League One

[Blind side johnny]

27 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

No , French teams should play in French leagues , similarily Canadian teams 

Yep, and Yorkshire teams should play in a Yorkshire league, similarly Lancashire teams.

[GUBRATS]

1 hour ago, Blind side johnny said:

Yep, and Yorkshire teams should play in a Yorkshire league, similarly Lancashire teams.

No , UK teams should play in UK leagues , I do think that other competitions should be possibly looked at to involve teams from different countries 

[Eddie]

12 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

No , UK teams should play in UK leagues , I do think that other competitions should be possibly looked at to involve teams from different countries 

Would you really rather see Catalans play in Elite 1 (as it is now) instead of SL?

[OriginalMrC]

4 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

If their funding is reduced, those clubs themselves will be asking if a nationwide third tier is really the best place for them.

I don't see scrabbling around in the bottom reaches of L1 year after year much of a measure of progress. It's just a fact of life that heartland teams have access to more resources and more players than more distant teams, so the best form of competition might be different for both. 

A one size fits all model is rarely the best option. 

 

That's fair enough but if central funding dries up it will affect all clubs in league 1 not just expansion teams. I guess I find it tiresome (and I'm not directing this at you) that so called expansion teams are looked at as being poorly run and bringing nothing to the game when that could be easily levelled at loads of heartlands teams. When making decisions about the future of the game it shouldn't be about where they are based. 

[OriginalMrC]

1 hour ago, DEANO said:

The rfl have squandered so much money on expansion clubs that are here today and gone tomorrow. They would have been far better funding heartland teams   The northern teams have suffered with extra travel costs and reduced income from non attractive fixtures

OK let's shut up shop and make a decision on what are attractive fixtures. Cut everyone else. Lets also stipulate that all clubs must be say 30 mins or less from St Helens. Pray tell would your team make the grade?

[Hela Wigmen]

2 hours ago, DEANO said:

The rfl have squandered so much money on expansion clubs that are here today and gone tomorrow. They would have been far better funding heartland teams   The northern teams have suffered with extra travel costs and reduced income from non attractive fixtures

Do travel costs only work out for Northern teams heading south two or three times a year instead of southern teams travelling north nine or ten times a year? 

[DEANO]

7 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Do travel costs only work out for Northern teams heading south two or three times a year instead of southern teams travelling north nine or ten times a year? 

Precisely why it’s not sustainable 

[DEANO]

12 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

OK let's shut up shop and make a decision on what are attractive fixtures. Cut everyone else. Lets also stipulate that all clubs must be say 30 mins or less from St Helens. Pray tell would your team make the grade?

It happens at sl level too. Look at the gates in the cup against lower league opposition. The trouble is we are trying to sell the game to people who don’t want it

[Hela Wigmen]

6 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Precisely why it’s not sustainable 

Well, it obviously is. 

[GUBRATS]

30 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Would you really rather see Catalans play in Elite 1 (as it is now) instead of SL?

In an ideal world yes , in an ideal world Elite 1 would be a full time league 

In part time leagues they shouldn't IMO

[DEANO]

7 minutes ago, Hela Wigmen said:

Well, it obviously is. 

All the failed clubs tell you otherwise   Hats off to the skolars and Newcastle though

[OriginalMrC]

7 minutes ago, DEANO said:

It happens at sl level too. Look at the gates in the cup against lower league opposition. The trouble is we are trying to sell the game to people who don’t want it

The Challenge Cup is a completely different issue. You seem to be saying anything below Superleague is not worth continuing with. What about the likes of Bradford, Widnes and others who are relatively speaking big clubs with a large fan base. Who should the game be sold to then? How do 'we' decide who wants it, and those that don't want it? What criteria would you use? I'm interested to know 

[DEANO]

14 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

The Challenge Cup is a completely different issue. You seem to be saying anything below Superleague is not worth continuing with. What about the likes of Bradford, Widnes and others who are relatively speaking big clubs with a large fan base. Who should the game be sold to then? How do 'we' decide who wants it, and those that don't want it? What criteria would you use? I'm interested to know 

This was just used as an example of miss matches. Time to accept it’s a northern game liked by northerners. Expansion doesn’t work

[Hela Wigmen]

26 minutes ago, DEANO said:

All the failed clubs tell you otherwise   Hats off to the skolars and Newcastle though

What “failed” club cited travel as the reason for their demise?

