I can tell you now mate we won't be touring there. It's all absolute b0ll0cks.

my thoughts exactly

just goes to show what too much indulgence of alcohol can do to the brain cells

Purely a marketing ploy IMO.
It makes much more sense to say 'we aim to be in Superleague in 10 years' than it does to say 'we're joining a four-team league and might occasionally get to play against 3rd and 4th tier teams from overseas.'

Or how delicate and fragile our game is to get people believing any old bollax like this. The fact that Smokey has stamped his size nines all over it makes me weep.

This.

I knew Smokey would have his expansion love in when I read the first page of the thread, keep up the good work Smokey

We need more ambition than the flatcappers have shown on here, just as I knew they would.

The fact is that, with the right ambition, this could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome. The sky is the limit for RL.

The whole place is pickled
The people are pickles for sure . . .

No problem for me, expand all you like, just dont f..k it up like they did with the CC s, and there is only one way to make sure you dont, and thats cash, up front

If the dutch want to get the game up at a decent level good luck to them,but not at the expense of the British game no way.

We have to get our own house in order before looking abroad again IMO.We are spreading the game throughout the country at amateur level and it's coming along fine,the next step is to establish pro clubs around our country before we have another PSG on our hands.

It is entirely doable , it just requires guaranteed cash investement up front

Gutted. The ferry trip would have been memorable!
(Any news on where we're going yet?!)

Not sure if there would be many happy Rugby fans in hell in 2021. I think if that happened it would be a somewhat

moment from someone in the RFL.

Do you reckon,listen nobody wants expansion of the game more than me but I just can't see it.

A 5 million cash bond paid up front, paid back 1 million a year,

or indeed another Crusaders ?

Why, it was a complete success, Mr Wood said so

I'm interested in this idea of putting 5 million up front idea, sounds like a sensible thing for the RFL to ask for.

Presumably Leigh, Halifax, Featherstone and co are in a position to do this?

Potentially, any club is in a position to do it - when a backer without restraint knocks on their door.

Any club that aims for super league should be applauded. That doesn't mean we will have a european comp in the next 10 years.

We also cannot get rid of great clubs like Bradford, Hudds etc. they are in the top league to stay and grow.

Even if their backers walk away, their squad gets decimated, investment in all łevels of the club dwindles and fans walk away? Wouldn't they lose their licence, assuming the system is fair and above board of course!

Only if they go into administration.

Oh hang on . . . .

Rotherham.

Chris Roda's sorting it out for us.

I didnt say any club was in a position to do it ,but if you were to consider putting a club from a standing start diretly into SL then that should be the stipulation , essentially 1 million plus 1.35 million from SKY plus ticket sales and sponsorship should guarantee a max SC spend , so if that was the ' Critera ' , then yes, not a problem, are all SL clubs currently operating at max SC level?

You mean clubs so ' Popular ' they have to essentially give away their season tickets?

SUPER

And just how popular is Rugby League in Holland?

The problem with all these rapid expansion pipe-dreams is you need more than ambition and money to build a club. You need a culture and a tradition; you need the game to be played in schools and colleges and you need a fan-base of more than the few dozen (I suspect) who regularly attend games in Holland.