I remember when super League first started and I think it was Villa who were on about having a team playing out of Walsall.

HKR not in a city then?

If those lads went to every home game then the crowd would be up there with Crusaders from the start.

I'm not for the RLs expansion policy, the game has been around long enough already and if people haven't been interested over the last 100 years, why are we forcing it on them now? The crowds at Crusaders and Harlequins prove it's not working.

If we are to develop our game beyond the heartlands, I feel the only way to do this is through a 'snowball effect' - start in Yorkshire and Lancashire and work outwards. Cumbria was once a hotbed of Rugby League so lets start there, they already have the clubs but go largely ignored. The same with South Yorkshire. Why not try and bridge the gap between West Yorkshire and Sheffield? If the RFL were serious about expansion, they could have taken advantage of Wakefield's situation and have us playing in Barsnley for 12 months and bringing the game to a new audience.

We also need promotion and relegation. It's the only way to keep the fans interested - why go and watch a sport where by there is no end goal? What's the point in finishing top if you know you won't get a shot at the Wigans and Leeds of the world? And if your already in Super League, the game becomes dull if you're in the bottom 2 or 3 but know you won't go down. The atmosphere for Wakefield against Crusaders next month will be nothing compared to the Trinity Vs Castleford game in 2006 when the loser went down. The intensity will just not be there. And if the game doesn't mean anything, we will struggle to keep the fans we have never mind attract new ones. Again, this is just my opinion and may be wrong, but one I feel very strongly about.

You are not wrong.

I would sooner go and watch a match in Tripoli than Birmingham

I'd sooner you go to Tripoli than Birmingham , I'm sure we can sort out a whip round for the plane ticket

I bet the language barrier would be less of a problem in Tripoli than Birmingham

Yes they speak bollax in Tripoli apparently

WWWWHHHooooooooshhhhhh!

Yes he is. It's not that people aren't interested after 100 years, it's that for 100 years playing league once meant a lifetime ban from the established rugby code, and so all attempts at running pro RL away from Lancashire and Yorkshire were attacked and systematically destroyed. There were a variety of pro clubs in Devon, Coventry, London, Newcastle, south Wales and Kent, but the ban stopped them building and the RFU allowed brief amnesties to drag the pioneers back into union.

But, in the places where league had a fair go, like Lancashire, Yorkshire, NSW and Queensland,it was far mow popular with both players and spectators.

Now union is professional. It is entrenched. It is rich. And even then, league is growing all over the uk. Look at the student game - last yea's semi finalists, Exeter, Newcastle, Leeds, Loughborough.

Expansion will happen because league is the best game. But it will be organic, not top down. When there is. Birmingham pro club, it will be because a bunch of people in Birmingham make it happen.

Don't be stupid, thats for lesser RL teams like Widnes and Halifax, not for such highly regarded RL teams such as Hemel and Brum. Get with the programme.

What an excellent idea a midlands team in CC1! What with S.Wales, London, Gateshead, Whitehaven and Workington already in there my Cortina will need a new engine by the end of the season!

Who 'they'?



Yep, that's a basis for business: some lads some bloke met in a bar once.

But they said it was 'ok', that worked for Del Monte.

Who are "Birmingham Bears" anyway?

They're a fantasy merger of Birmingham Bulldogs and Coventry Bears, which would go down about as well as the suggested (and actual) mergers in the 90s did.

Yeah, let's just keep the game secluded to the M62, shall we?

I think it's a great idea to have a Midlands team in Championship 1. We really need to grow the game to more levels professionally. Only two London teams and South Wales are below South Yorkshire in the professional game, which is poor from a sport keen to grow nationally. Hopefully Coventry and Nottingham apply to be in there, as that'll give them a local derby and help grow the game in the region.

Coventry could be a viable future expansion location, Wigan are already putting out feelers in the area and running training schemes for kids in the area this summer.

Cov Bears, Nottingham, Hemel, Medway, Bristol, CPC Bears, Gloucester, Warrington Wizards... that's the interested parties that I can remember.

Absolute rubbish. All of it. Except that league is the best game. But the rest of it is rubbish.

Expansion will happen when someone with money is given the opportunity to make it happen.

The most likely scenario is a bunch of people in Birmingham (or wherever) getting together, forming an amateur side, and that amateur side finding a backer with deep pockets to take that further.

But we just wont have a professional side 'organically' grow from amateur to semi-pro, to fully pro. It has never ever happened in the history of our game.

Except Hemel. and Skolars. and Scorpions.

That's not an argument. If you disagree, make points, supported by evidence. If you convince me I'll change my mind. I was at the SRL semi final, Exeter v Loughborough at Cheltenham. Felt pretty 'national' to me.

All those are semi-pro. None are, or are even close to being, full time pro.

Agreed.....I'll be interested to see what imwakefieldtillidie comes up with here, probably nothing.