Newcastle Thunder

[Eddie]

18 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

Looks like £££ and resources are going to be spent on maintaining all the community/development/foundation work going on in the NE.

Have to admit I may be a cynic but I read this ‘We will work with everybody impacted and do all we can to maintain this development’ as ‘we will do nothing’. 

[del capo]

 The RFL statement on their website seems bland.

' A meeting of League 1 clubs has already been arranged to discuss the implications of Newcastle's withdrawal.'

I truly hope that the RFL have their own proposals and can this time deliver them but note that the Championship clubs are  not included this time. Seeking a consensus is of course obviously sensible but maybe  there comes a time when decision makers actually  have to do so.

Tier 3 is doomed if down to just 8 clubs and unsustainable. There are 2 options -

Merge with Tier 2  as a ladder ( blow outs will be painful I know ) or 

Invite Tier 4 sides to the table ( if takers can be found )

Either way travel / hotel costs must be met centrally and in  full for each club. Anything left over can be divvied up by the greedy ones who have in their own way contributed to this latest disaster.

Hunslet's statement contains much home truth. As a business we embrace both  thriving supermarkets and struggling corner shops.But as a sport we need to protect those corner shops. The RFL Board have highly talented business leaders in place - let us hope that they have come to embrace the soul of our game as well - every flag removed from the map is territory ceded to others.

[EggFace]

8 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Newcastle basketball have managed to self fund and build a purpose built basketball arena in the past decade.

Yes but I wonder how much they are on as no talks about Basketball and even Ice Hockey.

[paul hicks]

14 hours ago, Griff said:

Where are these Geordies at Championship games?

same place as the Rochdale and hunslet fans and plenty of others

[Damien]

I do hope that the RFL work with the game in the North East to ensure that any good work isn't lost and plug any gaps as necessary.

I would hate for another London situation where the game was going great then it was largely allowed to be lost.

[EssexRL]

35 minutes ago, EggFace said:

Sadly Newcastle is not like Leeds, Leicester or even Munster and we are to oppsessed with the Magpies and Football and same for to Sunderland and sports like Rugby Union, Cricket and Boxing play a massive 2nd fiddle to the round game sadly and thats despite we have lots of local Rugby Union and Cricket clubs.

On a side note we also been poor area for producing bands compared to London, Liverpool and Mancester as we so tunneled vision so something like Rugby League was always going to be a hard sell

BTW I did notice no Thunder merchandise in the club shop when I was at Kingston Park on Sunday.

There was scope to grow in Newcastle. When I went up to watch Skolars I was impressed by (1) the size of the crowd which was often well above L1 averages, (2) the knowledge and passion of the fans and (3) general awareness of the game there. I

[crashmon]

15 minutes ago, EggFace said:

Yes but I wonder how much they are on as no talks about Basketball and even Ice Hockey.

You can't compare BBL and Ice Hocky with RL

Niether of them are as reliant on TV money and SKY as RL is.

So they live much better within their means, and they don't need either sky money or super rich benifactors to survive

[EggFace]

2 minutes ago, crashmon said:

You can't compare BBL and Ice Hocky with RL

Niether of them are as reliant on TV money and SKY as RL is.

So they live much better within their means, and they don't need either sky money or super rich benifactors to survive

I'm not comparing those (2nd rate sports in the UK) BUT I think what you say is a good idea to see how these clubs live within their means and maybe Rugby League could reseach how these sports can do it.

[EssexRL]

21 minutes ago, del capo said:

 The RFL statement on their website seems bland.

' A meeting of League 1 clubs has already been arranged to discuss the implications of Newcastle's withdrawal.'

I truly hope that the RFL have their own proposals and can this time deliver them but note that the Championship clubs are  not included this time. Seeking a consensus is of course obviously sensible but maybe  there comes a time when decision makers actually  have to do so.

Tier 3 is doomed if down to just 8 clubs and unsustainable. There are 2 options -

Merge with Tier 2  as a ladder ( blow outs will be painful I know ) or 

Invite Tier 4 sides to the table ( if takers can be found )

Either way travel / hotel costs must be met centrally and in  full for each club. Anything left over can be divvied up by the greedy ones who have in their own way contributed to this latest disaster.

