if survivial is the best we can get for an expansion team i can live with it provided tge expansion team is supporting other developments in the area like junior production

I am surprised the Crusaders have struggled as I heard they had an excellent business plan.

Train to Chester then straight to Wrexham,shouldnt take you 1 hour 15 minutes.

Changeover time innit

Please give details of the clubs with the long history that the R.F.L/S.L have saved dally

Yes it was , he lives in Cheshire I think , he did a Q and A session at Hilton Park a couple of years back , very funny

Met him many times when I was involved and he was always great fun.

dumb question.

Starburg - spoke to our former coach & apparently Roy still lives in the area & went to Parry Gordons funeral the other week.

Thanks that just brought back a memory of looking out for Leigh 'B' team's result in the paper. Didn't they all used to travel down to London together on the same day of the game?

Yes home games were ' away ' and away games closer to ' home '

Fulham RLFC based in Lowton , Leigh

Im sure you would have argued if i had said that.

In fact im sure you have when i have said that

them all.

Which bit ? the SL bit or the lower league bit ?

both

Well I'd have thought the ' premier ' tier of a sport is the one that should perform the best and attempt to be the best , the other levels should also attempt to do the same , but it is more difficult for them given they would struggle to attract the same profile

If I have somehow expessed the opposite I cannot remember doing so

So you wouldnt for instance be opposed to a statement saying

If (for example) Wakefield cant move on to competing for trophies regularly, spending the same as everyone else and truly looking to actually win trophies then the elite isnt for them? That simply being in the league with an below average fanbase, below average facilities for players nd fans, average squad and average youth development isnt good enough and if they dont improve then they should be dropped?

should then replace them

We can call it ' Licencing or Franchising '

so im guessing you were just being contrary previously then.

can remain solvent and continue to play RL , I will personally be happy in the short term . long term , who knows , I might get bored and stop watching , I might decide that I'd rather sit by the canal trying to catch a fish 3/4 inches long is more interesting than attending a RL match

hmmm.. let me see South Wales has not turned out in numbers like the south of France for Super League Expansion??? who would have guessed that... however much the "northern" game wants & wishes to expand the core & loyal i.e. fan who will pay to see... is located in the North of this Isle. What if Leigh/Featherstone/Widnes or Halifax has been given the same funding & better Visa advice? Crowds better than 4k per home game would have been acheived, simply by by better away support alone, expand yes but small steps, if Wrexham had been the first step then yes a NL1 team 2 years ago would have been a good step.... but now to save face it is regression with Leigh and Widnes within spitting distance its laughable. Maybe a North Wales Wrexham "crusaders" will work in 2/3 time but it may have slowed or severed rugby league heartland (teams) to a slow beat in the process. We all want the game to expand but don't cut off the roots or the tree won't grow....

The over riding feeling about this is dissappointment, on a number of levels...

1) the Crusaders were built on the back of an excellent south wales conference league... building on the blocks put in place by the amateur game... to the point that the young Welsh born players performed admirably towards the end of the season. these players and the fans that stayed loyal deserve the opportunity to make the franchise work - in South Wales

2) about the franchise process, how on earth can a process as robust as the one the RFL claim to have in place have failed to mitigate the risk of a single financial backer... I though the process assessed the clunb's ability to contribute and prosper for the full 3 year stint!

3) the move to Wrexham makes no business or sporting sense... how can the crusaders meet the franchise criteria of community involvement, crowd pulling potential and junior development... in an area that has no grass roots to the game... The Super League is our Flag Ship Competition... it is not a Development League, that allows for experimentation...

where are the sponsors? where is the buy in from the local business community? where is the evidence of a core season ticket holding fan base? Have the Crusaders relocated their commercial team to Wrexham?

4) how far from the RL heartlands does one have to be to qualify for overseas player dispensation? Wrexham is around 30miles from a number of hotbeds both amateur and professional... that equates to a 30/40 minute drive to training... a very commutable distance to a ready made supply of British players... IMO absolutely no argument for a dispensation against the quota rules.

Did Sheffield get a dispensation when they joined Super League??


5) had the crusaders original application been driven from a base in Wrexham... would they have been admitted to the competition?


do we have to live with it ... the answer is yes!... if you support the view that Wrexham is the most obvious and supportable venue for the development of SuperLeague... yes... if you sit back and accept all the poop that life throws at you with a shrug and a "well... what can I do"


I generally support the RFL in the face of criticsm but I think they really screwed up on this, and the move to Wrexham compounds the problem rather than offering a viable solution...

If we believe in our game and what it stands for we should have cancelled the crusaders licence and admitted the next best licence application from the last round... then all the Welsh effort should be put into the new South Wales club to help them develop.

Obviously it makes business sense, the club would have gone bust otherwise

I meant for the game rather than the club