Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 2:42 pm  

SirStan wrote:

Toulouse is many things, but poor? It's the European centre for Aerospace, with over 50,000 jobs linked into that industry. It felt fairly prosperous when we visited for the Catalan/Rovers game in 2013.

Please spare a thought for those poor people of Toulouse, they can barely afford to live, scrimping every cent for a string of onions to improve their meagre lives. Working every hour god sends for a euro an hour in their outdated and failing economy based on yesterday's technology. If only intel and airbus could afford to pay the high tech jobs Haribo factory pays.

But poor Jacques and Francios are doomed to live in the country with the 5th biggest GDP in the world, the 2nd biggest in Europe, with the low standard of living that international pariah France is known for. Never knowing things could be different.

Pity poor Philipe as he shakes his baguette toward the sky, tears in his eyes, dreaming of the rhubarb fields and gold paved roads of Agbrigg and Lupset .

Either that or vastpants is trolling again.

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 3:37 pm  

tigertot wrote:

Warrington?

Wikipedia says-

Warrington 202,700 (Ranked 82nd)

Wakefield 326,400 (Ranked 19th)

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:40 pm  

This is the great thing about promotion and relegation, we can put them in and see what happens.

If they get things right on the field they will do well, if they are run badly they will not.

I am not a fan of P&R but it does (should) remove the arguments between Flat cappers and Expansionists but I am sure that will not stop some people.

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:43 pm  

Shifty Cat wrote:

Wikipedia says-

Warrington 202,700 (Ranked 82nd)

Wakefield 326,400 (Ranked 19th)

Not a chance in hell has Wakey as a city a population of 326,400, which is what Vasty was stating. That will be the metropolitan district. I've no idea what Warrington as a town is, your figure will be for the borough. I had heard the same statement about Warrington that Vasty made. It seems bigger from the times I have been.

[Jimmythecuckoo]

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 4:46 pm  

SirStan wrote:

Well it was a roaring success last time, so why not?

I think that's a key point to be honest.

They need to prove they can sustain it and be a long term part of the competition.

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:01 pm  

I think the south of France have proved they have an appetite for Rugby League always turning out too see their national side get tonked by the top 3 national teams.

Who were Catalans pre 2005? Now they are an established top 5 club in terms of team quality and support putting historic clubs over here in blighty to shame

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:32 pm  

tigertot wrote:

Not a chance in hell has Wakey as a city a population of 326,400, which is what Vasty was stating. That will be the metropolitan district. I've no idea what Warrington as a town is, your figure will be for the borough. I had heard the same statement about Warrington that Vasty made. It seems bigger from the times I have been.

He said WMDC and the fact the area doesn't have a pro Football or RU club. Both figures are for the Boroughs, it was the easiest way to compare tbh. Don't know about Warrington but if you take it a step further and take out the smalll towns where people wouldn't say they were from Wakefield, like Cas, Featherstone etc, you still get around 240,000 people. It's bigger than you think Wakefield. Figures are on WMDC website for what it's worth.

As for the OP, I think letting Toulouse into the Championship and building from there is the best for all parties. it gives them a chance of SL if they can develop players and infrastruture and then that gives local guys a hope and a pathway to playing Pro RL. It'd be interesting to see how they'd get on with some cash behind them.

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 7:24 pm  

vastman wrote:

As for the income and money issue, there appears to be no lack of it in the prosperous suburbs of South Wakefield - WMDC like all large metropolitan areas is diverse however not many people from the area or any other for that matter would swap it to live in the dynamic hub of the "Humber" or Hull who's greatest claim to fame is forever being the "Worst City in the UK" winner. However both are better bets than Toulouse which remains one of the poorer regions of one of the EU's most backward economies with France forecast to be the worlds 20th largest economy in 2012 while the the UK is expected to go up one to 5th spot. I have to assume small potatoes WMDC will play its small part in that.

For the love of Taylor Swift - I've heard it all now !

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:01 pm  

Errlee Berd wrote:

Unlike the franchise system, there's now a clear pathway to Superleague for Championship & Championship 1 clubs to earn their right to play in SL by winning on the field.

It may be clear, but it is not fair and won't be until all 24 clubs in the system are allowed to spend the same cap.

Re: Toulouse: the future of rugby league in France. : Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:18 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

It may be clear, but it is not fair and won't be until all 24 clubs in the system are allowed to spend the same cap.

.... and are given the same amount of central funding.