur club as the company has no objections.

The club were never professional 

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

The company that would have ran the club as being professional is dead.

 

2 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

The club were never professional 

 

[Evil Homer]

3 hours ago, DoubleD said:

But what’s stopping them buying out the defunct Oxford or All golds license? 

The fact that they are a small amateur club and don't have any money? There isn't any money behind this bid. They wanted to build on their existing setup and infrastructure by entering League 1 and using central funding to buy pro players. The RFL are (rightly IMO) not going to let them do that, so that's the end of the story. The RFL are not just passing up on a great opportunity for the sake of it, despite what online zealots will tell you.

[DoubleD]

35 minutes ago, Evil Homer said:

The fact that they are a small amateur club and don't have any money? There isn't any money behind this bid. They wanted to build on their existing setup and infrastructure by entering League 1 and using central funding to buy pro players. The RFL are (rightly IMO) not going to let them do that, so that's the end of the story. The RFL are not just passing up on a great opportunity for the sake of it, despite what online zealots will tell you.

I thought they had some funding behind them and were willing to forego central funding for a period of time?

[Evil Homer]

8 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

I thought they had some funding behind them and were willing to forego central funding for a period of time?

I think certain posters were trying to claim that at one point, unfortunately it doesn't seem to exist outside of totalrl.com

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

1 hour ago, Evil Homer said:

The fact that they are a small amateur club and don't have any money? There isn't any money behind this bid. They wanted to build on their existing setup and infrastructure by entering League 1 and using central funding to buy pro players. The RFL are (rightly IMO) not going to let them do that, so that's the end of the story. The RFL are not just passing up on a great opportunity for the sake of it, despite what online zealots will tell you.

1. They played at the Manchester Regional Arena that costs about £2000 a game to use it.

2. Salford Red Devils had agreed for them to run the reserves and completely fund it themselves.

     They would have received no funding in the reserves league.

3.  Ken Jones has come out and said the bid was sound.

 

The club was wanted out of the way it was a nuisance. 

Said along I feel a plan exists to replace UK clubs with North American ones,

 

[yipyee]

22 hours ago, M j M said:

With respect this is rubbish.

These clubs aren't "holding the sport back". They are the sport. I'm all for bringing new teams in and if they are well funded and backed find a pathway for them to get to the top of the sport. But there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for this to be simultaneous with kicking the existing smaller clubs and communities which support them in the teeth.

That's what I don't get with some people - hating established Rugby League clubs just for being small and just for existing and just for surviving. Clubs whose same story of backs to the wall, hand to mouth community engagement they would revel in if the location was somewhere other than the north of England.

I never said kick out established clubs, 

There are clubs who are making up the numbers in certain leagues and are only surviving through central funding this isn't a healthy position to be in for each club or the game in general. 

I disagree that these clubs are the game as they are not. 

Once the game is established and it is played in schools and there are several community clubs then the game becomes self sufficient in that area. Parents who played the game take their children to play the game etc..

It's actually the community clubs that is the heartbeat of the game, this is where all players start out, this is where a lot of the fan base comes from.

If an expansion club is in trouble then people say told ya expansion is useless when in reality it typically isn't expansion that's the problem

When a heartland club is in trouble it's usually not their fault and look around to assign blame, in Widnes case it looks to be whoever decided it was a good idea to have a fully pro playing squad with a huge income reduction.

Swinton problems with whoever sold their ground and successive failures.

How do swinton motivate the community in swinton? How is this club hanging in that league? Would a Newcastle or Coventry or workington not make a better fist of that treasured spot?

[groundhopper]

Well for the hype about Rangers being championship material, I am told they can’t get a team out today to travel as far as Salford to play Langworthy

May well be a good reason but would not be accepted in NCL let alone higher

[Wellsy4HullFC]

On 3/30/2019 at 8:50 AM, groundhopper said:

Well for the hype about Rangers being championship material, I am told they can’t get a team out today to travel as far as Salford to play Langworthy

May well be a good reason but would not be accepted in NCL let alone higher

NCL requirements are completely different to L1 requirements though. Community clubs and pro clubs are different beasts.

[TheLegendOfTexEvans]

On 3/30/2019 at 8:50 AM, groundhopper said:

Well for the hype about Rangers being championship material, I am told they can’t get a team out today to travel as far as Salford to play Langworthy

May well be a good reason but would not be accepted in NCL let alone higher

Its not the same entity what you have is a group of young players carrying on under the same name.  

Some of the older players decided they had enough of the game and hung up their boots.  Others took the option to go into reserve football or travel abroad to play Rugby League. Unfortunately, due to working patterns and other comittments this has a bit of impact as you need a large squad of players for Rugby League.  

But with the union season ending you will see the squad getting enlarged as players dip back into league.

If you want to knock the players efforts to keep amateur rugby league in Manchester going carry on. 

But basically a few players deciding to keep a club alive until the junior teams are ready to play senior football.

Its been a bit of learning curve for some of these young lads.

 

 

 

 

[The Future is League]

I for one wish Manchester Rangers all the best for the future

[Marauder]

On 2/23/2019 at 12:40 PM, The Daddy said:

I was always a strong cheerleader of Manchester Rangers bid to join the league structure and I've been frustrated that they've been kept waiting for so long and not been given the green light. My overriding thoughts were always that, if the rfl cannot see the benefits of having a well run big city club on the doorstep of its heartlands there's a problem. 

My second thoughts were, well what if the bid just isn't strong enough, perhaps they don't have a good business case or the bid ownership team do not meet the fit and proper persons criteria.

I've been really disappointed to hear over the past few weeks and days along the grapevine how strong the bid actually was and this is a huge opportunity missed. 

- The bid was endorsed by Andy Burnham the mayor of Manchester 

- Recommended by the RFLs own consultant Ken Jones following a due diligence exercise

- A board full of successful businessmen with proven financial acumen

- Five star facilities at the Etihad Regional arena

http://www.totalrl.com/rfl-consultant-slams-opportunity-missed-in-manchester-decision/

The decision to decline their bid was not even voted on by clubs. This is living proof that Ralph Rimmer has no vision for this sport, there is no opportunity for a well to do and ambitious organisation that adds value to the sport to enter and get bums on seats. The people that run this sport are still stuck in the old world and unfortunately the sport has been overtaken by boxing, union and many other sports because of this. The sport just isn't adapting to a global world which communicates via social media.

The only way the situation improves is if the leadership is replaced. The next tv deal is due soon and I don't think the future is too bright for the sport as a brand or tv sport. 

Let's not kid ourselves, a lot of change needs to take place if the sport is to capitalise on the opportunities it has now. 

Maybe he feels he needs to protect and stabilise what we have already, no army can keep pushing forward with their supplies stretched, boxing and union have always been in front of rugby league.