news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_l ... 149935.stm So it's now official. Step in Mr Lewis & Co

news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_l ... 149935.stm So it's now official. Step in Mr Lewis & Co

two expansion clubs (the original one in Blackpool - well they are as far away from the 'heartland as are WREXHAM (we've been in SL 3 years and had three name changes) Crusaders) doing this in a week yet only one has a good chance of being 'saved' by intervention of the RFL. we should all be worried very worried.

ohh and i'm back with my original moniker thank you mr Keegan

I'd have gone for "Step down Mr Lewis & Co"

Time to go?

Well maybe the RFL could ask Sky would it be ok if the game returned to P & R then maybe the 6 point deduction would mean something.

They won't and although I hope I am wrong this is probably their last season.

I think whoever loses their franchise at the end of this season will be in big trouble.

Wonder why crowds have gone down since franchising was introduced.

Bit of a coincidence that the administrators, O'Hara, are based in Leeds?!?!? Obviously the RFL will now step in and guarantee contracts for next season to keep the club going. They will get a 9 point deduction (no punishment when you can't be relegated) and carry on as before with small home crowds, very little away support and relying on overseas players.
When will the RFL actually just let a club that cannot survive just go to the wall? Oh - they did last week with Blackpool. But of course Blackpool aren't super league so that's OK. Let their players have months of uncertainty trying to find new clubs so they can pay mortgages and put food on the table while the aussies in Wrexham are guaranteed their wages and the RFL will then pay for them to fly home after their cash and grab raid on British rugby.

And in there lies the problem because the championship clubs are part time they are discriminated against because they have other sources of income, its a bigger joke than usual we are farther away from Australia (playing wise) than we ever were yet the powers that be persist in stupid stunts, if Blackpool are not worth saving then no club should be.

The end of Dickie and the fat controller will be the opening weekend of SL

time the people at the top i e lewis and co bow there head in shame and go before we have no game to support they are a joke and a disgrace sod off back to lawn tennis lewis

Pride and honour, key attributes of great leaders. They aint going nowhere whilst they control the trough.

Yes.................

1) Crusaders are in administration. Not the RFL, which makes a profit, but an independent club, who bug9ered it up all by themselves

2) a SL club in Wales is more important than any old other northern club in SL for the growth (read 'future') of our sport

-

I hope the RFL step in and fund a Welsh club. I hope they get another franchise. Funnily enough, both would be better for Leigh in the long run. The alternative to growing as a sport is dying on our asses as Union cleans up all the athletes in the junior game and slowly throttles the sport out of existence.

I doubt if many people will argue with expansion, I dont, but how its done is the debate and these clowns have no idea how to sustain a base and grow new business from it.

Depressing time for sport in North Wales after such an exciting and yes successful season onfield, the problems now stemming from the mess in South Wales being carried forward to be associated with a struggling football management who wanted the Cru for their own ends, and yes the RFL too.

Contrary to popular belief on here there is a growing love and development of the game in Wales, and not just from the RL exiles who now live there. We all know the politics and ill feeling amongst some clubs about how the licensing has come about but this is a sorry time for rugby league generally and especially in Wales.

The time in Wrexham may turn out to have been short-lived but it was great to witness the enthusiam for the game in previously a unchartered area. Sad times.

if wrexham are playing rl this coming season,then they'll get another licence,you've got very little to worry about.

I have no problems with RL in Wrexham I have always said THE place to have a RL team (note a RL team not a SL team unless they get there on merit) what with the exiles living there and no problems with the RFU etc.. is North Wales (though didnt Wrexham used to be in England

)

Blackpool Panthers helped bring RL to some primary schools near where I live.
On speaking to a teacher on whats happened at Blackpool and about what they'll do now for children learning RL / getting involved it was a simplistic "We won't be doing RL , We've got Fylde RU club coming in from now on in"

Although I'm sure it's not the point you're making, maybe the Panthers were barking up the wrong tree in Lytham and it's simply not an 'RL market' where either a) they don't want to be associated with RL rather than RU or b) some sort of snobbery towards Blackpool, considering they're a town on the outside? Obviously getting back to Bloomfield Road is a non-starter now (though I do remember them having a certain degree of support there, and vocal at that) but maybe they'd be better getting closer to the amateur clubs, who I believe are based nearer to Blackpool Mechanics etc?

Your right , it wasn't the point I was making


I was meaning through all the so called negatives at the club the fact they proved a focal point for schools to get children into RL was a good point that is now lost to RU.

The gates seemed as good (bad) in Lytham as they did in Blackpool (pt2).
Many people in Lytham follow Blackpool FC / are from Blackpool so don't think that was a problem.
Not the best location but possibly the only one available in the area (until we build our new ground at AFCF

).

As you know more than most , to get a unfashionable club fashionable is a very very hard thing to do once people view it as a poor performer (rightly or wrongly) , ironically they had a good press in the local evening paper and they did seem well known to many on the Fylde Coast.

In fairness some very bad business decisions proably killed off the Panthers just as more people in the area sat up and realised they wern't getting walloped every week.

Lack of money is the only reason any club fails , unfortunatly sport cannot fund itself , until people start to see that the business side of things has to be detached from the sport side of things , nothing will change and clubs will continue to struggle and fold

Being pedantic, I'd say, not lack of money as such, but spending more than you earn - which amounts to the same thing, but is different in approach and responsibility....

I think that he main junior amateur club (The Scorpions) play at the grounds near the airport and connected with Lytham Cricket club. They did at least last year.

I thought that was the case - they're pretty much around the corner from AFC Blackpool (formerly Blackpool Mechanics, I think) and Squires Gate who's grounds are next door to each other on School Road.

There were two junior clubs in Blackpool

Stanley , based at Stanley park

Skorpions , based near the airport

I do seem to remember the Panthers were hoping to get a stadium of sorts built at Stanley park , to me that sounds like the only long term way a club will ever sustain itself in the town/area

money outside the playing of RL nothing will change and the sport at proffessional level will not grow or expand , that applies to anywhere be it Blackpool , Exeter or Maidstone