: Wed Jul 08, 2009 12:52 pm
Grendel wrote:
Hedgehog King. you seem to be in the know. does this mean that no other clubs have ever been helped out by the RFL? It was my impression that several had, including SL clubs. Is your opposition to us getting help (if we actually are) actually because we are not based in the North of England?
I'm not "in the know", I'm just a bloke with an opinion. I don't have a particular problem with the RFL assisting Crusaders but not like that.
Crusaders aren't the only SL side and they aren't the only ones who are cash light, if the RFL took away part of Crusaders Sky money to help out Bradford or Quins then I would imagine that Crusaders would have something to say about it. And rightly so, they would have budgetted on the basis that they would get that money and losing it would cause them problems.
If the RFL have the funds to loan Crusaders funds then fine IMO they should lend it to them - but it should be a loan and the RFL shouldn't have to do this every year.
Crusaders have had a bad season and ordinarily they would be relegated back to NL1 where they could cut their cloth according to their means and win more games. The new rules mean that they have to play in SL for another two seasons minimum and this presents a fairly unique problem and one that causes me some worry.
I think Crusaders can survive one bad season but if the next one is equally poor then things aren't going to be pretty. They aren't the worst side to play SL by some distance but you can't really market a club as "Not the worst side ever to play the game".