Super League Promotion (Merged Threads)

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, Rupert Prince said:

Most NRL teams are in Sydney.  Premiership RU teams are weighted around the M5.

If you and people who want to 'Like' you have the investment then go out and transplant the team of your dreams in the town of your choice.  

Start to face facts.  The reason we had this conversation is because TWP went belly up. It was pot luck who goes up.  And assuming Leigh don't go bankrupt they will struggle to stay up, as would any other.

Yes. We agree again. Rugby league in Australia struggles to call itself a national sport because it isn't properly a national sport.

This is the map for Premiership RU. It's more in line with what a national sport looks like.

[Michael1812]

3 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

You might as well say we've got a foothold in Germany because we're playing in Hull.

Do all of the big clubs in Hull play in a league with German clubs?

[kiggy]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

Wetting myself at this.  London new ground?  Nope.  Toulouse to grow game and build a European SL?  Nope.

Screw it. Fair play Leigh.  Hope we get serious about expanding SL to 14 and hope Leigh stay up. 

The new President of the French league, Marc Palanques, is hoping to expand the sport further, with better media coverage, hopefully bringing in national sponsors. So, maybe, a TV deal is in the offing for French RL which will be a step in the right direction and if TO do manage it next season, the crowds should be suitably larger (Home ones anyway, as the away matches will be even more sparsely populated once the "must have a passport to travel to the UK" rule comes into force.) 

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Michael1812 said:

The big Toronto clubs play in cross border leagues, it is respect as a sports city in the US and is the 3rd largest city in Canada and the US. So I would say it is part of one of the must lucrative sports market SL in the world. 

I'd say the difference - and I do see where you're coming from - is that those Toronto clubs are playing in established essentially US leagues (NHL slightly different but still) with Toronto as a Canadian add-on.

[tiffers]

Insular? Yes.

Disappointing? Yes (not a reflection on Leigh, they are a solid, well run club that no doubt score well in all categories).

Sensible? Most probably.

Exciting? Not in the slightest.

Opportunity for growth missed? Without a doubt.

Risk levels? Low.

In a nutshell, I can totally understand this choice. Although I cant shake off that genuine feeling of disappointment. That feeling of losing ground. Losing momentum.

Wouldn't it be lovely to have a strategic vision for the game that is more than a list of numbers in a hidden pdf. Something we can all unite around. For far too long we have been sat in two camps of extreme debate that is further fueled by the lack of clear direction/leadership on this.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

20 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

They would. Happy its leigh

Me too - I'd have been happy with Toulouse too (although we've been hoping to get there for the first time next year). I'd have been most disappointed if it'd been Bradford, closely followed by Fev  

[Oxford]

Just now, tiffers said:

Risk levels? Low.

I do enjoy a good underplaying of things.

There are times, not too often but this is one, when I miss the days of TGG & Open Rugby I'd loved to have seen what articles they'd have brought out about this and a few other things. This is not a longing for the past just a wish for the ressurrection of things like clear ideas of where you belong and why. I miss them and I miss the idea of expansion.

Leigh are a good choice because of their stadium & squad strength, if for no other reasons.

[Derwent]

1 hour ago, Man of Kent said:

Sense of perspective needed.

Leigh may be a boring Bill Arthur of a choice but they will fulfil their fixtures, they have no ground/travel issues and they will be fairly competitive. That’s what is needed right now. Filler. 

I think this is what a lot of people don't seem to understand. This process wasn't about a long term strategy for SL, it was about being 3 months away from a new season and needing to promote a club that could cope with the step up financially, especially when they are only getting half the funding of other clubs. Nothing more than that. Which is why Leigh were the obvious choice, they have an owner who is prepared to put the extra £1m in to ensure they are at least competitive. What would be the point of throwing any of the others in on half the funding of the other clubs, they'd be absolute cannon fodder.

I suspect if this had been a process of awarding a longer term licence with relegation exemption etc then the choice would have been different. But under the circumstances anyone who argues it shouldn't be Leigh this time is not living in the real world.

[Harry Stottle]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

Probably because their opposition was for the most part dying pit villages. The image of this game is dire to nonexistent 

Me thinks you would be better of at Twickers and Headingly Union (do they still operate) seems this game is getting below your station, you once said I should go and watch the NCL, I will still do so when the season starts up.

[Trojan]

48 minutes ago, Mattrhino said:

I don't get the replies of Leigh would be the most competitive. Toulouse have been the better team for 3 years.

Except of course for the awkward detail that Fev beat them both on their own grounds at the end of the 2019 season.  Having said that, I'm pleased it's not Fev.  IMO whoever got it needs a full off season to prepare and they're not going to get one.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

56 minutes ago, Magic XIII said:

Nope, not as of 1 minute ago

It was on as 'breaking news' within minutes of the announcement

[RobertAM]

o

[Man of Kent]

10 minutes ago, Derwent said:

I think this is what a lot of people don't seem to understand. This process wasn't about a long term strategy for SL, it was about being 3 months away from a new season and needing to promote a club that could cope with the step up financially, especially when they are only getting half the funding of other clubs. Nothing more than that. Which is why Leigh were the obvious choice, they have an owner who is prepared to put the extra £1m in to ensure they are at least competitive. What would be the point of throwing any of the others in on half the funding of the other clubs, they'd be absolute cannon fodder.

