Excellent news , hopefully one day all clubs will be as well run as HKR

Fair points - particularly without the context of what the club has had to deal with, in particular the fact that our local authority were the ones who failed on their promise to deliver a stadium last time. In fact the club had an alternative proposal available to it at the time with a commercial partner, but the council convinced us all that they were intent on delivering the Thornes Park proposal and the commercial opportunity was lost.

The issue about being 'crystal clear' is mis-leading as it suggests that information was with-held to those involved - it was not.

FWIW I don't think the issue relates to whether grounds are completed by Feb 2012 as I think we have already established that there will be more than one in that position, it is more to do with clubs having had significant investments made - either private or public - to promote the game we all love only to be told that the business is not open to them due to the 'other issues' (e.g. expansionism etc).

Seriously - if there is no stadium at all, then that is a fail, but there has to be some reflection of just how difficult this all is in these times of austerity. I take my hat off to any club that get a new ground (or significantly improved existing ground) in these times. As for 'how real' these ventures are - bring on Savills, they will determine if the stadia are real or not and will advise the RFL as such.

So how long do we wait then?
2040, perhaps 2100?
Or perhaps the RFL will say 'you know what we are sick of hearing promises, either Savills will confirm your ground will be ready for Feb 2012 or you will be up for selection as the rest of you application isnt very strong'.
As for another point you have made.
If your financial partners kmew the cut off date and then you missed it how can they in anyway even think about taking the RFL to court?

Absolutely , some on here might get the impression I am actually bothered whether Cas,Wakey and salford get their new stadia , I'm not I have enjoyed visiting all their current grounds and all fullfill the requirements of where those clubs currently are in SL and a fair bit of room to fit plenty more in

The point is though that if the RFL come up with all this rubbish , then they have to stick to it , otherwise why bother having rules in the 1 st place

It is a case though of them not considering the actual consequences

A scenario ,lets say that all three clubs had got their new stadiums , but Saints hadn't , who would they have dropped out ?

This is the reason there is no way the RFL can commit to bringing in a Championship club for 2015 , so where does that leave the Championship clubs ?

They are widening the gap , almost on purpose it would seem

Are you being a tad sarcastic there SB I can never tell?

Oh and BTW I hope Wakey do get the stadium ready.

Look at the post and you may see.

What utter ignorant tripe. Barrow are due to post a £1M turnover and made a six figure profit. The club has never in its' 135 year history been in administration. It has fought down the years through good and bad times, to pay all its' debts and hang onto its' own stadium (we all know its' seen better days), but it's ours and is an asset in prime location worth £5M at the last valuation. The Goldrush lottery run by the club turns over £300,000+ a year.

What does 'fit for SL' mean ? Some people have very short memories or know nothing about the history of the sport prior to Super League.

How would Barrow getting into SL set the game backwards ? Widnes have been there before and failed. As have Leigh. As have Halifax. Cas have been up and down - as have Salford. Quins get pathetic crowds and have no assets - Crusaders similar. Huddersfield were a joke in the 80's/early 90's and look at them now.

Barrow has a big catchment area, the area produces many pro players (currently 7 locals playing for Barrow, 9 for Workington, Ade Gardner, Matt Gardner, Oliver Wilkes, Ben Harrison, Peter Lupton) - plus many young players at various SL club academies. This is without Barrow ever having been represented in SL. If that ever happened, the number of players coming through would increase massively.

OK, the king-makers are Red Hall may never let us in, but it won't be for lack of trying. My view is, give us Sky's millions and 3 years grace and see how we go. Many would be surprised believe me.

Not at all , you are spending your own money to improve your stadium's capacity and therefore eventually your ability to become self sustaining in SL , how many other clubs are doing the same ?

Not much of a ' clue ' there really

Or even a year up to test the water , you then either sink or swim ?

SRC if your making that much money why is their talk of not bothering with reserves? Why haven't you stepped up stadium redevelopment? Why isn't their a youth system to capture these youngsters?

At the end of the day that's what will get you into SL. People questioned are figured but at least you can show where it's being used. Surely with this much coming in means you have top class sponsors also and real SL ambitions?

I believe they are a Huddersield fan if that helps.

What you spending your ' million ' profit on ?

Possibly replacing the million you lost the previous year

Are you his agent ?

Fair enough we are trying as you say.

while i can't comment on your turnover, barrow posted a profit of 23,811 (this was after winning 100k in the grand final). you also have a bank overdraft of 138k to service with barclays bank plc(this increased dispite the profit). your trading losses sit at 600k and your insolvent by 110k. given you claim your stadium is worth 5m, you have to wonder why barrow simply do not take out a commercial mortgage and bring the ground up to standard?

it would also stand to reason that figure would be worse in 2010 as your season came no where near the hights of 2009 although it will be a while to see them given 2010 has not ended yet

Not neccessarily , it could be dependant on win and final position bonuses , therefore they could perform better financially

This is one of the anomolies of a ' sports business ' , you can be highly successful and lose millions and everybody is happy , yet you do that in a real business and you wont be around for long

you arent going to half built stadiums though other than salford and saints, and they are staying in SL.

by the time the franchise decisions are made wakey wont have started construction making the rfls decision an easy one

then wakey have 3 years to get the stadium built whilst they are in the champ. and then put pressure on any poor SL clubs

there isnt the money atm to expand the number of clubs

1. tiny population
2. poor ground
3. no rich sugar daddy
4. would struggle in SL

the game has far better options to go too know.

you dont want to be letting in more small town clubs with poor stadiums and finances who cant challenge the top clubs.

as an example of a small club which has done well in SL i refer to Hull KR.

they are doing it because they know if they dont eventually theyll be replaced in SL.

ie because of franchising.

if relegation was just based on playing form they would spend all their money on players to lessen the chance of relegation and not a cent on the ground

Purely assisting with your question.

There's no way anyone could really, also you have to sign a disclaimer to say you accept decision to even apply.

If anyone did try to sue for loss of monies due to relegtion the RFL could sue back as they got monies for this current franchise round based on false promises anyway.

DES Johnson is a very rich man who ploughs money in to barrow. The border raiders are a good club and one I'd be happy to see in super league. For me the game needs a Cumbrian representative in the top tier, the area is a hit bed of rugby league talent with some excellent amateur teams up there.

Just thought i'd clear that up for you



The thing is was Dez really pooring money into Barrow Raiders RLFC? Or just into the pockets of the first team, full stop?