And rightly so, 1 will go and Quins will survive with a little help.

WE still need to be fully concentrated on delivering Newmarket. There is nothing stopping the RFL from kicking us and Quins out.

I cant see 15 teams in s/l cos that s up the idiotic february magic weekend

what a mess they have created

Absolutely. A non SL club is never going to be able to match up to the same criteria as the SL clubs until they are in the same league, so its right that you assess them on separate criteria with a view to what they expect to do in their first 3 year franchise.

FWIW, I don't see the inclusion of Widnes as a gamble, well run club in a RL hotbed area, decent facilities and will easily get more average crowd then Harlequins, Crusaders and Salford.

The point here is as a number have already said, the RFL have backed themselves into a corner with Harlequins plight, because there is no way a fair and transparent processcould come out with a decision that Harlequins should remain in over either Wakey and Cas (if you apply all criteria and not just stadium and expansion related ones). Will be interesting to see how they get out of this one

The issue won't arise regarding going up to 15 until 2012 season, so in theory they could scrap the magc weekend altogether or come up with a way around the issue by then. I suspect the magic weekend concept will be reviewed again after the 2011 event based on the attendances anyway

Widnes deserve the Franchise IMO.

Imo the can't get out of it and they will chuck someone out, they can't do anything else, backed themselves into a corner and that will cost someone a Franchise, it will get very messy but it will happen.

Well heres the solution, promote widnes to a 15 team superleague. have the magic weekend with the champions (thatll be Cas obviously

) rested that week in build up to the wcc game.

Or just chuck it all in and go back to p&r

Its interesting that this topic is being discussed on the Wakey site given it would appear you are one of the clubs in dangers

I spoke to David Hughes after the Quins v Hull game-During the previous week he had held a meeting with Woods from the RFL about the RFL assisting Quins - not providing finacial baccking/support. At the moment Hughes is the 35% owner of the club with Lennegan at Wigan holding the remaining shares(majority)- One of the things he was asking the RFL to assist him with was the sourcing of a backer to buy into the club-ie take over IL shares
I asked him if we were buying any players- His response and this is not fabricated, was not at the moment but there is a belief some players will fall out of the Wakey and cas trees as they are in dire straights financially-followed by, as are Salford(I know they have just spent heavilly) and the Crusaders-he mentioned that all those clubs had been in talks with the RFL!!

Having said all of that he said he will not continue to put in the levels of money he currently is

And just how would he come by that information, if clubs have spoken to the RFL then surely that informations behind closed doors or did they just happen to mention it to Mr Hughes.

Any ideas?

Its being discussed all over the joint if you care to look. The hard facts are . the rfl will do anything for expansion clubs and the rest can go to hell.
The tennis loving freak that is in charge must be removed and Rugby League people put in place before he kills the game completely.
Are they helping Whitehaven ?????? Are they

Its a disgrace and the quins should be made to survive on their own like the rest (crus excepted but thats another disgrace )

Dire straights financially? No idea, but not a season goes by without a rival supporter claiming such a thing.

I don't think its a secret that Trinity sail close to the wind financially, mainly due to not having a rich benefactor and a having small fan base.

Quins had the former, unfortunately he is now unwilling or unable to support the club in the manner he had been doing therefore reality is biting.

There is no doubt our fan base will grow with the new ground. HAving said in a previous thread the fans increased but then we put our stadium prices up and brought some 3rd rate players in to replace the good players we had built up. IS there any wonder why we don't increase.

Take it or leave it- I have no gripe with Wakey or any other club Im just repeating what the chairman said to me, one to one.

Lets see what happens.

Which chairman?
Wigan, Quins, RfL?

I don't know how relevant this is to the discussion, but I have a close relative that is conducting a marketing campaign on behalf of the RFL for next year and all the current SL clubs are involved with this except one. Can you guess who the missing club is?
If you answered Quins you would be wrong. If you answered Wakefield you would be right!

Except we'll be there for next year. The rumourn would have been so much better had you said the campaign was for 2012, or that it included Widnes too.

haha.... epic rumour fail!

According to this link,the rumour is that John Kear strongly tipped for taking over at Quins
[url=http://www.league.quins.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=241Interesting Reading[/url

As apposed to it starting in 1895 in Wakefield.

Makes me laugh this, now I am not saying we should go or London should stay - but we are in no position to comment on them in my opinion. Them in glass houses and all that.

They have a handfull of homegrown players playing for them (LMS, Clubb, Sharpe) and another few have broken in to the squad this year and look hopefull. Crowds are clearly a problem for them and they underacheive in this area, but given our lack of attendences even in our relatively 'succesfull' seasons we aren't in a position to poke fun.

