We wont get back into SuperLeague if its a Franchise.... TBH I think in 2019 we will go part time. We probably have one season left if we want to get into superleague, otherwise I'm really not sure what will happen. 600-700 crowds are not going to keep us full time.
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES????? £20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
Lets start with the academy table and the money table
How do you think they would line up 1-6 with Reds, Hudds, Wakey, Widnes, Leigh, London
Academy wise we're at or near the top.
Money wise is a hard one because Salford, Hudds and ourselves are all 100% reliant on 1 source for survival.....without Marwan, Davy and Hughes all three clubs would vanish pretty quickly. Wakey and Widnes are much nearer self sufficiency than we ever were but still have some ways to go whilst Leigh have made great strides and continue to do so.
London will not bet promoted via the 8's. Next year there will be 3 other strong and full time squads all chomping at the bit and unless we've bought a couple of gnarly forwards, we will struggle to make the qualifiers IMHO. Licensing is our only route back, but not with the current owner in place.
JESUS WEPT HOW MANY TIMES????? £20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000. The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them.
The question is not if london will get promoted in the 8s system or franchise. The question is what do people think is best for the game,
I'd have to say Licensing. Security enabled clubs to concentrate on things other than avoiding relegation and IIRC, it was during Licensing that we started to ship some of our better players to the NRL. I'd bring it back, but with an independent auditing and management team looking after it.
Jeopardy is great drama and excitement, but it's just another case of one weak team replacing another......it does nothing for "the game"
The problem with licensing is the closed shop!!! That's what NRL went for, I think for quite different reasons than here. The top flight in NRL is dull rugby generally, on tv it's pretty boring to watch, I think it's actually inevitable it will, but I would not want the northern hemisphere game to go that way. I would rather see the names in the top 12 changing, through promotion or demotion than a fixed top 12, why? Because it gives clubs something to work towards. Yes they have to be financially viable, etc. The game is different to Australia, we don't have to follow that pattern. Let's pose the question, if it's Widnes that come down would it be looked at deffently? They were apparently the big success of franchise, this year they finished bottom.