Not the fairest comparison though is it.

Wrexham to Warrington 31 miles
Wakefield to Warrington 59 miles
Castleford to Warrington 64 miles

Its almost twice as near for them to travel.

Given it's practically a local derby, there's no surprise that Crusaders fans turned up. It's like me saying I've seen more Leeds fans come to Cas than Wire or Saints.

Because he knew that the club was being run by idiots and that if he had stayed he would have had to work with a reduced playing budget and numerous off-field deficiencies. Noble isn't someone to be associated with a shambolic operation like that.

And even that's not the whole story, the M62 is a nightmare at times with what on paper is an hours journey sometimes taking twice that or even more.

Sometimes getting past Manchester can double the journey time and then getting back is often complicated by late night or weekend roadworks.

A whisper going round at the St. Helens game was that Crusaders will be around next season, but it could be that neither they nor the soccer side would be playing at the Racecourse. Nor sure how much notice to take of this, but I thought I'd just mention it.

The RFL should be keeping an eye on them, they owe them £900K don't they.

Wales needs this to work, really. I hope Crusaders do well, there fans at Huddersfield last year were outstanding, and I hate to see a Rugby League club fail.

Agreed, I just think it's a shame that the whole project never started in Wrexham in the first place. Far more likely to succeed then IMO.

Absolutely,2 dodgy owners instead of just one.Just a shame Aberystwyth didn't have a decent stadium !
Still,nice to see Rod Findlay involved with another successful club.
Wasn't there a rumour that Noble and Sharp were paid by the RFL while they were at Wrexham ? Not paying anymore and obtaining a shiny stadium seems good business.

i went to university in aberystwyth and lived there several years after. if you want to kill crusaders, then move them to aber


more students than locals, and students are all at home for a big chunk of the season. and the static local population is about 6000 at most. not to mention rugby league is pretty much nonexistent. when i was there most pubs wouldnt even show games, even if nothing else was on.
not to mention its a two hour drive from widnes alone.

its all well and good saying that the game needs to be a success in wales/london etc, but the fact of the matter, is that to operate in SL costs a hell of a lot of money.

no one is making money out of RL regardless of what widnes would have you believe.

the rfl have no money to fund these clubs, so the clubs need to be able to support themselves with.

a wealthy benefactor
good gate receipts
good sponsorship
etc.

if a club has none of the above i am afraid the future looks very dark

This will never happen and I'm not being naive by suggesting it but if the owners of Crusaders can see the writing on the wall, and I suspect they know now that they are not viable, they should say so now and not allow a more stable club and the employees of that club to suffer while they chase a lost cause.

But does how far you have to travel actually effect your fans volume?

I'm sorry but that really is pis[is[/i funny

Wait, I thought that the reason the Crusaders weren't successful last season was because of the debts from the first season? I though once those debts were wrote off by going into administration everything would be hunky-dory this season?

Been to Crusaders' last two away games and been very impressed with the size and volume of their support, and the Wiganers would be creaming over the number of flags their fans have!

I think the problems at Crusaders are largely stem from going too far, too quickly and not getting the experience of running effectively and self-sufficiently as a semi-pro club before taking the step up to Super League. Maybe losing their licence and having three years outside of the top flight to regroup, reasses and get their house in order would be a good thing?

I'm not suggesting that club is Wakefield, although Wakefield are infinitely more stable than Crusaders, the franchising decision has/is affecting the long term planning of a number of clubs.

Answer me this, judging the Crusaders as they are now, without a main sponsor, very poor crowds, virtually no hospitality sales, very low merchandising revenue and £700,000 in debt to the RFL. Do you think they are going to be around for the long term and if not should another more sustainable club be sacrificed ahead of them?

Nice to see someone actually read what I said.

Well on BBC the other day it was noted that Wrexam could be going out of business, does this mean that Cru will also go bust again as well?

In short if Wrexham fold then Cru will need to find a new home pdq

We have all ready gone bust! What's going on in Wrexham can only be described as shambles. Everything is about the Stadium and the land it's built on. The owner of the Crusaders and Wrexham fc biggest ambition is to build more flats in the middle of the pitch, line their own pockets whilst running the two clubs into the ground

which leaves them with going back to south wales really. cant think of anywhere even slightly viable in north wales outside of wrexham.

i know, lets 'save' them by doing the old Sheddersfield Egliants switcheroo with my beloved widnes. Crysaders will basically cease to exist and everything at Widnes will carry on as normal, same name, same staff, same stadium, sam kit colors etc. but just like the aforementioned example and GatesHull Thundarks we will actually be 'saving' crusaders.

Simple solution is the RFL actually back this "franchise" nonsense and take on the crusaders themselves. let the RFL buy the club and run it ( insert jokes about RFL not being able to run a bath etc)

They take on the club parachute in their own chosen staff to coach/manage/direct etc Let the RFL use their own contact to get in big name sponsors etc and build up the club then later flog it on lock stock and mop up a tidy profit which they can use for something useful like providing funding to get RL promoted in schools etc

This would open a huge can of worms. How could they be expected to treat other clubs impartially when they have a direct interest in one club?