I do not believe that evrything in the garden is rosy, far from it. Too many clubs are dependent on individual benefactors continuing their patronage. I have gone on record stating such in the past.

I have a problem with the idiotic way that Hudgell has gone about this matter. Did he seriously believe that the letter would never enter the public domain? Did he not stop to think what harm it may do to the image of the game and the concomitant ability to attract sponsorship?

The points he makes have validity and deserve discussion, they way he has gone about it is idiotic in the extreme. Unless as Chris28 has mentioned, Hudgell has a whole other agenda in mind.

2010;

Bradford +840,653
Castleford +352,782
Catalan Unknown
Celtic -976,734
Harlequins +7,663
Huddersfield -7,325,812
Hull -77,694
Hull KR -2,094,352
Leeds +59,337
Saints -1,384,706
Salford +46,612
Warrington +299,298
Wigan +88,567

Total excluding Catalan -10,579,358

The difference is PL football clubs for instance has money men queuing up to take over. RL less so as the rewards are not as great.

I agree there's a difference of scale, but the basic principle is the same. There isn't enough money in RL to run a pro sport without input from money men unless we accept a radical reduction in the size and quality of the competition.

This has nothing to do with expansion - the amount of cash freed up by direct spending on expansion clubs would not make enough difference to dispense with the need for rich patrons. RL as a sport has been cash poor for as long as I can remember.

This is the same Fudgell who last season threatened his own supporters to 'walk away' if caravan park didn't hit 10,000 supporters ?

Bear that in mind.

So, would it not be therefore his way of 'relieving' his financial plight and the clubs debt by getting a 'handout' from the RL, say, instead of money being given to....Bradford.

The guy has ONE agenda.....NEIL HUDGELL.....look at me.

Who benefits from a merger with HULL F.C......doh

my point is, if a club was on the brink, not may wil be in the que to buy them, unlike other sports,...take bradford for example...there players were washing carss at odsal last weekend!!!!!!!! dont think you saw the rangers or pompey players doing that did you, thats the differance, a football club will always be bought by someone, can anyone name the last league football cub to go out of busines???

Hull Kingston MOANERS!

But the point is what can be done about it? No other pro sport has come up with a model that works without rich individuals putting cash into clubs, and RL has had the same problem for many decades. It's not a new issue and it's not one that will be solved by simply abandoning expansion and focussing on the heartlands.

People hugely overestimate the amount of money spent on expansion clubs. And if anyone thinks that RL's financial woes can be solved by replacing London and Catalan with Halifax and Fev then they need their heads examining.

You can see why he liked SandyCock can't you?

I thought we had a moaning culture, at least it's only with some of our fans and not touted round the media everyday!

This is 3 MOANS in the media past 4 days from Wovers! Limpdick moaning about the ref on Sunday (AGAIN), Limpdick moaning about the Easter programme, and now Grudge moaning about RL debt!

#HullKingstonMOANERS

Rovers lost £450,000 a season for the first two seasons, they cut this to a staggering £200something grand loss

They must have lost over £2million since been in the gravy boat of SL

My heart bleads.

no really it does

When they announce a crowd of 7500 I sit and remember Hudge and his cry of "we need 10000 to break even."

I'm comforted when I realise its another £50,000 lost

The one that got me was Castleford posting a higher profit than Wire

Bradford... How times change.

Scarborough FC in 2007 , I believe was the last league club to go out of business (can't think of any after that)

By looking at the figures I'd be more worried if I was a rovers fan. Bradford are in turmoil yet figures indicate they have been better financially then rovers. Bradford haven't got a board that will throw money at the club like Hudge and rovers. I feel genuinely sorry for HKR. They will never get 10,000 per game

The man is a moaner, and a self-serving one at that. However I DO agree with two of his points :

1) The RFL chucking money at "expansion" is the wrong thing to do. Will they ever learn ?

2) A 14-team SL is too big.

Unfortunately the clubs are their own worst enemies on the last point - all the club owners want more games to get more gate money (which outweighs the fact they only get 1/14 of the SKY money rather than 1/12), but the coaches and the players want less games.
The game has shown that there aren't actually 14 "elite" clubs. Wakefield were kept in because of Crusaders pulling out, and can anyone really say that London are "elite" ?? When you look at lame duck strugglers like Bradford, Cas, Salford, Widnes and rovers there are probably only 7 or so truly "elite" teams in the country.

Yes, the man is a complete rear-end but on these 2 points he is correct.

scarborough wasnt a league club when they folded

To make sure clubs don't go bankrupt bring back the 50% rule.

Obviously Hudge will spend all his time looking at ways how to get around it.

Never ever, not if hell froze over, would I ever feel sorry for those people

This

I love it when they are in SL. Easy points! As for there future, the only way they can survive is to get 10,000 fans as Hudge says. They won't be around in the next few years if something doesn't change. Saying that, how does Cas post huge profits yet rovers lose a hell of a lot of money. Don't they have similar gates? The only thing i can think of is that Rovers have a bigger wage bill.

As a matter of interest, roughly how much money have the RFL 'chucked' at expansion clubs?

People moan about this a lot but nobody has yet come up with any figures.

Yup. Should never have been removed, but ironically it was the clubs who requested it.

Now that has not been true has it