What 'rubber stamp' was this? At least two clubs voted against the deal, so presumably they had more than one option presented to them.

The RFL takes the flak for an awful lot of stuff that's down to the SL club chairmen. You'd think that folk would bother to do a little research before sounding off.

2.6m is a hell of a lot bigger than 216k.

where is the 2.6m from?

Prey tell when the betfair offer was disclosed?

The conurbation Wigan is part of which is what I said.

Or were you trying to equate Wigan and Wigan Borough with Halifax and the entirity of Calderdale?

To avoid a boring debate on what counts as what, lets just use the actual equivalent figures. There are 82k people in the Halifax urban area and 166k in the Wigan urban area.

Ahh so you are including Greater Manchester in there. Oh dear.

Still a provincial northern town whos population is the less than Halifax's. Not that it matters as they are a fantastic team.

See above.

Wigan town approx 81k

Halifax town approx 90k

Both provincial northern towns. However, one is a major hub for the biggest bank in the country and the other sells beans.

HSBC has big offices in London and Leeds, i didnt know it had major offices in Halifax. But if you want to pretend that the arbitrary boundry based usually on geography which is as old as methusalah is a better measure than the actual amount of people in an area when judging the amount of people in an area crack on. I dont know what you think it adds to your argument though.

But Lewis is clearly not one for backing down.

A man of principle, he is reputed to have threatened to resign in 2005 if Super League clubs failed to back a plan to save London Broncos and, more recently, he put his neck on the line by urging Super League clubs to reject a lucrative offer from a betting company and instead accept a cash-less sponsorship deal with Stobart.

Taken from the sporting life website,best have a pop at them smokey seems it was his bidding for his lorry driving mate who he let get promoted even though they never topped the championship last season but hey ho

Terrible news, I seriously fear we will struggle to find someone of his calibre in the long-term. I've always felt he had a quiet, dignified authority that shone through the bluster of reckless club chairmen and flatcappers. It speaks volumes that the worst his detractors can throw at him are actually for the most part down to the clubs and their leaderships.

Arent HSBC's headquarter in Hong Kong now? Hardly British. But i digress, so we are agreed. You were wrong and Wigan and the rest are provincial northern towns. Good. Now carry on with your baiting of others.

Let me strap myself in while Smokey takes us on one of his tedious thread derailment journies . . .

Surely that emphasises my point if you think there are that many fans that "support" the game and the rest come to whinge about everything?
If we had more fans like the 1,500 you think there are, then we'd be in a far better position to grow. If we spent more time and effort on fans that actually like the game and want to see it grow and rid ourselves of the cancer that is the "fans" that want to see the game fail just so they can be right in their pessimism then we'd be a real player.

Strong words. But there's been stronger used for far more unjust reasons, and ones that they use to effectively see the destruction of our game for nothing but apathy. I'm not after a fawning of the governing body, just support for the game and its attempts to better itself. For a site called "RLFans", there aren't many on it.

And for the record, if you really believe that more than 85% of the game's fans aren't happy with the way the game is run, you are vastly misguided and only listening to the people that agree with you and ignoring the rest. 50% of the games fans probably don't even care about the politics and just stick with watching the product. Just because British people tend to moan louder about the things they don't like more than they praise things they do like doesn't mean there are more people that don't like things.

Seems somewhat strange that people who are politically poles apart can share similar views when it comes to the game and what has or has not been of benefit to it.

I'm rather pleased that I'm now considered to be a superleague fairy, despite having seen what the administrations of Fallowfield, Oxley and Lindsay managed to visit on the game. After that lot, I'm amazed we still have a sport to follow.

I agree entirely. I think the fact that the majority of the "negatives" of his career have happened at the back end of it (where he had taken a backseat due to other roles, such as Sport England, and left us with Wood in charge) is an indication of how much we did need him.

I sincerely hope he can be involved in picking his successor, and that this person comes from outside of the game.

A cancerous fan that pays £20 to pizz and moan is just as valuable as one that pays £20 and sleepwalks through mediocrity and kisses ass.

No, they are headquartered in London at 8 Canada Square.

Whether they are or they arent, they dont want to play the likes of Halifax, and the other clubs i named. If they are, then they can. But they dont.

They are. Thought we agreed on that?

No it isn't. The fan that p*sses and moans takes more effort to please and puts more people off going. The other is easier to please and encourages more to go. Big businesses do actually value the latter more than the former, and too right they should.

You can knit fog about that if you wish but it is irrellevant

I'm sorry but that's bollax. I moan a lot about the game. I've also managed to get people to come to matches now and again that don't normally go. I pay my £20 and the club cares not a jot how I view the game.

Apart from on this silly website which we all frequent no-one hears or gives a hoot about our opinions.

Big businesses go out of there way to try and change the "people that moan" into people that dont. All customers are important.

jotbin.com/articles/2007/01/14/p ... ttendances Here you go smokey whilst your ranting about towns pop and so on jotbin.com/articles/2006/01/11/p ... ttendances Knock yer self out lad

jotbin.com/articles/2007/01/14/p ... ttendances Here you go smokey whilst your ranting about towns pop and so on jotbin.com/articles/2006/01/11/p ... ttendances Knock yer self out lad