Cumbria Franchise

[richie keay]

After the recent IMG proposals for the future of Rugby League, I wonder how many Barrow  Haven & Town fans would get behind a Cumbrian super league franchise. The subject was brought up at Kyle Amors testimonial evening a few weeks ago, and Kyle seemed to think it was a good idea. He suggested if the franchise was based just off the M6 at say Kendal the Motorway links would be excellent for all 3 clubs aswell as away fans. If you consider the amount of local talent which is lost to Super League eg Ritson, Brad Singleton, Morgan Knowles to name just 3. With the door appearing to be slammed shut for any of the 3 Cumbrian teams to have a chance of playing Super League rugby I see this as the only chance, what are your thoughts?

[blue forever]

Not for me. I'm a BARROW fan.

[richie keay]

So am I mate, but do you honestly think Barrow stand any chance of appearing in SL, the ground is falling apart, and the team have gone backwards from last season.

[blue forever]

Superleague isn't the be all and end all. Even the name is a contradiction. Do people really expect thousands of people to from the rugby towns of Cumbria to travel 2 hour round trips to watch a home game at Kendal/Penrith? As for the team going backwards this season that is entirely our(the club's) fault

[tec]

No from me wouldn't be interested we are to far apart, can understand Town and Haven going for it though.

[barra fan]

Very difficult one this. Was a flat no for me for years but with the latest announcement it does now make one wonder. Both sides of the argument are valid so like I said very difficult decision. Personally I am still in favour of Barrow side bit who knows what future brings.

[donald]

Why base it at kendal or penrith when Carlisle is right off the motorway much larger and as a ready made stadium although not perfect but far better than any other ground in cumbria 

[Davo5]

10 hours ago, richie keay said:

After the recent IMG proposals for the future of Rugby League, I wonder how many Barrow  Haven & Town fans would get behind a Cumbrian super league franchise. The subject was brought up at Kyle Amors testimonial evening a few weeks ago, and Kyle seemed to think it was a good idea. He suggested if the franchise was based just off the M6 at say Kendal the Motorway links would be excellent for all 3 clubs aswell as away fans. If you consider the amount of local talent which is lost to Super League eg Ritson, Brad Singleton, Morgan Knowles to name just 3. With the door appearing to be slammed shut for any of the 3 Cumbrian teams to have a chance of playing Super League rugby I see this as the only chance, what are your thoughts?

So base a new RL team in a town with zero interest in the sport,lacking an actual stadium & hope to attract 3 seperate sets of supporters who have to travel 50 mins,1.25 hrs & 1.5 hrs to every “home” game,what could possibly go wrong.

[Masters 13]

11 hours ago, richie keay said:

After the recent IMG proposals for the future of Rugby League, I wonder how many Barrow  Haven & Town fans would get behind a Cumbrian super league franchise. The subject was brought up at Kyle Amors testimonial evening a few weeks ago, and Kyle seemed to think it was a good idea. He suggested if the franchise was based just off the M6 at say Kendal the Motorway links would be excellent for all 3 clubs aswell as away fans. If you consider the amount of local talent which is lost to Super League eg Ritson, Brad Singleton, Morgan Knowles to name just 3. With the door appearing to be slammed shut for any of the 3 Cumbrian teams to have a chance of playing Super League rugby I see this as the only chance, what are your thoughts?

No from me. What Cumbria teams need to do to excel and progress is retain the likes of the names above instead of releasing them to SL clubs, then they can challenge higher tier teams.

How I see things is SL is the downfall of Cumbria RL due to its poaching all the talent.  

[Raider83]

Not for me, I'd rather have a 10 minute walk to watch the lads play Championship level Rugby than travel to watch a mixture of the 3 teams. I'm a Barrow Raiders fan and I'd like it to stay that way.

[morty]

What a load of tosh basing a Cumbria Super Duper League in non RL territory it would never work.

RL is slowly dying and IMG will not save it no matter what they try

[Neutralfan7]

Unfortunately don't think Barrow could come into this equation due to the travel distance. Would just need to be Haven & Town but they'd need a guaranteed X amount of years to fully establish. 

[Blind side johnny]

13 hours ago, Gaz Martin said:

No from me. What Cumbria teams need to do to excel and progress is retain the likes of the names above instead of releasing them to SL clubs, then they can challenge higher tier teams.

How I see things is SL is the downfall of Cumbria RL due to its poaching all the talent.  

They aren't captives you know!

Is it only after the introduction of SL that talent was poached?

[Dave W]

The idea makes as much sense as merging Swinton, Oldham and Rochdale under a Lancashire banner and then playing the matches in Preston. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Dave W

[Masters 13]

10 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

They aren't captives you know!

Is it only after the introduction of SL that talent was poached?

I'm not saying they are captive BSJ. I'm simply saying the current Championship clubs should be able to tie in and secure players contracts instead of SL coming in and taking the best of the crop.

If a Championship manged this, it would assist in secure that said clubs future, potentially generate more crowds and income and again improve the standards of rugby league in Cumbria. 

As it stands, SL deplete all of the 3 Cumbria Championships sides. 

[richie keay]

We've certainly been shafted as far as the Ritson deal goes.

[barra fan]

Well and truly

[blue forever]

1 hour ago, richie keay said:

We've certainly been shafted as far as the Ritson deal goes.

Some of us thought this at the time, but then the board put out an 'update' on the deal and a lot of the happy clappers thought it was great

[richie keay]

What was the update b f?

[Left Winger]

Not for me I'm a Lancastrian not Cumbrian.

[red square]

See the A590 has been closed again today at Newby Bridge! Not a rare occurrence.  The problem is not the distance between the 3 clubs in what was Cumbria but the road links between them. Amalgamations might work round West Yorks or Manchester where there are a multitude of motorways and (usually) good rail links. From Barrow it is probably less troublesome getting to Wigan or Keighley than Workington. 

A "Cumbria" based club would quite simply not work due to the travel time involved.

[richie keay]

I think we've written off Kyle Amor's suggestion of basing a Cumbrian team at a new ground at Kendal, what has been suggested though on here and the thread on the General forum is sharing 3 or 4 home games between the 3 Cumbrian clubs, whilst keeping the 3 clubs alive in the Championship or League 1, its far more sensible and cost effective option.

[Neutralfan7]

41 minutes ago, richie keay said:

I think we've written off Kyle Amor's suggestion of basing a Cumbrian team at a new ground at Kendal, what has been suggested though on here and the thread on the General forum is sharing 3 or 4 home games between the 3 Cumbrian clubs, whilst keeping the 3 clubs alive in the Championship or League 1, its far more sensible and cost effective option.

Where are all the extra players going to come from? If you keep all 3 clubs alive, on say a squad of 25 each, then 25 of super League club, there's 100 players you'll need.

[JMB]

On 22/04/2023 at 19:09, Davo5 said:

So base a new RL team in a town with zero interest in the sport,lacking an actual stadium & hope to attract 3 seperate sets of supporters who have to travel 50 mins,1.25 hrs & 1.5 hrs to every “home” game,what could possibly go wrong.

No chance moving a team to Penrith, and why, to make it easier for the away teams, as usual.