Small time SL reaction to the prospect of having Toulouse in their league

[Robin Evans]

2 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Also Robin the away fans stuff is completely over stated. Fev played Batley, Dewsbury, Fax x2, Bradford at home yet got their highest crowd by some distance for Toulouse. If the scenario is exciting people will come and watch - so build your club up and make it an exciting place to watch RL.

This. You know as well as I do, turning up to watch us put 50 or 60 on a team is not over entertaining.

Knowing the team are likely to win big doesn't sell the game much. There were games I went to purely cos I was a ST holder knowing the outcome was more or less a forgone conclusion. 

Fans turned up for the contest v toulouse. 

[Damien]

Hetherington at Leeds is very positive in the same article, as was Fitzpatrick at Warrington, Guasch at Catalans is obviously positive and Lenegan at Wigan has been very supportive of Toulouse in the past. Throw in Toulouse (obviously) then that is already 5 out of 12 of next years SL clubs that are positive. So who exactly are these 100% of club chairmen that are against Toulouse? Its complete rubbish.

I can certainly see certain clubs being against Toulouse simply because if Toulouse fulfil their potential and spend big money then it will put their SL place in jeopardy.

[GUBRATS]

Will there potentially be a slight drop in income when they play Toulouse instead of Leigh,Widnes,Bradford ? 

Yes 

Wll they have some extra costs ? 

Yes 

Should they be ' vocal ' in the media about it ?

No 

How many clubs are potentially going to be genuinely affected ?

2/3 at most 

Do we need to worry about it ?

No 

 

 

 

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, Johnoco said:

The article may not be a bona fide quote from a particular individual but I don’t think it is total fantasy. As soon as it looks like someone may be taking a share of the pot and potentially reduce theirs, we get the “look after the heartlands” spiel, which in reality is no more than pulling up the ladder. 

See, whilst I don't agree with them in the slightest, I don't have too much issue with people feeling that it should be an English based league. Its a valid enough opinion, if a little uninspiring and negative imho. But we don't Have to have an international league and its a valid viewpoint. 

But when 'anonymous sources' like this claim they speak for the whole lot, when the evidence is there that they don't, it deserves challenging. 

But I have two Chairmen in mind who I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they said what was in the article. But I strongly suspect they are outliers. 

[thebrewxi]

I suspect the two games featuring just french teams will be sell outs next season.  If they are, be interesting how many all english games are sell outs too. 

We do have to remember that Catalans, and now Toulouse, are also in super league. And as such a sixth of SL I'm sure will be very pleased about how many away fans they now get with the Toulouse Super League arrangement. It's very easy to turn t'Yorkshire evening post and think that reflects Super League.

[Robin Evans]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Hetherington at Leeds is very positive in the same article, as was Fitzpatrick at Warrington, Guasch at Catalans is obviously positive and Lenegan at Wigan has been very supportive of Toulouse in the past. Throw in Toulouse (obviously) then that is already 5 out of 12 of next years SL clubs that are positive. So who exactly are these 100% of club chairmen that are against Toulouse? Its complete rubbish.

I can certainly see certain clubs being against Toulouse simply because if Toulouse fulfil their potential and spend big money then it will put their SL place in jeopardy.

That wouldn't do would it?

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

Hetherington at Leeds is very positive in the same article, as was Fitzpatrick at Warrington, Guasch at Catalans is obviously positive and Lenegan at Wigan has been very supportive of Toulouse in the past. Throw in Toulouse (obviously) then that is already 5 out of 12 of next years SL clubs that are positive. So who exactly are these 100% of club chairmen that are against Toulouse? Its complete rubbish.

I can certainly see certain clubs being against Toulouse simply because if Toulouse fulfil their potential and spend big money then it will put their SL place in jeopardy.

I expect Saints will be positive too, as they were with Toronto. 

[meast]

41 minutes ago, EagleEyePie said:

It's interesting that there are clubs saying Toulouse will be bad for Super League because Toulouse won't bring any away fans without considering maybe they are bad for Super League because they have no confidence in being able to sell their games.

I mean it's not like clubs travel well these days anyway. Crossing the M62 seems to be considered as daunting as crossing the channel. Yorkshire clubs don't generally bring many fans to the DW and Wigan no longer seem to bring many fans to Yorkshire. I don't see how the losses would be so great as to be a massive burden.

Exactly!

It should be up to home clubs to fill their grounds with fans not the away clubs.

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

Hetherington at Leeds is very positive in the same article, as was Fitzpatrick at Warrington, Guasch at Catalans is obviously positive and Lenegan at Wigan has been very supportive of Toulouse in the past. Throw in Toulouse (obviously) then that is already 5 out of 12 of next years SL clubs that are positive. So who exactly are these 100% of club chairmen that are against Toulouse? Its complete rubbish.

I can certainly see certain clubs being against Toulouse simply because if Toulouse fulfil their potential and spend big money then it will put their SL place in jeopardy.

And that club chairman may in the future be relying on Toulouse and Calatan's vote to be allowed back into SL (and to get a central distribution). Funny eh?

[Scubby]

Brilliant is one way of putting it  

[The Future is League]

4 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

The article may not be a bona fide quote from a particular individual but I don’t think it is total fantasy. As soon as it looks like someone may be taking a share of the pot and potentially reduce theirs, we get the “look after the heartlands” spiel, which in reality is no more than pulling up the ladder. 

Certain clubs in Super League have a huge fear of ambitious clubs getting into Super League with better grounds, better facilities and bigger sponsors.

