New York announce plans to create rugby league club

[thegimble]

I just hope they stay a way from the West Coast.

Nowt wrong with the west coast. Except the distance!

Was talking more in terms of the population rather than the area. Nice place to go to. Taking into account the ethnic mix.

San Diego is especially nice

[Wikimann]

The West Coast will never be an option due to the time zone & extra distance involved. Toronto is close in trans Atlantic terms as is NY & Boston. Personally as I’ve said earlier my preference would be Boston due to the huge Irish ex pat community but they will need to be quick with that plan as RU already have eyes on that prize & would certainly step in with the pro14 expanding. I wouldn’t see any opposition from Scottish,Welsh teams as they welcomed the 2 South African sides bombed out of the super rugby comp. The Irish teams would absolutely back it as would the major sponsor brewery. The pro 14 could easily be a pro 15 with the extra revenue much sought after. The pro 14 teams don’t have a big premiership like the English sides,their main comp for money is the Heineken cup so a stronger more international pro14 is a real honey pot for them.

[Wigan_forever1985]

Sorry to sound down about this but i think Rugby League would be better served sorting out its product first. Theres bee a huge dip in interest over the last two years in particular.

Thats not just Wigan fans - look on all the forums people are very disgruntled with the state of the game. I personally wouldn't recommended the game to neutrals like i once would

i just think we need to start our own house out first

[josie andrews]

Sorry to sound down about this but i think Rugby League would be better served sorting out its product first. Theres bee a huge dip in interest over the last two years in particular.

Thats not just Wigan fans - look on all the forums people are very disgruntled with the state of the game. I personally wouldn't recommended the game to neutrals like i once would

i just think we need to start our own house out first

A very good comment, WF.

+ 1

[thegimble]

Sorry to sound down about this but i think Rugby League would be better served sorting out its product first. Theres bee a huge dip in interest over the last two years in particular.

Thats not just Wigan fans - look on all the forums people are very disgruntled with the state of the game. I personally wouldn't recommended the game to neutrals like i once would

i just think we need to start our own house out first

A very good comment, WF.

+ 1

How do we get our house in order if we have no money in the sport to compete with the NRL and union. SL will never get rid of the cap unless sides are for it and atm we have 6-7 sides who can only compete du to that limitation.

Saying get our house in order first is akin to the Brexiters (sorry Fawd) going they need us more than we need them but with no actual policy.

So how are we going to grow the game in the UK and get it sorted.

[thegimble]

Naughty, naughty, Gimby.

I compare it to what this county has become: we cater for the lowest common denominator at the expense of the ones who want to learn and get ahead. An example of this is when my mate, an ex-teacher retired and went supply teaching. The unruly kids stopped the ones who wanted to learn by their misbehaviour. In the end my mate gave up and retired fully to leave the ambitious kids wanting. Do you get my drift?

Could this be said for the game of rugby league?

Totally agree this is the reason why only brining in sides with real money will push the cap up and up and gone. Cas got to the final due to all of us learning at the pace of the worst kid in class.

That's why we need to bring in private schools with the money so the teachers can teach kids with the drive to be the best they can. And the bad kids can be all in a class they deserve to be and allow the best to get better.

[Wigan_forever1985]

Naughty, naughty, Gimby.

I compare it to what this county has become: we cater for the lowest common denominator at the expense of the ones who want to learn and get ahead. An example of this is when my mate, an ex-teacher retired and went supply teaching. The unruly kids stopped the ones who wanted to learn by their misbehaviour. In the end my mate gave up and retired fully to leave the ambitious kids wanting. Do you get my drift?

Could this be said for the game of rugby league?

Totally agree this is the reason why only brining in sides with real money will push the cap up and up and gone. Cas got to the final due to all of us learning at the pace of the worst kid in class.

That's why we need to bring in private schools with the money so the teachers can teach kids with the drive to be the best they can. And the bad kids can be all in a class they deserve to be and allow the best to get better.

But we had that didn't we in the form of the Good Dr and he was seen off by the RFL

To get our house in order there needs to be changes at the very top. Teams like toronto may bring wads of cash but the RFL will only let them get away with it while it isn't upsetting the big boys, as soon as they get to super league the brakes will be applied.

