Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:38 am  

nottinghamtiger wrote:

Yes, Nottingham does seem to have well run and popular amateur RU clubs. I live in Arnold and we have both Mellish and Paviors who seem to go really well. They just don't seem to make the transition to professional RU, though it might be different if Nottingham were in a higher division.

I can't see Nottingham getting back into the Premiership. They've moved to Lady Bay, which isn't even really a stadium, and are only mid-table in the RFU Championship. Most of the kids I coach are Leicester fans and want to play for Leicester etc, nobody wants to play for Nottingham etc. Which does give scope for a top level rugby team...I wish!

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:41 am  

History seems to be a strong part of what makes a strong club. In London's case, their history works against them. A different club in London with it's own history has a better chance of success than London IMO. You can't buy history. You develop it.

I've said this for years, but the best chance London has in succeeding is by having a number of them develop in League 1 and natural progression will see which one is best suited to SL. If we keep forcing the issue, it'll just keep going back to square one.

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:38 am  

Hillbilly_Red wrote:

NOT Toulouse: I know the author has an interest here but I ccannot see why SL should prop up another French team. I love the Catalan project but he does not have to put up with the sneers from most of my football friends. They see the addition of a French team as false, as false as many "Irish" pubs. The same funding into Sheffield or a Midlands team would have been more successful.

I think that says more about the ignorance of your 'football' friends than it does the wisdom of having a second SL side in France.

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:49 am  

1.Cumbria
2.A ressurected Scarborough Pirates
3.Heavy Woolen District Team (Dewsbury & Batley)

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:58 am  

"Catalans have the second highest turnover in Super League, and sell their own TV rights. SL don't prop them up. If anything, they're less in need of propping up than most heartland teams"
Agreed: when I referred to prop up, it was not intended as financial. Despite what RBull states, they are not ignorant about sports. One even has many England caps for disabled football. They equate every sport to the god "Soccer" and its ways. They cannot see why any team from outside Britain needs to play in a British league: why they are propped up by supplying opposition. That's what we need to beat in any expansion: constant comparisons with the "Soccer" god.

Interesting the support for Newcastle... RLHQ take notice.

Yes I know and talk about Berwick

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:57 pm  

But we are not and never will be soccer. The idea that a sport using an approach different to soccer's is in some way incorrect or false implies that sport IS soccer. However RL has a fundamentally different set of problems to deal with when compared to the national sport, and a totally different set of success criteria too. For example, QPR's average attendance last season of 17,809 is higher than Leeds' or Wigan's average gates. That doesn't make Leeds or Wigan unsuccessful. Same with P&R. Same with the international game. Same with French clubs playing in English leagues. Are NZ Warriors fake? If every major city in the UK had a solvent, pro RL side with a 5k average gate, I'd consider that a roaring success, and the soccer lot could sneer as much as they like.

Apologies for the apparently personal attack by the way, it's just that this particular phenomenon really gets on my wick!

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 4:42 pm  

They're doing Ok on the pitch, but Sheffield is a soccer city and given the massive catchment area, there's little interest in RL there. Their fans are as loyal as anyone else's, but there's just not that many of them. 503 attended the Whitehaven game last month (albeit they're not actually playing in Sheffield, until the last couple of games of the 8's), in a season when they're in with a theoretical chance of promotion to SL.

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:32 pm  

Is there any point for an expansion club to make it into SL, just to go through the relegation league (qualifiers) every season ?

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:58 pm  

I would put another name in the ring "York" it is a major city has a well long established amature clubs, the club is in a perilous state but with a new stadium now in the offing with the right investment it could take off. I would love to see a Cumbrian side but as Paul Cullen once said there are not enough people in the whole area to support & grow one side which is a shame but true. So any new side must realy come from a reasonable sized city.

Re: Expansion clubs you most want to see in Super League soo : Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:47 pm  

The English Football League & Premier League has/allows Welsh teams in it. That's no difference to RL having a French team in it. Or a joint Scottish/Irish/Welsh league in Union.

So yes it is ignorance by those football fans. It's ignorance of their own sport. Either that or hypocrisy.