And the most important thing of all in my opinion is that if they aren't in the league then you really think the funding from Sky in its current form would continue at the same level? Like it or not if we want to keep getting our hands on the big Sky divvy at the start of every year then we need them in the competition and there is no argument to that. Fair enough, if we were Wire or Hudds and had the Sugar Daddy to pump several hundred thousand in a year we could absorb the innevitable drop in Sky money, we might even be able to handle it if we had the attendences of Leeds, Wigan or Hull FC - but we dont. Despite 100+ years in the league we are almost completely reliant on Sky money (I reckon) and to lose London would innevitably reduce our income and put our club even further behind the rest, or more likely out of business.

If you took a vote of the owners or Celtic, Salford, Hull KR and Cas then it would be pretty much guaranteed they would vote to keep London in the league, if they didnt it would be turkeys voting for Christmas.

I agree that having London in the league does mena more sky money, however if we were relagated to the championship at the expence of quins then we would loose out far more than if the sky money was reduced so i would rather stay in super league on reduced sky money thaen drop into the championship.

What i find interesting is that Governing bodies seem happy to have someone bankroll a team/organisation. It doesn't seem to matter how much debt they rack up so long as they're competitive on the field. Franchising is suppose to allow clubs to become stronger off the pitch without the pressure of onfield results (Relegation).

But it seems we have clubs continually spending beyond their means and whilst this time it's Quins in serious trouble. What happens when the other backers become tired of bankrolling the respective club?

The clubs in my opinion who are more deserving of a franchise spot are those that keep their house in order and aren't reliant on one backer.

With reference to Quins, it may be beneficial for them to drop a division, relocate and restart in an area where they can grow their attendances. Currently they're just surviving season after season which is no good. We can't expect the RFL to keep throwing handouts. A team in London will work, but it needs to be thoroughly thought out and needs a permanant home.

It sounds like everything right has been done. The RFL will play a greater role in funding grassroots in expansion in the South, which has to be right, and the majority shareholder will be forced to relinquish his share because he owns another club, which has to be right as well, because his Wigan-focus is bound to be a hindrance for Quins. Now they can attract another investor (or rich bloke who would rather blow his money on a plaything than give it to the taxman).

Is there a more corrupt league in any sport than this superleague ?

I just wonder when they are going to start the financial aid to Cas, Wakey Salford , even to saints cos they posted a big loss this year ........................................ My advice for this one is "dont hold your breath".

It makes the championship more attractive if just to get away from these bent s

makes me laugh sometimes what people expected of a franchise system, basically its SL that is the franchise, not each club so they can actually do what the hell they like to keep the franchise stable and if that means treating each club differently then i afraid its ok, and we all bought in to it. Like ive said before if mcdonalds could get in the vatican they would not care if they ever sold a burger.

Perry wrote:Facts people, facts.

London / Quins have NEVER been bailed out financially by the RFL or Superleague.
(When we reformed in 2005 there was no money received, all that happened was the debt to David Hughes was written off leaving Mr Hughes out of pocket).

The RFL have failed to enforce the condition that Ian Lenegan sell his shareholding in Quins within 2 years of taking over Wigan, but they have enforced the condition that forbids Mr Lenegan from investing any money in Quins (not that Mr Lenegan is complaining about this I suspect).

David Hughes is not asking for a handout, he is asking that the situation regarding Ian Lenegan owning 65% of the club be resolved, and that the RFL start to address their responsibilities regarding development of the game.

Just posted this on the VT in response to the above post, I have nothing particular against Quins but this whole business seems to have the usual RFL smoke and mirrors about it :


Sorry, call me cynical, but I suspect this call for "assistance" re the development of the game is a smokescreen to try and avoid a public outcry from other struggling clubs, who see the RFL's willingness to assist so called expansion clubs at the detriment of traditional heartlands clubs as unfair.

The losses Quins are suffering cannot be attributed to the cost of the development of the game in the South, for the simple reason that no sane business man (which I believe David Hughes is), is going to pump GBP 1.5m a year into a club to cover such costs - he would have said to the RFL years ago, sorry but this is not our responsibility - you need to bear some of the burden.

Also not sure what major difference IL not having 65% of the shares has to do with it either. If these are relinquished for nothing by IL at the request of the RFL, what difference will that make to David Hughes? He will still be pumping in the same amount of money just owning 100% of the shares - therefore Quins are no better off and neither is David Hughes (or am I missing something).