Like who? And why?

Would you be saying this if it were you club people were calling to be merged? I very much doubt you would.

Why is it killing the game , we have 3 small clubs instead of one big one , besides which as you point out we're all crap at RL anyway , so having one SL club in Cumbria isn't going to turn us into world champions is it

Carlisle as a base? Brunton Park's a half-decent ground, 2 minutes from the motorway.

Get a good support structure in place, cheap coach travel for the fans from all parts of the county, etc.

By rights, it should succeed. Everyone in the game knows the passion for the game in Cumbria, and if it was anyone else other than Red Hall involved in the decision-making, then we know it would work.

And how far from Haven and Town is Carlisle , let alone Barrow ?

A bit like Leeds fans going to Birmingham to watch their local SL team

Let W Cumbria have a merged team if they want one but in the South of the county the club is and will remain to be called BARROW RLFC.
By having the only club in the area we have a large area to draw fans from extending from Millom in the NW of us to Windermere/Kendal to the East of us & Lancaster /Morecambe/Heysham to the SouthEast.
We had coaches of fans from these areas supporting us in the Grand Final recently.
Our support has increased every season in the last 4 / 5 seasons, has your clubs ? has Havens & Workys ?
We are currently building a Marina complex including a Cruise Liner Terminal for all these new European SL sides some people want to include.
We also have an Airport in case they want to fly into Barrow.
We may get the biggest bridge in the UK just to make the travelling less daunting for you RL fans with phobias of distances greater then 50 miles.
Sl might not be coming to us, but we are coming to them & you

Well put , some people just dont do their homework before posting this rubbish

My sentiments exactly.

Great post mick.

''Let W Cumbria have a merged team if they want one but in the South of the county the club is and will remain to be called BARROW RLFC. ''

Barrow is classed as Cumbria by some freak decision back in 1974. The amateur clubs in the Furness area dont even play in the Cumberland League's.

If 'BARROW RL' want and can manage to get a team into SL then fair enough but the town being part of Cumbria should have no bearing in the decision whatsoever.

The problem with Whitehaven and Workington is that there isnt a rich benefactor behind the scenes pumping money into the club. RL is massive in the area however most people wont attend games as they percive the standard of RL as being inferior and would rather buy Wigan or Leeds shirts and watch games on TV.


I also think people would be suprised @ how many people if asked would attend if there was a SL club in West Cumbria/Carlisle to follow.

1, Thats not BRLFC's fault or problem.
2, Why not they have been living in Cumbria for THIRTY FIVE YEARS.....
3, Haven have been and still do get BNFL or whatever its called these days money pumped into them FACT.
3a, Barrow dont have any rich benefactors pumping money in as its self funded these days, Des only started it.
4, Carlisle are not interested, been there, tried that, It FAILED.

No it isn't. Des stated recently in the press that you needed 2000 new lottery members to make the club self-funding. There was a big push to sign new members and I think you got about 300. So the club is still 1700 lottery members short of being self funding if Des is to be believed.

What are Lottery members if you dont mind me asking?

Participants in a lottery game/scheme. What else could it be?

Oh come on Derwent, Even up your way you,ve heard of Salemanship have'nt you

?

We have well over 2000 exsisting members that is great for a championship 1 club, but as we push for greater things we would love to have a shed load more, if we end up with 3000+ id be over the moon.

BARROW-IN-FURNESS IS IN LANCASHIRE!!!!

erm im confused.
What on earth has a lottery got to do with running a league club

Do the math Dico,

TOTAL GUESSIMATE HERE

2500 members paying a pound per week = 10,000 per month
Prizes of around say 4,000 per month, leaves 6 grand every month, 72,000 per season.

Even though im a member im not sure of the prize money as i have not really looked into it that much, as i do it to support the club.

Xmas draw of 5,000, monthly draw 1,000 weekly draw 500 plus several weekly 5,10,20 draws me thinks

I know SL is supposed to be the aspiration of us all and the pinnacle of the game - but us Championship clubs still enjoy our rugby, ya know! We exist in our own right, and don't really consider ourselves to be a poor relation...

Mick, I think it mentioned in the local paper that the lottery brought in approaching £300,000 a year. Adding the extra 2,000 members would take it to close to £500,000. nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/raide ... s/1.257647 I think we're a quarter of the way there and the GF win will surely help to sign more up. It is an ongoing campaign and was always going to take several months to get the 2,000 new members. As for Barrow being in Lancashire .... I just don't get it. Counties are man-made administrative boundaries. Cumbria didn't exist before 1974, so by the same thinking Haven or Workington are not in Cumbria either, they're in Cumberland. A county as small as Cumberland wouldnt stand a chance.

