I actually hope you're wrong though mate - fantastic club who had huge potential pre-SL, one of the definite casualties of the modern era.

must be one of the biggest sob stories of the modern rl era - the fall & rise & fall of a great rl institution...?

I don't know anything about them and if I'm totally honest I had never heard of them before I joined this site.

Have they ever been in the 'big time'?

No, but if Super League places for the 1996 debut season had been decided on achievements on the rugby pitch (rather then preferential treatment....

) the Cougars would have been.

The fickleness of their so called "supporters" when they failed to get into Super League speaks volumes. They had their chance the year after and bottled it.

Why didn't they get in?

Was it a financial thing or was it just because they were rubbish?

They were a fad. There was no long term sustainability in their business plan, nor did they benefit Rugby League as a whole.

The RFL gave London Broncos £10,000,000 and let them in instead, obviously.

Bit harsh calling it fickleness - don't blame those who stayed away afterwards personally. You work so hard to get to the top flight, then to have it taken away. And to know that it was probably your one chance to make it.

Quote ="Dave Lister"They were a fad. There was no long term sustainability in their business plan, nor did they benefit Rugby League as a whole. The RFL gave London Broncos £10,000,000 and let them in instead, obviously.'" I can see why www.chavtowns.co.uk/2005/04/keighley/ Love the quote [iTell a keefli lass she’ll get chlamydia if you shag her and your in there for certain, cos its not often they get flowers.[/i

Quote ="Dave Lister"They were a fad. There was no long term sustainability in their business plan, nor did they benefit Rugby League as a whole. The RFL gave London Broncos £10,000,000 and let them in instead, obviously.'" I can see why www.chavtowns.co.uk/2005/04/keighley/ Love the quote [iTell a keefli lass she’ll get chlamydia if you shag her and your in there for certain, cos its not often they get flowers.[/i

What a terrible attitude from their so called "supporters". Would you ditch Hull KR if they didn't get a license then? Pathetic.

Again I think that's unfair - they had developed an incredible fanbase (for a non-top flight club), and a marketing strategy that clubs like Bradford would take huge inspiration from.
IMO Keighley could certainly have been as big a club as say Cas and Huddersfield. And they would have benefitted Yorkshire and Lancashire clubs (with their away support) more then Quins have tbf.

Yet without London, there wouldn't have been a Super League....

So thats not really 'big' then?

No, but I wouldn't mouth off at a lot of kids who did (some kids can fickle is my point).

Bigger then several clubs (Crusaders, Salford, Quins, Wakey).

Why not?

surely most of the sudden increase in the fan base would have come from Bradford ? or am I talking out of my rear end again ?

So you are saying that Keighley were sustainable because the majority of their fanbase was made up of kids? Right.

Their "fans" quickly went back to Bradford when "Bull Mania" started too.

Well am not sure how big Keighley is in terms of population, so hard to say really...

Yes, because it's on their doorstep. They wouldn't have to travel over 3hrs for every away game, like we do.

What I meant was that a lot of kids want to watch SL rugby. This is evidence at Rovers. Before SL our fanbase was (I would say) predominately adult, but since promotion to SL you now see a lot of young people wearing our shirts and supporting the club. If Keighley had been granted an SL place they would have built on the big fanbase that they had in the second tier, and not lost a lot of kids to the Bradford bandwaggon.
Put it this way, they brought around 2000 to Craven Park for a Friday night game. Quins on a Sunday afternoon bring about 1/10 that.

In that case then they would have been more valuable to SL - if they took 2000 to Bradford, Leeds, Cas, Huddersfield and Wakefield (at say £12 each on average) that's £24,000 they would have contributed to the income of each club.

Because part of the terms of Sky's advent of the Super League was to have a London club in it. What would be the point of Sky/RFL creating a new Super League, if it was just gonna be full of M62 clubs? They could have just shown the league that was there beforehand.

That isn't exclusive to Hull KR, the same could be said for any club in this era.

(There is no way I am having that Keighley took 2000 to Hull on a Friday night unless a non-Hull KR supporter verifies this claim

)