Great article that, thanks. I was only about 4/5 when SL started so I had no idea that Keighley had been screwed over so badly. RFL haven't changed much then...

Typical modern RFL, taking ideas of member heartland clubs and then using them to aid the inclusion of outside clubs... same as they do with money brought in by these sides too!

I was always under the impression he was a junior at Barrow could be wrong though.

came through the fev lions juniors was born and bread in townville "castleford" and now lives in ackworth "pontefract" so yes i think you are a million miles off the radar.

ade gardner on the other hand was from barrow.

According to yesterday's Hull Daily Mail Quins, Cats & Crusaders are all thought to be safe.

We're all doomed, then!

Well they say it's only what they hear, but it wouldn't surprise me to be honest.

Did they directly qoute the ministry of the bleedin obvious?

Should all three have guaranteed immunity like this though

Why not just bring back P&R like proper Sports have.

Because half the clubs in the Championship would go bust.

Jeez, I'm a York fan too and I want P&R to be scrapped from Champ & Champ 1.

Hey is it true you guys are looking at building a new stadium though?

It's undoubtedly true that Quins, Crusaders and Catalans are all thought to be safe. And I can think of no reason why Catalans should be anything else.

However, as me owd mam allus used to tell us:

"Tha knaws wot Thought did? Thought thought his feet were stickin outa ' bed - so e got out to tek a look".

Come again?

I'll believe it when I'm sat in it mate...

Ah right, well best of luck bud, would be great for the city (presumably it would be shared with the football club?), always had soft spot for York, some great afternoons/days there with Rovers.

That kind of tactic is lifted straight out of the RFL's operational manual.

Related to this argument, I think one of the major things we have going for us in any license application is the crowd factor. With us in the league, there will instantly be six derbies (v wigan/wire/saints) where the grounds will look pretty damn chocka and will belt out some real noise for the telly-watching public to be impressed by. The overall round-by-round attendance totals for the league will rise a fair bit too. At present, there are FAR too many games in SL where the grounds look awfully empty on the telly. That tumbleweed at the Willows and the Racecourse needs cutting down badly.

Couldn't agree more - our series in NL1 against you guys in 2006 was fantastic. The atmosphere & crowds were superb, in SL it'll be even better.

+ considering the travelling support Widnes will take for the derbies like you said, the Vikings will work this time without a doubt.











Widnes! Widnes! Widnes!

sorry mate but all this is irrelevant SLE exists to expand the game far beyond the northern territories.

But it's simply unrealistic - Paris didn't work, Broncos/Quins didn't work, Crusaders hasn't worked. Cats has (in a way), but overall that's failure IMO.

If Widnes don't get in this time round it's the biggest injustic in the history of RL IMO.

sorry mate but there should be no teams entering from the north,northern team should only be exiting the league.the only teams entering should come from other parts of the uk and mainland europe.

Why though? Basically you're saying Widnes should be discriminated against because of geographical location?

Without the fact BSkyB giving your club 1.2 million a year for being in SL, would HKR have worked so hard to get to SL? How would HKR cope without that 1.2 million a year? Would the club still exist as a professional entity? Would you be able to afford all those aussies you employ? The same question can be asked of pretty much every club in SL.......take away the BSkyB money and they would fold pretty quickly. And..in case you missed it earlier, BSkyB wanted a london team..........

Like it or not, on a purely business basis, London Broncos are the reason that Rugby League in the UK has remained as a professional sport......regardless of the financial mire the club itself is in. As for the other areas of your assessment of failure......please scroll back and read the stuff on London RL in general...the youth, the cockney internationals etc....don't keep falling back on crowds...and especially the number of away fans....it just continues to show your argument as baseless and 1 dimensional.

....on that we can agree.

So if SL hadn't fast-tracked London in 1995 then Sky would have pulled the plug?

If so they're insane.

"All those aussies..." Ffs, it's ridiculous (and hugely hypocritical) for you to keep having a go at us for having several Aussies in the team, have you completely forgotten London Broncos in the 1990's/early 2000's then?