I suspect if this had been a process of awarding a longer term licence with relegation exemption etc then the choice would have been different. But under the circumstances anyone who argues it shouldn't be Leigh this time is not living in the real world.

Yeah, I think some of us - me included at times - are guilty of wishful thinking that this was the kind of licensing discussed ad nauseum on this forum.

It ain't. We just need someone to make up the numbers for 2021. Leigh are the most credible.

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, Smudger06 said:

Leeds need to start pulling their socks up, in a village of 790,000. 11 or 12 k at Headingley? We only get 9k less playing 2nd tier in a town of 15,000. Shocking.    

Exactly, people don't care because its not relevant. Fwiw we got a better crowd on a televised Thursday night against Toronto than we did on a non televised Friday night against Hull KR. Seems the Leeds crowd is discerning about opposition.

[Oxford]

3 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

Yeah, I think some of us - me included at times - are guilty of wishful thinking

Only if you still imagine expansion is an option or even on the agenda.

[Tommygilf]

35 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

Me thinks you would be better of at Twickers and Headingly Union (do they still operate) seems this game is getting below your station, you once said I should go and watch the NCL, I will still do so when the season starts up.

Ha! The classic you must be a union fan lol, that's low. 

What was it Mrs Thatcher said about personal insults?

In any case, my generation, as you have experienced with your own family, are likely to follow football instead.

[JohnM]

6 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

It was on as 'breaking news' within minutes of the announcement

Yes..And it's still there. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport under "more top stories."

[Tommygilf]

35 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Mate, you've gone down a rabbit hole. 

I think we'll find in a year with the new tv deal that its super league who have done that sadly

[Hela Wigmen]

It’s a short term option for a short term sport. I’m not sure how the clubs could be assessed under the criteria it laid out when the game’s various governing bodies has no clue what’s happening beyond next year. 

I look forward to Back To The Future Episode #324 next year when we inevitably return to a structure we’ve used before and failed to implement correctly or where we mash together a couple of previous structures to make a “new” structure. 

[Man of Kent]

1 minute ago, Oxford said:

Only if you still imagine expansion is an option or even on the agenda.

I believe it is but, in case you missed it, the game is on something of a war footing at the moment. It's not a time to take risks and Leigh are practically a 0% risk option.

 

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Exactly, people don't care because its not relevant. Fwiw we got a better crowd on a televised Thursday night against Toronto than we did on a non televised Friday night against Hull KR. Seems the Leeds crowd is discerning about opposition.

You use this example a lot, and it doesn't tell us much tbh 

We can find examples at Warrington of us getting a higher crowd vs Leigh than vs Wigan in the cup 

[Smudger06]

You can't the wood for the trees. We are expansion, Sheffield, Newcastle, Toulouse, London, York all now in tier 2, none getting relegated would be a good start for the sport and for those clubs to continue to grow and increase their competitiveness. 

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

You use this example a lot, and it doesn't tell us much tbh 

We can find examples at Warrington of us getting a higher crowd vs Leigh than vs Wigan in the cup 

It tells us that despite 3 obvious things going against it, Thursday night, no away fans, televised, it still attracted more spectators than a directly comparable fixture with none of those 3 factors. I could give examples for Catalans too. It suggests that big league fixtures between teams fans don't view as uninteresting get bigger attendances 

As you well know comparing league and cup games is pointless as the cup game will always be lower - which is a symptom of the wider problem. 

[Niels]

59 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

So no team in the academy league = Not interested in junior development

No new fans and playing in a suburb of Wigan. That will add value to the TV contract, LOL

If it helps, it is not a suburb of Wigan. It is part of Wigan metropolitan council. It has its own town hall where the council sits sometimes.

Each borough can have more than one town or place. In Kirkless for example, there are Batley,  Dewsbury, Huddersfield and about 10 other different towns. Each of those has its own suburbs. No town is a suburb of another. 

European Football used to preclude clubs from the same city playing in the same competition but this ended in the early 1970s, no doubt as it would be disciminatory. We don't want to return to this. 

 

[redjonn]

Good luck to Leigh and look forward to those games and visiting when we hopefully get to the the stadiums next season.  I'll enjoy them as the opposition as much as any club/team.

I find it very hard to argue against Leigh being the "chosen one" given the circumstances we are in.

Yep, personally I was hoping for a 2nd French team but as many have said its was not and was never about strategic intentions.

Besides Toulouse, Fev, etc have the opportunity next season to gain promotion - its only another season away not some finite distance date.