London Skolars New Owners

[Davo5]

2 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

To the person who responded ‘confused’ to this… a Rabbitohs is somebody who sells rabbits

Best to ignore my forum stalker,he lives his life in a permanent state of confusion.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Sounds like promising news for rugby league in London.

 

[PhilCarrington]

16 hours ago, The storm said:

Hector is a top class business man and it would take something special to replace him

may well be true, but he's not been in charge at the Skolars for nearly 3 years now, though he is still a major sponsor

[Gomersall]

48 minutes ago, welshmagpie said:

To the person who responded ‘confused’ to this… a Rabbitohs is somebody who sells rabbits

Ah. A pet shop owner.

[Gomersall]

4 hours ago, langpark said:

I also agree that a name change would be good. 'Skolars' I always felt sounded like an academy team name or something. 

I understand why they are called Skolars but that sponsorship never actually materialised. I don’t get why the club would promote Skol without, to my knowledge, any financial return. I’d be happy to see them spell it as Scholars as a nod to their roots.

[RugbyLeagueGeek]

2 hours ago, Davo5 said:

South Sydney have made rabbit butcher work ok down the years,Skolars is fine.

I agree - the key thing is that it need somebody with some imagination to make it work. Too many UK clubs seem to think that a name change is the silver bullet, when in reality it's all the other branding stuff that goes with it. I remember loads of people on this forum saying what a great name Aberavon Fighting Irish was, when in reality it was just nicked from a college in America. The game over here has always had loads of great nicknames which good creative marketing/branding people could easily make work.  If 'Gallant Youths' was an American college football team, loads of people would be saying how original a name it is, but over here it got jettisoned in favour of 'Bulldogs'. Now I'm not saying that changing the name hasn't worked for Batley, but I bet somebody creative and imaginative could have made 'Gallant Youths' work too. Skolars is absolutely fine, and - to my knowledge - unique. A talented creative person could easily make that work.

[DEANO]

1 hour ago, Gomersall said:

I understand why they are called Skolars but that sponsorship never actually materialised. I don’t get why the club would promote Skol without, to my knowledge, any financial return. I’d be happy to see them spell it as Scholars as a nod to their roots.

Always thought they were named after skolars pub next to the ground

[westlondonfan]

A really interesting development I think. I hope they don’t move grounds and I sincerely hope this is the start of something very positive for RL in London.

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

6 minutes ago, DEANO said:

Always thought they were named after skolars pub next to the ground

The pub name change was after the club was founded and it was not next to the ground. Was about five mins/ten mins walk up the road.

[DEANO]

Just now, Pen-Y-Bont Crusader said:

The pub name change was after the club was founded and it was not next to the ground. Was about five mins/ten mins walk up the road.

Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve been

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

Just now, DEANO said:

Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve been

As we all get older that walk seems longer .

[Jughead]

Wasn’t the name Skolars to do with Skol Lager and their academic background? That was my understanding. 

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

10 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Wasn’t the name Skolars to do with Skol Lager and their academic background? That was my understanding. 

Deal was in offing but never came off.

[ATLANTISMAN]

Can someone on here enlighten me who the investor is ?
 

Paul

[THE RED ROOSTER]

20 hours ago, IM2 said:

I believe the new owners have a very healthy source of players from the Brisbane and Auckland areas

That tallies with the conversation going on to my right on Friday, when there was a group of four discussing the old Brisbane Broncos - London Broncos link. I thought they wewre Broncos fans on a nostaligia trip but as the Brisbane area / Auckland area's are the hotbed of junior development down under. If you could get some under 21 players to come over you would be very competitive very quickly.

Who is in this consortium as it appears to have flown under the radar of the UK rugby league media.

[Gomersall]

1 hour ago, Jughead said:

Wasn’t the name Skolars to do with Skol Lager and their academic background? That was my understanding. 

To my understanding they had a sponsorship lined up with Skol that for whatever reason didn’t materialise. Part of which was to call themselves the Skolars. A play on words. Again for whatever reason they decided to stick with it. I’m sure Hector can tell us the actual story.

[EssexRL]

1 hour ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Who is in this consortium as it appears to have flown under the radar of the UK rugby league media.

Full details to come. As someone posted on here the public announcement on Friday took people a bit by surprise. 

On the name issue: yes it was due to the beer and yes it should be changes and ideally to something that gives the club an identity that resonates with this bit of London (kinda like Brixton Bulls in the south or East London Dockers (or Newham Dockers as they were!)

 

[Toby Chopra]

2 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

That tallies with the conversation going on to my right on Friday, when there was a group of four discussing the old Brisbane Broncos - London Broncos link. I thought they wewre Broncos fans on a nostaligia trip but as the Brisbane area / Auckland area's are the hotbed of junior development down under. If you could get some under 21 players to come over you would be very competitive very quickly.

Who is in this consortium as it appears to have flown under the radar of the UK rugby league media.

I have to say I'm quite sceptical if the magic plan is to ship over a bunch of 20 year old Brisbanites amd Aucklanders, who are affordable and not tied to NRL feeders, yet talented enough to make a difference. And somehow they all get sporting visas? 

[gingerjon]

3 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

I have to say I'm quite sceptical if the magic plan is to ship over a bunch of 20 year old Brisbanites amd Aucklanders, who are affordable and not tied to NRL feeders, yet talented enough to make a difference. And somehow they all get sporting visas? 

A lot of the thinking about easy visas doesn't seem to be based on the actual real world of today as opposed to ten years ago.

[OriginalMrC]

3 hours ago, Toby Chopra said:

I have to say I'm quite sceptical if the magic plan is to ship over a bunch of 20 year old Brisbanites amd Aucklanders, who are affordable and not tied to NRL feeders, yet talented enough to make a difference. And somehow they all get sporting visas? 

The days of getting people over on EU passports is long gone. League 1 clubs have a quota of 2 or 3 foreign players? And as you say sporting visas are dependent on certain criteria 

[langpark]

I am pretty sure the simple working visa will be fine.  Aussies under the age of 30 are able to get the 2-year working visa quite easily, as are Brits when they go to Aus for work.

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, langpark said:

I am pretty sure the simple working visa will be fine.  Aussies under the age of 30 are able to get the 2-year working visa quite easily, as are Brits when they go to Aus for work.

"You cannot work as a professional sportsperson" is literally on page one of that.

[OriginalMrC]

12 minutes ago, langpark said:

I am pretty sure the simple working visa will be fine.  Aussies under the age of 30 are able to get the 2-year working visa quite easily, as are Brits when they go to Aus for work.

They can play as amateurs but not on Superleague, Championship or League 1. The rules are in place to stop teams flooding their squads with foreign players 

[langpark]

30 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

"You cannot work as a professional sportsperson" is literally on page one of that.

Odd as I know some Aussies (at Skolars funnily enough) who were there on working visas.  They had their day jobs in London, and trained and played for the Skolars, which was not their primary source of income.  So, loopholes perhaps?

[gingerjon]

6 minutes ago, langpark said:

Odd as I know some Aussies (at Skolars funnily enough) who were there on working visas.  They had their day jobs in London, and trained and played for the Skolars, which was not their primary source of income.  So, loopholes perhaps?

Shamateurism