TO say that I was disappointed to hear the news from Newcastle last week, that Thunder would be pulling out of Rugby League, would be an understatement.
It was devastating news, both for their fans, for the wider Rugby League community who regarded Thunder as a successful expansion club and for the other clubs in League One, who are left with just eight clubs after the departure of Newcastle and London Skolars.
But unfortunately, the demise of Thunder (and I hope the club can be revived in 2025) illustrates a major problem for Rugby League and other sports.
The problem with the game is that the vast majority of the clubs are unsustainable without benefactors topping up their income.
In any individual case, if the benefactor tires of constantly having to subsidise a club or suffers financial setbacks personally, then any club is in danger.
Semore Kurdi, who not long ago was declaring that his ambition was to win Super League, has clearly decided that enough is enough and that starting again in League 1 isn’t worth the time, trouble and money.
Whether he would have made the same decision if club hadn’t been relegated is not known.
The tragedy is that at one time the club appeared to be making so much progress and the development work done in the northeast has been generally outstanding.
The only consolation is that we haven’t lost a team from the elite competition, compared to three clubs being lost by the other code.
But what we must all hope is that we don’t now have a domino effect of clubs falling over.