what would the benefit be of fast tracking 2 failed clubs? If they can both get their act together and gain entry by promotion then that is fine but there is absolutely no way they should be fast tracked. Especially ahead of clubs are swimming with money and can contribute to the bigger picture

Well Steph it's about the fine details of these matters.

(1) Argyle is personally "swimming with money", but TWP are £5,000,000 in a debt that's growing fast, no player development, and no TV deal, and they are of no value to SKY.

Your mixing up the owner and the club - Two separate things. If Mr. Argyles potash companies sponsored SL for £60M a year you would be correct, but I believe he would not be able to do this due to conflict of interest. Look carefully Steph. All Argylle offers superleague is no "away fans" can I ask you how you think they somehow "contribute to the bigger picture"??

(2) I'd agree with you that Bradford and Leigh need to get their act together but Bradford are only short of a big sponsor/wealthy owner albeit Perez knows a number of very rich people who like Rugby League, and Leigh only short of an academy albeit they planned to share one with Salford. Both will attract SKY subscribers - neither TWP or Les Cats can do that.

You must remember Steph Mr. Argyle and Toronto Wolfpack are two separate things. Only the former is swimming with money, the latter is swimming in debt and adds nothing to the TV deal or player development. Can I ask you why you do not understand this??

You'll have to wait for JEAN to log off and log back on as Steph for an answer.

TWP totally failed on their goals and yet Steph Curry, Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davey, Dan Whiddon, Harry Hawk and uncle Jean cobbly and all, think it's all been a roaring success. You can't knock the Perez effect. I hope he stays at Bradford and finds them a rich backer here.....Keys to the city for me if he did that.......

a rejuvinated Bradford would add way more to SL than the TWP vanity scheme.

Imagine if the NRL endorsed Hong Kong Dragons or some such similar rich mans toy.

Yeah..... And replaced a failing club with little support wjo are having to sell off bits of their sradium to make ends meet and who didnt even have a main shirt sponsor a few back..... JEANS very own Sharkies....... I wonder how Jeabron would react to that?

Mate, I truly believe that Perez and Argylle asked Nigel Wood for a place in the English Championship at a time Nige was heading for a big job at the Rugby League INTERNATIONAL Federation. He could not turn them down and keep his internationalist credentials intact could he?. They ambushed him.

David Argyle is RL through and through and rich to boot, what a fabulous asset he could be to the game here..........But he won't come here for gawds sake........He was born in Aussie, he lives in Canada and his current business appears to be in Brazil. All the daft beggar has to do is buy Bradford Bulls and make Odsal the state of the art RL national stadium they planned it to be in 1954.

His guru Perez is there, so why not? C'mon David, come live here, buy the Bulls, make Odsal the wembley of the north and watch the Challenge cup final there break modern day records. Take the Bulls back to the top. Get that Leeds rivalry going again, put 25,000 into the stadium for the derby. I would personally fall at the mans feet if he did this.........

Classic...

Bradford have gone bust about 26 times. There will never be a “rejuvenated” Bradford.

It’s time to move on

Move on from what exactly ?

Your absolutely right that bradford ran into debts more than once due to the high maintenance cost of the ground and the cost of top players which was never fully covered by a rich owner.

But we can't "move on" with the likes of Toronto because they have run into much much bigger debts than Bradford ever did just getting to Superleague, and there's little genuine team building beyond that, just that massive debt that will only climb higher and higher. No player development either and no TV money - even Bradford would augment that and add to the attendances at other clubs.

We can however happily move on to Leigh. Mr. Beaumont is committed to personally covering all costs and investing in better players, he has a really good ground, and the Leigh.v.Wigan SL derby's were nearly 16,000 at Wigan and 7,000 at Leigh who put 50 past Wigan which was great TV.

So you need to be clear Steph if you think we should move on to Leigh? I certainly think we should.......Thoughts?

Until Mr. Beaumont decides he isn’t interested again and doesn’t want to honour players’ contracts?

can you give us the dates of the 26 times please

Goodish point Mr. Notorious, but remember Mr. Argyle certainly didn't like paying his bills this year. I don't know if TWP are limited liability so when it goes pear shaped will bills be paid in full?

Can you not understand Mr. Beaumont being highly miffed having lost his SL place when the team didn't come bottom, and even so more miffed when he could not return to SL with TWP blocking the way. Don't forget Mr. Beaumont was salary capped by the RFL during his promotion push to SL and he had to fight them to invest money into his team, then along come TWP who were allowed to spend full Superleague cap. (corrections welcome). Both owners have had their moments on paying bills and how they have treated players, neither is a saint.

But personalities apart the "Wigan Derby" is a good prize to have. Like it or not our strength is in Northern rivalries, Hull/HKR Leeds/Bradford, Cas/Wakey, Wire/Saints and as I say look at the crowds for the two Leigh/Wigan games, and look at the Leigh travelling support in the Championship where they provided much bigger away crowds than TWP. It may be you dream of the "Glamour" of TWP, but you can't discount the hard cash from the big derby crowds, and the Leigh travelling support. Pray tell me what do TWP bring to the game here?

Spot on Donny.

I wasn’t really making a pro-TWP or anti-anyone point to be honest just pointing out that apart from a select few clubs there are few that are thriving on their own two feet and don’t have numerous issues to contend with. For what it’s worth I’m content to see how the TWP project plays out - I’m not going to get into the pros and cons as it’s been done to death but the ‘cons’ are far less than has been made out and the ‘pros’ well we shall see over the next two seasons. After that we can review but until then it is just forum fodder.

So what point was you making here then?

He was making a point of there being reasons for skepticism about
the bright future of Leigh. I understood that. Why didn't you?

There is no scepticisms at Leigh. So, (without any fabricating, like you have been doing alot of) What reasons do you have ?

The past behaviour of Derek Beaumont, as was pointed to by Notorious. I understand that. Why don't you?

I understood what happened in the [size=150PAST[/size,and contracts were settled. Leigh are back on the up,and that is all that matters. Your vile dislike,and interference with Leigh, stinks of vomit.

That could be said of most heads of RL clubs. If the plug gets pulled on a certain level of funding at any club, then they're either looking for another benefactor, or going to struggle on the player recruitment front. There cannot be many self sufficient clubs in RL, so this could happen anywhere in RL.

The next TV deal is crucial, as it's of great concern to me that it will be either the same as last time, or conceivably be less. Where SL and RL is heading in the future is far too dependent on Sky for my liking. Also, the product on the field is a pale shadow of what it use to be, and I wonder if it's value to Sky has diminished, accordingly.

The game was financially rescued by Sky in the 1990's, but could so easily be cast adrift if Sky no longer receives enough revenue from our product.

Agreed.Very good point MPN.

I know what you mean Jean. DB's behaviour was not good at all towards the end of the 2018 season. He put the club up for sale, and unsurprisingly there were no takers. All the players who didn't find a new club in July '18 were treated shoddily to say the least. He has pumped a few million quid into the club, and looks like he thought 'sod it...I'm done'. Will it happen again, who knows ? But quite a few of those players from the 2018 season did re-sign for the club in 2019, so you can make of that what you want to. Basically if you own a Rugby League club, nearly all owners will lose money because of it won't they ?