Tigerade wrote:
The Cumbrian franchise would go well in Carlisle. Manchester likewise in Salford. Newcastle doesn't have a supporter base.
How can you say that there is no support base in Newcastle and suggest Carlisle and Newcastle as alternatives
Cumbria "deserves" to have a franchise (if we are going down that route) but, the 4 clubs in the county, Barrow, Carlisle, Workington & Whitehaven are spread too far apart to make it work.
Newcastle may be agood shout in the longer term but they and any Manchester would need a seriously wealthy backer and some top marketing to have any chance to succeed.
Koucash has got plenty of faults but he has done little to turn Salford into a "contender".
The guy in Toronto (Perez) does seem to know how to get the marketing side sorted and to generat the level of interest that Toronto have done from a stone cold start, shows what can be done but, there doesn't seem to be anyone of his calibre in RL on this side of the Atlantic.
RL needs to work out where it is going, although it does appear that a "super league" including 2 French clubs and 2 North American clubs could be a possibility. However, the logistics of flying teams to Canada on a regular basis does need some serious thought.
We have had a number of failed expansion clubs and if the sport was serious about having a more diverse top flight, we should have retained the "franchise" model and supported the likes of Sheffield, London and Crusaders and made sure that they were successful (in terms of being stable).