Hunslet's statement contains much home truth. As a business we embrace both  thriving supermarkets and struggling corner shops.But as a sport we need to protect those corner shops. The RFL Board have highly talented business leaders in place - let us hope that they have come to embrace the soul of our game as well - every flag removed from the map is territory ceded to others.

I remain staggered at the poor quality of the leadership of the game. Did no one foresee the loss of clubs potentially happening and plan? Another example of rubbish leadership- when L1 was expanded concerns were raised in the south about where clubs would get high enough level players from to compete, given there was no player infrastructure down here - or money to bring players down. It is an obvious and sensible point but yet the expansion went ahead and, guess what, teams struggled to find enough players that could compete.

Expansion could work given the quality of the product but it needs a plan, it needs to be realistic and its products need nurturing.

The future of RL seems very narrow now. However well SL is doing, poor and shrinking foundations are not great.

 

[Eddie]

10 minutes ago, crashmon said:

You can't compare BBL and Ice Hocky with RL

Niether of them are as reliant on TV money and SKY as RL is.

So they live much better within their means, and they don't need either sky money or super rich benifactors to survive

Do they survive mainly on gate receipts then? 

[JM2010]

The only way RL is going to expand is if the community game expands both in the heartlands and elsewhere. It’s OK accepting a new club to League 1 and then just filling them with lads from Yorkshire and the NW and DR players but that won’t work long term. 
Any new areas where a potential professional club is based first of all needs its own local league establishing and even regular local school competitions. 
The professional club then needs to sit above that with an academy team attached to provide a pathway for local players

[EssexRL]

1 minute ago, JM2010 said:

The only way RL is going to expand is if the community game expands both in the heartlands and elsewhere. It’s OK accepting a new club to League 1 and then just filling them with lads from Yorkshire and the NW and DR players but that won’t work long term. 
Any new areas where a potential professional club is based first of all needs its own local league establishing and even regular local school competitions. 
The professional club then needs to sit above that with an academy team attached to provide a pathway for local players

Skolars linked with schools, colleges and the London/SE amateur leagues but that was not enough. Expansion needs wider support from the game (eg, marketing).

More than anything though the game needs a plan and a vision about where it wants to be. If it is in a state of managed decline (actually it doesn't feel that managed) then at least be explicit about it.

Last point when I went to watch the RLWC opener in Newcastle I was struck by how many locals were there. We couldn't sustain a semi-pro club there. There needs to be an honest open look at why that was? 

[gingerjon]

14 minutes ago, EssexRL said:

I remain staggered at the poor quality of the leadership of the game. Did no one foresee the loss of clubs potentially happening and plan? Another example of rubbish leadership- when L1 was expanded concerns were raised in the south about where clubs would get high enough level players from to compete, given there was no player infrastructure down here - or money to bring players down. It is an obvious and sensible point but yet the expansion went ahead and, guess what, teams struggled to find enough players that could compete.

Expansion could work given the quality of the product but it needs a plan, it needs to be realistic and its products need nurturing.

The future of RL seems very narrow now. However well SL is doing, poor and shrinking foundations are not great.

 

Very, very, roughly, I think we're seeing now the results of devastatingly bad decisions made across the period 10-15 years ago for which nothing has been done to address the consequences which have been coming into view like a slow motion car crash for the past few years.

Short term, quick fix thinking dominates this sport. Doing things on the cheap too. And complete and total fear of diversity (*) among the decision makers and those who influence them.

Combine that with what we must delicately call the "cost of living crisis" and I think we're close to being in a perfect storm for rugby league right now.

(* = I know what I mean by this but a full explanation would require a presentation with footnotes)

[moorside roughyed]

Not good.

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, Limmertime said:

Shame....academy, Reserves and Great pathways in NE to the game....gone!

Northumbria University arguably best RL uni for past 5 years also with many players going on to play for Thunder.

