Thanks mate

if they do get moved to wrexham, will there be a load of wrexham Fc fans coming in and ruining what rugby league prides on RESPECT

respect between supporters (it rarely goes off)

i KNOW Wrexham have a bad set of supporters (not all) by my own experience, they started a massive fight when i was at a crewe alex wrexham game a few years ago

I DONT WANT THAT

as many have said its a shame for their south wales based fans i feel sorry for them, and myself as i look forward to going porthcawl when we play them at bridgend



MESS MADE BY RFL, MESSY PATCH UP BY THE RFL

I would have thought the likes of widnes and leigh have a right to appeal? or less so leigh with them being relegated and then reinstated last year

Perhaps but I doubt that Widnes would want to go up this year as they would have to find a SL standard team from somewhere with little notice and they weren't the strongest team in CC either.

They will get a team.

Yours.

It will be called a "merger" but in reality the bulk of the club will decamp to Widnes and play a handful of games at Wrexham. But will happen in 2011 not 2010. And that way Widnes get back into SL in the current franchise round, and Crusaders are "saved" - in the strange-planet world of the great minds at Red Hall anyway.

Don't believe me? Go ask Sheffield and Hudds, or Hull and Gateshead, for the standard template. It just needs dusting off yet again.

And its a load of crap

You are aware that "my team" are Keighley?

I rate Jermaine Wray highly but I don't think he'll ever play Super League.

My bad! But you never know...!

Your response was a good example of someone who couldn't think of anything intelligent to say and so dribbled garbage instead.

Saints [iare[/i getting a new ground, haven't you heard? We've been trying to get a new ground for 20 years but guess what? We haven't been able to afford one! It's only because we now have an astute businessman for a chairman - who with his City colleague rescued us from the brink of administration in 2002 - that we are in a position to build a new stadium now, and we have been in Superleague all along and in the top division for most if not all of Rugby League's history. Which is why I think the RFL should have dropped the insistence upon Superleague clubs having new stadia: clubs without the history and/or financial know-how of Saints should not be punished. We were going to get a new stadium anyway. This plan has been progressing through the various stages for five years, before the criteria were set for the franchises. So I really don't know what your pathetic response was all about. I was showing sympathy to those clubs who are in worse positions than Saints and Saints are not in a great position financially in spite of all their success, simply because at least in part we have a delapidated stadium that is like a financial black hole. Which we won't have any longer come the early part of the 2011 season.

And yet NL clubs were denied access to SL, as voted on by SL clubs, because of the stadia???? Double standards perhaps here???

What?

It was the RFL who decided the criteria for the licensing.

yes it was.
Yet when Hunslet and Dews won the NL play-offs, they were not accepted by the SL chairmen because of their grounds!!

Yet you advocate the dispensing of the insistence by the RFL that SL clubs should have new stadia???

FWIW, I think you are correct. It's Not the 'end of the world argument' like, I just thought some double standards were being played out here given back then, the SL chairmen and the RFL used the ground as the reason for denied access to SL! Fair??

It has been confirmed this morning that crusaders will play most home games in wrexham and two in neath, also on tuesday the signings of Tony Martin, Nick Youngquest, Matt Utai and Michael Witt are set to be unvieled

Matt Utai's not being unveiled. He's retiring from the sport due to injury.

Read my post again. I referred to the recession. That was the context in which I said that the RFL should drop the insistence upon new stadia being part of the licence arrangement. (I don't think I referred to SL clubs specifically)

you may take the opportunity to read your post again!

So a recession occurs - SL clubs shouldn't be required to have new stadia. Is this correct???

Yet when a much less well funded club won the NL, there was an insistence by SL clubs that they SHOULD have a new stadium or vastly improved facilities. A fanancial burden which made it impossible for them to access SL cos of the SL clubs "insistence"!

Smells of double standards to me!

Note, I did say 'I don't think I referred to Superleague clubs specifically', thus indicating I was not sure. But I was right, wasn't I? I did refer to the recession.


In the context of the licensing policy, which is the context of the discussion, I do not think it is appropriate for the RFL to insist upon new stadia as one of the criteria during a recession.

You accused me/my club of double standards earlier but Saints started the process for their own new stadium before the licence criteria were decided; I think even before the licence system was decided. I can't speak for the other Superleague clubs as I don't know their position. However, during a recession (which was not around when this set of licenses were agreed), I think it inappropriate for the RFL to insist upon new stadia as a criteria for a licence.

I am not going to embark upon petty arguments with yet another bitter Championship club fan. Some of you sound like your stuck in the dim and distant past rather than the 21st century and some of you really do need to get a grip.

Whatever our opinions , we do get to watch our teams in modern 21 st century facilities , unlike you

In 18 months time you'll be eating your words, which will give me a tiny bit of satisfaction to witness.

I'm so pleased for you

I know. It's part of the love you show me whenever I venture on to the Crusaders' board.

and if the RFL (just for arguments sake) say Saints ground is a toilet, no more SL for you until you produce a new one, and the fiscal problems persist - I can just hear you shouting - yeh this is the 21st Century! We should be happy we're excluded from SL!!!! - my botty!!

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/14/crusaders-relocate-wales-rfl-leighton-samuelRugby league needs 'pot of money' to succeed in Wales, says Leighton Samuel[/url

RFL a farce it a heartlands sport and top players play for money.They wont get the support as it a football area.RFL give up and pack your bags.If i messed up that many times lifes would be lost.

But crusaders i wish you all the luck though in wrexham. I just feel sorry it has been taken away from south wales.

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....

Hope this venture works as a the RFL have spent a lot of money on the game in Wales

To be honest i do not think the game will expand, as you got too many popular sports such as football and rugby union in other areas.If anything a cumbrian club be more viable, as their a decent interest already, with barrow and whitehaven.To be honest, i think keep to the heartlands, they just not interested in union strongholds.Union has the money now and the rfl can not support all these clubs.That why i think teams with decent attendances such as widnes should be in superleague.Teams such as widnes,leigh,fax would double in attendances if got in.Widnes already have fans from north wales and chester.