Just out of curiosity, do you think the Crusaders just being down the road has made any difference to your attendances?

No

lol no!

Turning it around slightly Nik, with Leigh being in Wigan

, do you think that has affected your attendances?

No

Yea tons



There are plenty of fans desperate to watch SL sides instead but forgot that Wigan, Saints & Wi^e are all about 30mins closer than Crusaders!

Keep wishing though your little borough of Wigan may match are crowds one day, or even break the 2k barrier...

Considering you are"certs" for SL and you have one of the best teams when fit in the League,I would not crow too much about attendances.

Leigh do alright based on a couple of very dissapointing seasons, the fans will start coming back now we are playing attractive rugby.The attendance arguments is probably the most boring continual topic on this or any other site.

Considering we are "a small town in Wigan" as other fans love to chant we do extremely well as the Pies are consistantly the best supported team in SL, yet you will see very few Wigan shirts in the town of Leigh.

It's not crowing about them, it's a comparison!

Attendance argument is very tedious yes... so why not tell Leythers not to bother coming on here to start one? Then trying to back yours up when gets put across

The original post was a genuine question, no matter who daft you thought it was, you turned it into a dig at Leigh.

Its on the pitch what counts anyway

We can only believe that eh! Great season so far in Championship and hope it can reignite more interest all around, would love to see the minimum attendances of about 1500 and max4,500 - 5000 on a regular basis.

IMO if the RFL stopped messing about throwing money at 1/2 clubs and put some into the Championship are game would be ten times better for it and RL as a Sport as a whole would grow and challenge Union a lot more etc, as the numbers of fans and also participants would go to a record high!

My mate from Runcorn goes to watch their home games.

Is he welsh? If not why does he?

In answer to the question, yes, I do think us being so close to Wigan has affected our attendances, but always has done. Crusaders on the other hand are a new team to "your area", and would possibly (if the doomsayers were to be believed) have led to fair weather supporters from (for example) the Chester area deserting you to head into Wrexham.

As for the digs at Leigh, we'll see what the situation is when we meet....

Leighs cup final.

This thread is just mischief making on Niks part. We will see how the crusaders go in the long term, we've seen massive crowds from new teams before, in the meantime, it's still nothing to do with us. But nice try Nik.

It isn't mischief making at all Chris, as a passionate supporter of expansion I noticed when the relocation of the Crusaders franchise that there was a lot of talk in the VT that they would be taking fans from established clubs. My view was that it wouldn't happen, and that it would bring new spectators to the sport, especially in Wrexham, a large town with no real sporting presence that is full of ex North Westerners.

No trolling intended, I was just curious if this actually had happened.

Could've fooled me Nik. Thing is, Wrexham and Widnes might be close geographically but not culturally. Our Welsh contingeant is not all that large and you're unlikely to dent our figures with a club there.

I would say our current crowd decreases are more to do with the licensing saga and the inevitable bad feeling towards a team that has its ambitions capped by "passionate supporters of expansion". People who would see clubs like Oldham go to the wall just to see a sham team in Sunbury on Thames.

The longer we're stuck in this division with the current feeling of scepticism towards the governing body of the sport the more the crowds will drop, and every club are going to suffer the same fate.

I grew up in Wrexham, and can tell you without a shadow of doubt that there has always been a large RL following in the town (hence my interest in their impact on SL). I knew as many english as welsh when I was growing up on the outskirts in the late 70s/early 80s.

And yes, I would see Oldham go to the wall. I'd also see Leigh or Widnes go if there was the obvious lack of interest in the game in the area as there obviously is no interest in the game in Oldham, certainly compared to Wrexham or Catalonia. I wouldn't say I'd be happy to see them go but you can't keep throwing money at clubs that are failing, its no wonder the RFL is only just turning its finances around after years of paddling a holed canoe.
I'm not saying that Broncos are my ideal team, but at least I can understand that without a London club, there will be no Sky money. Without Sky money there will be no SLE. Without SLE, RL will continue the slide into obscurity that had started before its creation. So a London club is a necessary evil in the game.
Conversely, Catalan and Crusaders (to date, I'm not shouting too loudly about Crusaders crowds yet though, give it a second season of good attendances) are showing that you can grow the sport outside it's recent heartland core. So two out of three successes, with one necessary evil isn't a bad result.

Incidentally, I used the word "recent" rather than "traditional" as it is only the post war era where the game has retreated to the North of England. The expanisionists are just reclaiming historic bases.

So which one is it? Keep Harlequins or let them die?

He always used to go and watch whichever team had a game he liked the look of, but why he would head over to Wrexham when he could get to St Helens far easier is beyond me. Still, he earns it so I suppose he can spend it as he likes.

There is a lot of interest in the game around Oldham, just as there is in Widnes, Leigh and Cumbria. Don't confuse lack of interest in the biggest clubs in those places with any lack of interest in the game of rugby league. The amateur game is thriving in those places. I can't think of any amateur team in or around Wrexham.

i love these expansionists who've been following the european super league for 15 years.god knows how many millions of euro's later & theres still only one team from the mainland.you just could'nt make it up.if it was'nt so ridiculous i'd p1ss myself laughing.

Letting hundreds of year old clubs die and replacing them with struggling teams in pockets of the country is not expansion, its a relocation, and one that leaves us significantly worse off. You would allow Oldham to go to the wall?

You're pathetic mate. People like you with pie in the sky ideas and a tactless disregard for history and existing fans are exactly what is wrong with this game. Instead of having a game which is ran by people trying to strengthen the game as a whole we have a bunch of one eyed morons who are actually more worried about how others think about us than serving existing fans.

This is our game. We made it, for us, because rugby as was wouldn't allow us to grow.

There is no point growing the game even to be intergalactic if you take it out of our hands, because that's just a sport someone else is enjoying. I wouldn't even sacrifice leigh for a team elsewhere, there's no point. I would encourage growth elsewhere, but simply tossing a franchise in the outer hebrides and shouting "catch" wont work and if we as a sport neglect our stronghold we will weaken to a degree we may never recover from.

And I have yet to see one piece of evidence to suggest sky would pull their cash without the current sham that is Quins. It's conjecture, and probably nonsense. We're already underpaid for the viewers we bring in, and our media coverage in the capital is still negligeable and doesn't improve when Quins are doing well so I fail to see that argument. If we got rid of them, we'd be in roughly the same position. I'd suggest we don't need to just yet and I wouldn't relegate them tomorrow but neither would I prioritise them above the Oldhams of this world, rugby league runs deep there and we'll lose a lot if we give it up entirely. The London question is too complex to be summed up in one paragraph but let's not pretend they are some sacred cow rugby league cannot survive without.

People like you honestly make me laugh. You'd be happy for rugby league to completely lose the whole north of england as long as it was massively popular elsewhere. What on earth would be the point of that?

Tbf There is a history of League in the south of France.

theres no history of french teams in the british game is there?.what do catalan bring to RL in this country-nothing-no TV money no sponsorship money no expantion of RL in france.is there domestic league any stronger because they're in SL?infact what they accually do is take £650thousand pounds out of the british game every year-unexceptable for me-that money could be better spent strengthening the british game or even strengthening the french game at grass roots.its a complete waste of money.

i'll say what ive said before & that is,no one is saying dont expand the game but it must be done properly & that means growing from the bottom as the scorpions seem to be doing & not by design or by accident as some others seem to have done.

also if you want a european league by all means have one but it needs to be seperated from the RFL & totally self-sufficient & not filled with teams from lancashire & yorkshire.