All clubs need a back to get into SL.

Skolars and Hemel are a long way off SL but they are closer to it than they were 10 years ago.

I don't doubt that in ten years' time, they will be even closer.

The Skolars have made steady progress over the 10 years of their professional experience if they continue as they are doing, they , may be ready for SL in 5 years. The fact that they are going for promotion to the Championship this year speaks volumes.

I can't think that they will be ready for SL in five years but speculating about them as a mid-table Championship side would have seemed crazy a few years ago but not now.

The problem Skolars had was that the old NL2 was too high a standard for entry teams. It's hard to make much progress when you are getting flogged every week by some pretty strong teams.

I think the future of expansion lies in building a decent league pyramid, there has been progress in this of late, Hemel and Oxford have had a much easier ride than Skolars ever got.

I don't see that, this is the weakest pro-league they've played in yet by far and they've done okish. Crowds are the same and the stadium's still a dump.

This!

The could win promotion this year and the Championship next year, but there's no way that SL games will ever be played at their stadium.

to be honest I dont think the ground is currently fit for the Championship. I'm pretty sure they'd need dispensation to be allowed to compete unless they upgraded the floodlights

I am sure the ground could be upgraded for the Championship, it is a lot better than Oldham's for instance! The Skolars board would be prudent and will improve the ground where necessary.

Not really followed these threads but from my point of view -
Featherstone wish to take our place in SL, first up their ground is not up to SL standard so that rules them out straight away, end of.

All the talk about RL becoming a dying sport. It will happen. I am not saying the sport will disappear, no it wont. It will however become a minority sport that people have no interest in (not far from it now). The coming world cup is getting little or no advertisement, most people are not even aware is it happening. in a few years if the sport is not careful it will become a game played up north with no national coverage at all. The game is a shambles, those in the north that wish to see the end of London in the SL, that is fine but that is also very short sighted. I fear for the game and dread to think what I might see in 5-10 years time.

Complete drivel. How many other club sports can sell 75000 tickets for 2 club games a year in this country? RL will be just fine. It may not be as big as soccer or rah rah but it's still significant with or without the London Broncos.

Not eaten again! how many tickets do you think the RFL have sold for this Saturday then? is that why they are pushing to every media that will take it, tickets available on the day at the turnstiles?

Really, lets agree to disagree then, it will only be significant up north.

And in Australia, and in NZ, and in PNG, and in S.France. The game isn't dying, won't die, never has been dying. The section of RL 'fans' that peddle this rubbish are just plain wrong. So no I won't agree to disagree.

I fear for the sport as a 100% professional one in the UK if the current administration continue down their path of the last few years of trying to please everyone. Regardless of London Broncos being there or not, the game is not sustainable in its current format and letting 4 crap pro teams play 4 semi-pro teams isn't going to change a lot.
The only thing wrong with licencing was the independent evaluation of the clubs business plans and that SKY didn't demand 10 years on the Licences.....we were in year 4 and the "new dawn" was already being researched



The 12/12 = 8/8/8 scenario will be given the same short term attention by the RFL and once a couple of larger clubs whine, they will change it again.....

This year, London, Salford, Widnes and Castleford would have dropped down to play Sheffield, Fev, Fax and Leigh. London have accounted for 2 of those teams already this year....the top 2 at that and without a shadow of a doubt, London are the weakest SL team this year.

The theory is that the games will be more "meaningful" and fans will attend in greater numbers....15% drop in Challenge Cup attendances and 13% in those at Play-offs point to wow that will end..

As I've said elsewhere....when the best 17 English players currently playing in England ran out against the best 17 foreigners in SL, nobody bothered attending. They got a crowd 2,500 LESS than the Chairman at HKA says he needs as an average for his club to break even.

I would love to see RL flourish in the UK and don't like being bundled into a naysayer group, but in reality, under the current administration, I can't see the game going in any direction other than backwards.

As Gutterfax states, which I agree with, I fear for the game in the North under the current administration, the guy at the top only tends to raise his head, when things are going bad, then often what he says ends up proving not to be correct, such as tickets are selling fast! for major games. The game can't survive on Sky money alone, and I don't think they will ever offer the same amount again. The appointment of the new chairman in Brian Berwick, never enthused me, and listening to what he had to say in the radio interview the other day, he is simply a figure head to pat Nigel on the head, and not good at that.

Why pick out the Exiles game? Its a challenge game in early stages of development and the principle point of it is to provide a competitive match for the England side mid-season. RL is drawing the biggest attendances and generating the biggest turnover of it's modern history. One slight downturn of a year and we're all doomed. It's rubbish. Get a grip.

75k at Wembley, 75k at OT x 2, 35k at CoM, average attendance of around 8k in SL. Hardly a sport on the brink of collapse into amateurism.

London Broncos going bust again is almost completely irrelevant.

Cash turnstiles at the CC Final used to be quite common at the old Wembley Stadium.

Wembley has a capacity of 90k, I would imagine around 70k tickets have already been sold. Is that not good enough? Or is it another sign that RL's about to self destruct and become a less popular spectator sport than lawn bowls?

Yes your quite correct with the Wembleycapacity, whatever the final attendance, let's not forget that it will include, 17,500 debenture seats, which were sold for a 10 year period, which runs out in 2017.

So if you claim then 70K tickets have been sold, does that mean the final attendance will be around 87,500 then?

Wigan and Hull will have sold 30k tickets each easy, 10k to neutrals. Im sure 70k will have been sold. I have no idea how the club Wembley seats work or how they're reported on the match day attendance.

They have been sold, so they have to be counted that way, owners are allowed to use their seats at any event the stadium holds. It has always been a bone of contention that they should need to give notice if they are not being used, allowing Wembley to re-sell them for the owners for that one event, that would avoid the number of empty seats right in view of the camera. Not sure about your 10K to neutrals? at one time when I was younger, pubs and clubs in every town ran coach trips, often for the weekend, that does not happen any longer in the same numbers.

There are more annual big events in RL now so no it's not as much of a centre-piece of the RL calendar that it once was. But you're still being negative just for the sake of it. Stop it. There will be a massive crowd there tomorrow. End of.

I think you need to look at yourself! before you lecture others

megalolz

Apparently last Saturday's gate was 1843, not 2013. This drops the average to 2200 and means that the majority of our home games were watched by under 2000.

Who says it was1843?
Buggers up my spreadsheet if true but still not low enough to be the lowest for hudds