You have got to remember wheather you like it or not that we are a product of the M62, why would a national company (orange, o2) for example want be a sponsor for us and pump millions into a game that has tried and failed at expanding away from the M62. I am not against expansion, but i think that we need to realise that its what you are brought up with. I bet there are not a huge amount of people that were brought up on rugby union switching to rugby league, just as we would not switch to say basketball. Basket ball is a world wide sport with huge audiences in some contries yet failed to take off in the UK. It doesnt matter how much money you throw at advertising, you wont change most peoples minds.
We have a great game which is forward thinking and we have a good following and we need to look after that before chasing the big buck, i know that the big buck may well help, but money didnt help Bradford, and a new stadium hasnt helped Salford. I hope the powers that be concentrate on what we have at the minute rather than chasing round for viewers form all over the country and wasting money.

Lots of RL fans should be careful what they wish for.

If the RFL really wanted to take the game forwards and break its flat cap backward image and target the real big sponsors and raise the game's profile, then those big sponsors would be calling the shots. Would those big sponsors be wedded to nostalgic ideas of small northern clubs like Castleford and Wakefield....would they heck. The game would move on and if it meant mergers and clubs scrapped to set up franchises in other parts of the country so be it. They did that in Australia and look how well Australia is doing.

Also the audience would change, you wouldn't get the plebs that go watching RL now, they wouldn't be able to afford it just like they can't afford to watch the football Premiership any more. Taking the game forward means it will become more corporate and more expensive but that will also mean the product is a lot more stylish and presentable in the media. Maybe it would be time to start thinking about getting closer links with RU and their clubs. It hasn't done Leeds any harm and its what Peter Deakin wanted to do with us. Maybe even (shock horror) think about bringing the codes together and trying to find some form of common rules that would allow RU and RL teams to play each other and form a large and popular competition with a presence all around the country. Major corporations merge, thats what you have to do to survive in a global marketplace.

Once the game has got people in charge that are actually efficient and focused on making the sport bigger then the money and sponsors will come in and we won't have to listen to the flat cap brigade any more that have bigoted views on RU and are wedded to their traditional clubs. The RFL in the past has just rolled over at opposition from the flat cappers but new and strong leadership at the top would not be afraid of ruffling feathers in the short term to make the game more commercial in the long term.

Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?

Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?

Good post Charlie. Unless the game does respect its limitations it will tear itself apart , i would rather see it played at a lower level than disappear altogether but in its present state it does need to concentrate on better sponsorship.

Quote ="Winslade's Offload"Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?'" Good post. The doom merchants have been saying the game is about to die since 27 August 1895. Red Hall is an easy target for every little problem. If you actually look at the RFL objectively they do a good job with limited resources compared to other governing bodies. If Lewis was as bad as people made out he wouldn't have got the Wimbledon job. 2013 really needs to be our year, and I have every faith it will be, IF the fans get behind the game instead of knocking it. Not saying RL is perfect but no sport is!

Quote ="Winslade's Offload"Living in the south of England is a bit of an eye opener as far as RL is concerned. Yes, nearly all the professional rugby is played 'up north', but there does seem to be a hell of a lot of amateur rugby down here now. So for instance, here is the East England Regional table for last year. How many people would have known that towns like Bury St Edmunds, Kings Lyn and St Ives play RL ? # Team Pld Pts 1. North Herts Crusaders 10 16 2. St Ives Roosters 9 14 3. Bedford Tigers 9 12 4. Bury Titans 9 6 5. Kings Lynn Black Knights 9 5 6. MK Wolves 9 3 And here is a reference from Kent Sport to RL in their area; www.kentsport.org/rugby_league.cfm As you can see they have teams for Medway, Weald and West Kent. So RL is alive and well, in fact growing, 'darn sowf', but it is primarily an amateur game. Will it grow into a professional game and spawn new teams that eventually reach SL ? Who knows, but despite all the problems with money and the 'heartland clubs', I do think our game is still evolving and yes, growing even. Perhaps we should stop focussing on the very top of the sport, and accept that for some clubs and communities either semi-professional or amateur is the way to go. Are some Championship clubs are in danger of destroying themselves (financially) simply to get into SL ?'" Good post. The doom merchants have been saying the game is about to die since 27 August 1895. Red Hall is an easy target for every little problem. If you actually look at the RFL objectively they do a good job with limited resources compared to other governing bodies. If Lewis was as bad as people made out he wouldn't have got the Wimbledon job. 2013 really needs to be our year, and I have every faith it will be, IF the fans get behind the game instead of knocking it. Not saying RL is perfect but no sport is!

I think a lot of the frustration from RL fans is that they know it is a fantastic sport. I know darts fans, snooker fans etc. probably think their sports are the best but people who are not traditional or even regular RL supporters acknowledge it's a fantastic sport played by fantastic athletes and which retains much of the honour of true sport (unlike football). They are probably as baffled as us as to why the game isn't more widely watched, played or promoted.

Conversely you have the footy Premiership and RU (as obvious examples) which in terms of entertainment are certainly no better than RL but whose bosses appear to have no problem courting the media and securing sponsorship. There may be a perception they've sold their soul for the corporate dollar but let's face it football, RU and RL have all sold out to Sky .... it's just football and RU seem to have done rather better out of it.

Regardless of your view of how well or poorly the RFL are doing the fact is, on the brink of one of the biggest seasons for years, we have no sponsor for a flagship league tournament, no sponsor for our flagship cup comp and no sponsor (that I know of) for our sports major international comp.