Sheffield : Tue Jun 14, 2016 9:14 pm  

Picked this up on the Leigh Board which explains a lot:-

Acting Sheffield Eagles chairman Ian Swire explained the current situation at the club last night (Saturday)

Ian Swire: "I must take responsibility for the predicament that the club currently finds itself in. Our problems date back to 2013."

IS: "When as back to back championship champions our ground was demolished with little notice."

IS: "Faced with a dilemma we received an unsolicited approach from an investor who offered to fund a team capable of playing Super League."

IS: "Having received proof of funds, I defy anyone not to have accepted the offer and, even in hindsight I consider it was right to accept."

IS: "After the 2015 season, the investor announced that he would make further investment and enable us to become a full-time team."

IS: "He gave Mark a much enhanced playing budget for 2016. As this season started the investor indicated he was no longer willing to fund this"

IS: "This has left the club in a precarious position. The only short-term solution being a huge investment to ensure we finish the year"

IS: "At this current time I have sat down with my wife and we have jointly agreed to make such an investment as a donation to the club."

IS: "The club is currently in negotiations with potential investors and hopefully this great club will carry on

I hope they survive but I also hope they come back to the reality that Sheffield will never be a RL city and just have a team they can afford and probably in Championship 1 on the crowds they get.

Re: Sheffield : Wed Jun 15, 2016 1:12 pm  

We all have dreams but it's helpful to distinguish between dreams and reality .

Re: Sheffield : Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:24 pm  

As far as I'm concerned Sheffield have been one of the stand out sides of the comp for a good few years and have added a lot to it and I hope they come through the other end of this fully intact.
Rugby League is a great sport to watch but not so great to bank role and make a success of, this year it's the Eagles in a bit of a hole, next year who knows it could be anyone including Fax.

Re: Sheffield : Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:28 pm  

Have got bored of the nomadity and lack of fans,but if they base at a revamped DVS then they get my support.

Re: Sheffield : Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:35 pm  

faxcar wrote:

As far as I'm concerned Sheffield have been one of the stand out sides of the comp for a good few years and have added a lot to it and I hope they come through the other end of this fully intact.
Rugby League is a great sport to watch but not so great to bank role and make a success of, this year it's the Eagles in a bit of a hole, next year who knows it could be anyone including Fax.

Yer but is it all worth it when there is obviously no appetite for RL in Sheffield it proved that after winning the Cup in 1998 (I was there it was great) in the biggest cup Final upset ever yet it added hardly any extra fans on their gates the year after!
For me whilst it is not all about how many fans you have at least well supported teams have a lot of people who actually want them to be here!
Sheffield add nothing to our game off the field come on they don't have many fans for home games and have virtually no support away!
I hope they carry on but when a good team like they have had recently get hardly anybody turning up to watch them why bother as at the end of the day expanding the game is all about getting more people to watch RL is it not or am I missing something????

Re: Sheffield : Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:20 am  

Don't try to run before you can walk. Sheffield went fulltime too soon and as a consequence are now paying the price. You cannot solely rely on benefactors and false promises as we have found out in past. Too many of their good players left when they went fulltime. Would they have been in a better position if they stayed part time. I would say yes.
Sheffield assembled practically a new team, which takes time to gel. By the look of the team they have assembled its no better than the PT team of last season.
Like people have mentioned the support for Rugby League is not there in a predominately football supported city.
We are going down the right route of developing youth with reserve setup before going full time.

Re: Sheffield : Thu Jun 16, 2016 10:52 am  

Ive had a look and so far Sheffield's biggest home attendance was when we played them. I thought the Dulls would have taken more. Perhaps the Bradford faithful don't like to travel

Re: Sheffield : Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:31 pm  

Faxlore wrote:

Ive had a look and so far Sheffield's biggest home attendance was when we played them. I thought the Dulls would have taken more. Perhaps the Bradford faithful don't like to travel

Manningham had a big soccer game (they lost) on that night, didn't they ? Just as well, really, we can't cope with a lot of folk at the SHU ground.

Re: Sheffield : Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:32 pm  

chazzerboy wrote:

Don't try to run before you can walk.

We're still struggling to crawl at the moment.

Re: Sheffield : Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:03 pm  

I`m sure I read today that a statement was released by Sheffield saying they had dispensed with Mitch Sringers services with immediate effect .I can`t find it now though .