keep taking the drugs

Don't hold you brea... Actually, never mind.

Just think what the SL competition could look like in 2015 under my plan:

Leeds
Bradford
Hull FC
Hull KR
Huddersfield
Calder United
Manchester United RL
Warrington
Wigan
St Helens

Newcastle-Gateshead Thunder
Sheffield Eagles
Harlequins RL
London Olympic
Celtic Crusaders

Les Catalans Dragons
Toulouse Spacers
Barcelona RL

That would be an 18 team competition with 10 heartland clubs and 8 expansion clubs.

All in gleaming modern stadia, packed full of people speaking and singiing in three or four different languages!!

As I said , keep taking the drugs

That happens now. English, Welsh, French and Cockney.

You can say 'Calder' as many times as you like, but you know as well as I do there's no f**cker would ever go to watch them, especially as your ludicrous plan retains the existence of Castleford and Wakefield as seperate identities. Same is true for Mancherster United RL (and thanks for making me realise there's a potential name out there even sh*tter than Calder).

At least I suppose you'd end up with the expansion clubs drawing bigger crowds than a 'heartland' one (ie: a couple of thousand) which should give you enough to keep jizzing over for a couple more seasons.

Or Lanky,Yorky,Hull and Marra

Around about 2015 this board will be full of threads about the Dublin Diversion weekend, and whether Dublin and Belfast will have their rugby league stadia ready in time for the 2017 franchise decisions.



Certain neanderthals will be complaining about how they already hate having to choose between Toulouse, Perpignan and Barcelona for their rugby league holidays, and how they definitely don't want Dublin and Paris and Lyon, by then all in the Championship along with Belfast, admitted to SL next time.





Meanwhile Castleford, playing out of the Calder United stadium, will be running riot in the Championship.

Better still stop taking the drugs , you've had too many already

I've been meaning to ask for ages - what is Marra? (and don't say a big green vegetable)

And drawing significantly larger crowds than at least half a dozen of your cherished babies... Still, it's nice to dream.



I just wonder how long it'll be before Barcelona and Perpignan are forced to merge to make way for Moon Base Alpha RL. after all, the Catalan region is too small to support two clubs!

cumbrian term for mate

Thanks Marra.

At least I did not demand that St Helens be renamed Liverpool-St. Helens!

Although if my rationalisation conception is brought into reality by Richard Lewis, then expect the progressive sports minded citizens of Liverpool to be thinking about having their own professional rugby league team.

Look, bottom line is that the stadium deficient clubs are weak either financially or in terms of followers. You would be surprised how people can adjust to mergers. They did it in Australia with Wests Tigers and St. George Illawarra (whose component clubs still retain separate junior clubs).

[size=117French Catalonia (=redLes Catalans Dragons) has a catchment area of 370,000 -- bigger than the Calder United clubs' combined catchment area.

[N.B. The fully renovated modern Gilbert Brutus stadium -- which will be a big cut above both the Leigh and Widnes stadia in terms of facilities and comfort -- will be packed out with 15,000 fans in 2013.

Spanish Catalonia (=darkredBarcelona RL) has a catchment area of over 6 million -- more than the entire M62 corridor[/size!

What's London's catchment area? Is it big? You know where i'm heading with this don't you....................?

1) As you know, Castleford have a stadium which - although hardly 'state of the art' still draws positive comments from quite a lot of RL fans (see other thread). They also have a brand new one in the pipeline which will, in due course, be the envy of many. In what way, I therefore wonder, can they be considered 'stadium deficient'..?

2) Mergers might have worked in Australia, but as we well know Aussies are just wannabe Yanks. On the other hand we sir, are BRITISH! We have a whole heap of history, of tradition, of cultural heritage. If you examine mergers a little closer to home you'll quickly see that they would have (but for wonderful people like Mark Aston) completely wiped out expansion clubs in Gateshead and Sheffield. With that in mind, I'm rather surprised that a self-proclaimed advocate for these areas is actually in favour of them at all.

Yes, I do catch your drift.

But I expect the growth of rugby league in Spanish Catalonia, already under way, to provide us with clues as to how London ought to proceed. After all Spanish Catalonia, esp. Barcelona, like London, is football mad, is it not?

I think having two clubs in London will make it easier for both. Just as having the French Catalans compete with the Spanish Catalans, as well as with Toulouse, in local derbies. You cannot point to the "local derby" success of Hull FC vs Hull KR and then dismisss its relevance for London or Barcelona.

We can learn from the successes as well as the failures of others.

one tip. if you want it to be a success stop referring to it as [ispanish[/i catalonia. catalonia will do just fine

totally agree. jungle kicks ar*e.
id much rather go there to watch a game than a brand spanking new state of the art stadium, its just not the same
(by the way im not 50, im 20 years old)

are they getting rid of the big caged end and the dog e? Hope not, it's what makes it so european!

7 years older than I had you down for

Given that nobody watches either Swinton or Oldham not sure what his plans have to lose

The big caged end behind the posts where until now all the unruly visiting fans were put, will be the first to go. That is going to be torn down in a few weeks to make way for a great new stand which will house the offices of the club, hospitality facilities like modern dining rooms for all the moneyed sponsors in France and Spain who are eagerly waiting to benefit from their support, a new merchandise shop, and last but not least lots of covered and elevated seating for all the well behaved visiting fans. This new stand is supposed to be finished by the beginning of 2010, bringing the total ground capacity to 11,500.

After lots of careful consideration, it has been decided that the dog poop will be retained, to give the modern facility a traditional European flavour.