[DEANO]

Just one of the factors. You can’t be sustainedable on gates of less than 200 or a 100 in some cases Especially with that amount of travelling 

[DEANO]

Fact is we had cockeyed leagues for a few years because the expansion teams couldn’t afford straight forward home and away. 

[OriginalMrC]

14 minutes ago, DEANO said:

This was just used as an example of miss matches. Time to accept it’s a northern game liked by northerners. Expansion doesn’t work

OK, sorry but that's just nonsense There are many people in the game who in high profile positions that are not northerners and the game is played across the whole of the UK. Not to mention the great number of players who currently play, or have played, who aren't northerners. 

[OriginalMrC]

7 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Fact is we had cockeyed leagues for a few years because the expansion teams couldn’t afford straight forward home and away. 

You're on a roll tonight, more nonsense. 

[Oldbear]

20 minutes ago, DEANO said:

This was just used as an example of miss matches. Time to accept it’s a northern game liked by northerners. Expansion doesn’t work

Expansion can work, unfortunately to do so you need a sh*t load of money, a sh*t load of time and an owner who has incredible patience. Sadly virtually every time we try to expand it all goes to pot because at least one of the three factors is missing, often all 3. The RFL needs to be more choosy over who they accept, take more care over its due diligence and actually have a plan for expansion . League 1 could have been part of the plan, but sadly it looks like once again the RFL actually doesn’t know what to do with it. Any expansion successes, and I include the current incarnation at Newcastle and Coventry as successes, are often that because of the determination of those amazing people involved, not the leadership of the RFL.

[DEANO]

12 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

OK, sorry but that's just nonsense There are many people in the game who in high profile positions that are not northerners and the game is played across the whole of the UK. Not to mention the great number of players who currently play, or have played, who aren't northerners. 

It may we’ll be played all over the uk just like netball is but not at a pro/semi pro level. Until it is and spectators attend it won’t work. In answer to your other query the more games the likes of oxford etc played the more money they lost. They could however break even on a shortened season

[Mr Frisky]

1 hour ago, DEANO said:

This was just used as an example of miss matches. Time to accept it’s a northern game liked by northerners. Expansion doesn’t work

Strange when you go to an England (or GB) match in London, most of the fans are from the South and they tend to get bigger crowds than in the north for those matches.

[DEANO]

Ok I’m wrong. There are lots of established prosperous pro clubs throughout the uk

[Hela Wigmen]

17 hours ago, DEANO said:

Just one of the factors. You can’t be sustainedable on gates of less than 200 or a 100 in some cases Especially with that amount of travelling 

 

17 hours ago, DEANO said:

Fact is we had cockeyed leagues for a few years because the expansion teams couldn’t afford straight forward home and away. 

So you have no actual evidence?

[Marauder]

On 04/08/2020 at 08:54, Toby Chopra said:

It just seems perverse to me that shoestring teams in the third tier have far more travelling than teams in the top two tiers. L1 doesn't seem to serve either its heartland or developing clubs well. 

But as with most things the new TV contract is key. If the distribution drops, I cam see the heartland teams (plus Newcastle) being folded into an expanded Championship and the expansion teams joining the CLS. Which wouldn't be the worst outcome in my view. 

Could that be because the better players are produced along a certain bit of motorway ?

[Oldbear]

1 hour ago, Marauder said:

Could that be because the better players are produced along a certain bit of motorway ?

Traditionally yes, but times change, there’s no reason to believe that the next superstars couldn’t come from somewhere else, however if you don’t even try to develop youngsters in other parts of the country then it sure as hell won’t and the game will continue to shrink. This is the bit I have never understood about some heartland fans, expansion is bad because it threatens the heartland in some strange way, instead of welcoming the right form of expansion. I don’t believe in sticking pins in maps either, but if someone is prepared to have a go at proper, sustainable expansion, building with a solid foundation then why not.