I agree with everything you are saying in terms of the game cannot grow without investment BUT looking half away around the world won't mean squat if the same people are in charge.

Trouble is that you need new owners too, but you can't get new owners because the old owners (hethrington, mcmanus, lenegan et al) won't have any of it because they have set up production lines of young cheap talent that they know as long as the purse strings are curtailed on the rest of the league will allow them to compete and not have to dish out a lot of money.

Sky has largely got its part in the destruction of the game, the game is moulded around the TV audiences, everything Sky have done is for the good of their ratings and not the game.

So essentially you've got a league set up in a way that now the season doesn't even matter, which is what sky want because it means people are less likely to invest in seasons tickets when the season games have no meaning, and the clubs don't really have to invest in the squads because the top clubs know their production lines will see them through and the bottom clubs know that the is no way of accelerating their progress so they simply tread water hoping for a big club to flounder.

My action plan for the game is simple really and that is the RFL need to forget this Sky brought idea of play-off's and super 8 series and go back to basics.

Make the league the main thing that matters in the season if you want a special event at the end of the season then make that something like a State of Orgin or maybe a end of season 3 Uk vs 2 Oz teams. Until the league matters things will decline further. Look at football how many top class players do United/City/Chelsea etc have on their bench, thats because they know they can't afford to be caught out the season is long and EVERY game matters. We don't have to have strong squads, we proved that this year, as long as you can get your first team on paper fit around the end of the year the season doesn't matter, we went on our biggest losing streak in nearly 100 years and still almost made it to the final!

Imagine trying to sell this game to someone now

Basically there are 23 rounds, they mean nothing, in fact you don't even have to win half of these games and you still ok. Teams will be at around 60-70% strength for the bulk of this time.

Ah now we move onto the SUPER 8's which sounds good but it isn't, basically we now into stage 2 of the qualifying part of the year. Teams normally start to get a little stronger around this time, 1 or 2 teams have by now broken away at the front - these are normally the teams who took the season borderline seriously.

And now were into the third stage of the qualifying the semi finals

And now after a complete season we get to the one game that counts for anything

Top notch work Sky + RFL

[thegimble]

To get our house in order there needs to be changes at the very top. Teams like toronto may bring wads of cash but the RFL will only let them get away with it while it isn't upsetting the big boys, as soon as they get to super league the brakes will be applied.

Spot on this is the problem. Everything else is skirting around the issue. The bigger clubs with NY hopefully and Toronto need to break away from the RFL. RFL is the albatross that is killing the game.

They are the so called guardians/rulers and they are letting the poorer sides run SL. That is where I see the change coming sooner or later if Toronto go up and another side from the American continent go up to SL it will be the turning point. RFL will then do what they do and change rules to protect the cash poor Yorkshire clubs and I see a break away happening.

[Wigan_forever1985]

If I remember, years ago, were not Paris St. Germain elevated to Super League status at the expense of former World Club Champions, Widnes?

I stand to be correctd, but just where is Paris St. Germain now?

Sorry in advance for my being a bit foggy here, but cricket is the game that I am fairly expert.

Cheers.

They only did 2 seasons and they were lucky to even make it to the second season.

This is the issue expansion is fine when your product is good and there is a good solid case for it. Seems to RFL want to spread the game as thinly as possible

[moto748]

Sorry to sound down about this but i think Rugby League would be better served sorting out its product first. Theres bee a huge dip in interest over the last two years in particular.

Thats not just Wigan fans - look on all the forums people are very disgruntled with the state of the game. I personally wouldn't recommended the game to neutrals like i once would

i just think we need to start our own house out first

Sorry, but that's a logic fail for me. What linkage is there between Wigan fans (and those of other English teams) being dissatisfied, and a proposal to start up a team thousands of miles away?

Would 'not' setting up a team in NY do anything to bring about the changes fans want to see? I don't see it. Most of our complaints have one root cause: insufficient money in the game compared to other sports.

It's not as it's the same people who should be making our game better are ignoring that, and concentrating their efforts on building a NY team instead.

It is not a zero-sum game.