RFL don't have a magic money pit, but the way they have handled champ/l1 last few years has been amateurish...in fact the NCL seem to be a more professional governing body. 

Where now tho? 

As a Town fan, concerned for them and all other L1 clubs

I would expect most will switch to union now, and any chance of them younger players becoming Rugby League internationals has gone

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, Jeff Stein said:

Show some interest would be a start. I understand that since he took over, the present Skolars' chairman asked for a meeting or a telephone conference with Ralph Rimmer (until his departure) on a number of occasions and was rebuffed every time.

No surprises me about Rimmer, but he keeps landing on his feet with good paying jobs

[ThunderLeague]

5 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

I would expect most will switch to union now, and any chance of them younger players becoming Rugby League internationals has gone

Won’t be long for falcons to fold. Cheaper season tickets and words of being sustainable. We heard these words this season at thunder.

[Griff]

15 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Very, very, roughly, I think we're seeing now the results of devastatingly bad decisions made across the period 10-15 years ago for which nothing has been done to address the consequences which have been coming into view like a slow motion car crash for the past few years.

Short term, quick fix thinking dominates this sport. Doing things on the cheap too. And complete and total fear of diversity (*) among the decision makers and those who influence them.

Combine that with what we must delicately call the "cost of living crisis" and I think we're close to being in a perfect storm for rugby league right now.

(* = I know what I mean by this but a full explanation would require a presentation with footnotes)

The game is obsessed by diversity and inclusivity.

[The Future is League]

8 minutes ago, ThunderLeague said:

Won’t be long for falcons to fold. Cheaper season tickets and words of being sustainable. We heard these words this season at thunder.

I wasn't aware of the Falcons situation

[RBKnight]

Aren't we in danger here of conflating "grassroots" and "community development" here with the lowest rung of the pro game ? (Many at this level are simply not equipped to deliver community development or engagement)

For instance, which is most important for the game's development - Hunslet RLFC (struggling to keep a pro club going on gates of 500 or so), or Hunslet ARLFC, this year's champion NCL side, running countless junior sides (boys and girls) and developing the future players for the pro game ?

I don't want League 1 clubs to fold, and for various reasons I think the pro game having a viable 3rd tier is important, but I don't equate that necessarily with developing or expanding the roots of our game.

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, Griff said:

The game is obsessed by diversity and inclusivity.

Give five examples of this obsession.

[gingerjon]

Just now, RBKnight said:

Aren't we in danger here of conflating "grassroots" and "community development" here with the lowest rung of the pro game ? 

But in the northeast, hasn't the game essentially lost most of both in the past few years?

Same with London.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, RBKnight said:

Aren't we in danger here of conflating "grassroots" and "community development" here with the lowest rung of the pro game ? (Many at this level are simply not equipped to deliver community development or engagement)

For instance, which is most important for the game's development - Hunslet RLFC (struggling to keep a pro club going on gates of 500 or so), or Hunslet ARLFC, this year's champion NCL side, running countless junior sides (boys and girls) and developing the future players for the pro game ?

I don't want League 1 clubs to fold, and for various reasons I think the pro game having a viable 3rd tier is important, but I don't equate that necessarily with developing or expanding the roots of our game.

But lets face it kids in Hunslet now follow Leeds. Its not really the same as the North East losing its only professional club.

[dkw]

I expect the remaining few L1 clubs will this morning be quickly trying to do some financial calculations to see if its even viable for them to stay in this league this season. It was going to be damn difficult to survive on so few home games already, losing one more could easily be the final thing to push them over the edge too.

But its ok, I`m sure the RFL will be trying to strategise also to help this league........oh look, some hens teeth....

Edited October 13, 2023 by dkw

[Mathius Hellwege]

3 hours ago, crashmon said:

Yea thats why I put RL not RFL

The RFL clubs are like the republican party in the US, they know how to oppose things, but have no clue on how to actually govern, as they are unable to put the own Short term interests aside for the good of the game, even though that will doom them longer term.

You meant the Democrats, right?