Mick, I think it mentioned in the local paper that the lottery brought in approaching £300,000 a year. Adding the extra 2,000 members would take it to close to £500,000. nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/raide ... s/1.257647 I think we're a quarter of the way there and the GF win will surely help to sign more up. It is an ongoing campaign and was always going to take several months to get the 2,000 new members. As for Barrow being in Lancashire .... I just don't get it. Counties are man-made administrative boundaries. Cumbria didn't exist before 1974, so by the same thinking Haven or Workington are not in Cumbria either, they're in Cumberland. A county as small as Cumberland wouldnt stand a chance.

Quote ="SRC"Mick, I think it mentioned in the local paper that the lottery brought in approaching £300,000 a year. Adding the extra 2,000 members would take it to close to £500,000. nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/raide ... s/1.257647 I think we're a quarter of the way there and the GF win will surely help to sign more up. It is an ongoing campaign and was always going to take several months to get the 2,000 new members. As for Barrow being in Lancashire .... I just don't get it. Counties are man-made administrative boundaries. Cumbria didn't exist before 1974, so by the same thinking Haven or Workington are not in Cumbria either, they're in Cumberland. A county as small as Cumberland wouldnt stand a chance.'" Against what? China in a war? The argument before was about Copeland and Allerdale's population (in Cumberland originally as was Carlisle ). I believe we'd have enough but it seems I'm in the minority. Another reason West Cumbria won't is lack of progress: www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/have ... port/haven same old same old

Quote ="SRC"Mick, I think it mentioned in the local paper that the lottery brought in approaching £300,000 a year. Adding the extra 2,000 members would take it to close to £500,000. nwemail.co.uk/raiders/news/raide ... s/1.257647 I think we're a quarter of the way there and the GF win will surely help to sign more up. It is an ongoing campaign and was always going to take several months to get the 2,000 new members. As for Barrow being in Lancashire .... I just don't get it. Counties are man-made administrative boundaries. Cumbria didn't exist before 1974, so by the same thinking Haven or Workington are not in Cumbria either, they're in Cumberland. A county as small as Cumberland wouldnt stand a chance.'" Against what? China in a war? The argument before was about Copeland and Allerdale's population (in Cumberland originally as was Carlisle ). I believe we'd have enough but it seems I'm in the minority. Another reason West Cumbria won't is lack of progress: www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/have ... port/haven same old same old

Alright alright


Ive just never heard of a League club running a lottery before.
Nice money spinner, reminds me of those government bond things

Most if not all clubs run some kind of lottery

Yep, I thought virtually every club had some kind of lottery (or variant) nowadays.

People need to just realise that unless one club becomes good enough on it's own then It won't happen, I would love a team from this area of the country, expansion of super league into a rugby league hot bed can only be a good thing, look what happened with Catalans. Barrow have the best chance of doing it and IMO the only thing stopping them is the stadium, if they can get that sorted they will get bigger crowds which will put them above, quins, Salford, Celtic and would justify a place in super league. Before we put them in we would need to put in place some scouting structure to make sure they get all the best talent from the area so they compete on the field and the club does its bit for RL as a whole rather than buying foreign players.

Saying all this, I am sick to death of people saying "we need a RL franchise in cumbria" no we don't, it would be nice, but RL in this country does not depend on it.

My overall opinion though is that I would love for Barrow to be in super league. Eventually I would like to see.

Wigan
Leeds
Hull FC
Saints
Bradford
Warrington
Hull KR
Castleford
Catalans

All playing in modern stadia with averages over 10,000 average gates and the top clubs getting much more than that even 20,000.

Hudds
Wakey
Quins
Widnes
Halifax
Toulouse
Barrow

All fighting out to be bigger and better clubs to get into that top 9.

Celtic
Salford
and the rest of the clubs in the championship and championship 1 fighting it out for a liscence for super league or the second tier, we need more competition to get into super league and the championship IMO.

I personally think Barrow could help shape the future of RL and give the much smaller clubs hope that they could one day be up there in super league.

At the same time none of this will come around without a better product and bigger crowds, time will tell.

merge the top three leagues into two, SL and Championship.

Barrow should stay as they are (they have the finances)
but
Whitehaven and Workington should be merged into a Cumbrian side along with any other semi pro side. for the good of the game.

and lets try to get north wales in on the action in the not too distant future