Certain clubs need to work a lot harder to get fans through the turn styles and not rely so much on away support

[EagleEyePie]

So we know Hetherington is in favour. Fitzpatrick at Wire is broadly supportive. Lenagan at Wigan is supportive. Bernard Guasch will obviously be delighted with another French team. If more people come out in support it shouldn't be too hard to work out who the anonymous source is.

Dare I say the quotes may have come from one of the clubs who perhaps would have benefited the most from Toulouse's opponents reaching Super League.

[M j M]

6 minutes ago, thebrewxi said:

I suspect the two games featuring just french teams will be sell outs next season.  If they are, be interesting how many all english games are sell outs too. 

We do have to remember that Catalans, and now Toulouse, are also in super league. And as such a sixth of SL I'm sure will be very pleased about how many away fans they now get with the Toulouse Super League arrangement. It's very easy to turn t'Yorkshire evening post and think that reflects Super League.

To be clear you won't find this sort of article in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

[M j M]

5 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I expect Saints will be positive too, as they were with Toronto. 

I imagine once you get past the three Toronto-supportive clubs the remaining eight English clubs may well be more reluctant.

[thebrewxi]

16 minutes ago, M j M said:

To be clear you won't find this sort of article in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

I agree. It's a good paper with some good coverage. I was making a flippant comment about what's bad for Yorkshire must be bad for the game and SL, and that was the first paper that popped into my head. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

Sounds like some of the bottom 4 Super League clubs are worried they may finish 12th to me. Small time club’s relying on away supporters and sky money to scrape by and finish 10th or 11th are holding Super League back, I’m sure this is where the quote has come from. 

[Dave T]

27 minutes ago, M j M said:

I imagine once you get past the three Toronto-supportive clubs the remaining eight English clubs may well be more reluctant.

See I can't agree with you on this. I expect the likes of Wigan and Warrington to be supportive, they have said as much previously. 

We shouldn't confuse what went on with TWP as whether you are a supporter of expansion or bold new teams. TWP had a charlatan owner who did massive damage to his club, and his successor wanted to sell shaving foam. I was perfectly happy with Wire's stance on this and they explained themselves well. 

We also shouldn't forget that as a game we have had plenty of clubs admitted over the last 25 years, the game is nowhere near as backward as is portrayed. 

Incompetent - absolutely! 

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Sounds like some of the bottom 4 Super League clubs are worried they may finish 12th to me. Small time club’s relying on away supporters and sky money to scrape by and finish 10th or 11th are holding Super League back, I’m sure this is where the quote has come from. 

They don't rely on the fans from a couple of clubs , that's just the easiest visual stick to use , it is fear of losing their place , nothing else 

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

See I can't agree with you on this. I expect the likes of Wigan and Warrington to be supportive, they have said as much previously. 

We shouldn't confuse what went on with TWP as whether you are a supporter of expansion or bold new teams. TWP had a charlatan owner who did massive damage to his club, and his successor wanted to sell shaving foam. I was perfectly happy with Wire's stance on this and they explained themselves well. 

We also shouldn't forget that as a game we have had plenty of clubs admitted over the last 25 years, the game is nowhere near as backward as is portrayed. 

Incompetent - absolutely! 

Comparing Toronto with Toulouse is nonsense , totally different scenarios 

[Liverpool Rover]

One chairman says that it would be 100% no amongst them for a French team in the league and later in the article Gary Hetherington talks about how it is a good thing for there to be two French teams in the league. Do the chairmen actually sound out each other’s opinions before claiming to be speaking on behalf of them all?

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Liverpool Rover said:

One chairman says that it would be 100% no amongst them for a French team in the league and later in the article Gary Hetherington talks about how it is a good thing for there to be two French teams in the league. Do the chairmen actually sound out each other’s opinions before claiming to be speaking on behalf of them all?

Or a journalist being silly 

[PREPOSTEROUS]

Embarrassing, when it's from fans it's bad enough, but when it's from CEO's it's a worrying sign. Toronto we're a sham, Toulouse could be a real shot in the arm

[unapologetic pedant]

16 minutes ago, meast said:

Exactly!

It should be up to home clubs to fill their grounds with fans not the away clubs.

I don`t believe the article, but any SL chairman who bases his own club`s viability on away support is a deadbeat.

There are echoes of the bygone case for "one division". The reason that was tolerated for so long had to be that somewhere in the English RL psyche there was a belief that the ultimate purpose of RL was to maximize the number of people payed to play "Rugby".

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

We shouldn't confuse what went on with TWP as whether you are a supporter of expansion or bold new teams. 

Indeed so, because I`m afraid London Broncos place in SL replicated the old dependent model.

The great thing about Toulouse is that all their focus is on growing their own fanbase and building a healthy rivalry with Catalans. Visiting English fans are a bonus.

[paulwalker71]

55 minutes ago, Dave T said:

But I have two Chairmen in mind who I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if they said what was in the article. But I strongly suspect they are outliers. 

I don't suppose it would be a good idea to name names - at least not if we want this thread to not get 'locked'

But, like you, I have two, perhaps three, club chairmen in mind as possible 'rent-a-quote' sources. In fact the phrasing and language in the 'quotes' very much sounds like one in particular. Let me just say, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if this particular individual made those comments to Ross Heppenstall.

[PREPOSTEROUS]

The main suspect had to be the CEO of the club I support. Whilst he's done wonder's stabilising the club, an accountant has never been known for their vision.