That's the understatement of the year!!







To be fair to Barrow, I think their crowds could rise significantly. Look at how many they brought to the NRC final!!
If Des was of the same attitude as SOC about making the club self sufficient then I think they will become a serious threat in 2012. The problem is he's not.
He seems fairly happy to play the generous autocrat. Des needs to spend big... but on the marketing side. I'm not sure if they have anyone employed to do that but they need to work on selling their success if they are going to raise interest, attendances and the capital to improve Craven Park.

4 games in 2009.

how many times did Leigh got more than 2k?

your the deluded one, enjoy champ1

Did not know barrow have nearly 60,000 fans?

From East Hull to Bridlington.

You're all correct of course. Barrow have no chance, crap crowds, crap stadium and have no income other than Des Johnson's cash.

Great to be completely igorant of the facts and plans isn't it !

BTW, there could very well be more than 1 team 'promoted' from the Championship in 2012.

If the RFL want Barrow there, they'll be there regardless. They'll be put up and given time to sort themselves out with stadia just like Celtic (or just Crusaders now I should say), Cas, Salford etc. 'Rules' don't apply to the rule makers.

How very bitter you are! Haha must come from winning nowt again.

I believe your average crowds, (not inc NRC) was all of 30 or 40 more than Barrows.

True the ground is a dump, but who made you the auditor for what is acceptable for the Championship? The reason the ground is a dump is obvious, it is owned by the club and therefore maintained by the club. When times are hard (and they have been mighty hard at Craven Park in the last 20 yrs) the ground is the least priority. At least now with some success, increased crowds and a desire to improve CP, we should see some improvements. Who knows it may even meet your exacting standards TLBC.

The Poll is a load of b0ll0cks. I would suggest looking at it that some wag of ours has written a cheeky bit of code. haha

As for Franchise, Widnes deffo. Fax? I cannot see or what they would bring to the competition. All talk Fax.

Not too bothered about going up to Super League, its all a big mess up there anyway.
Championship is keeping me entertained.

I have to say I partially agree although it seems the RFL are doing their best to keep this league part-time and under funded.

yeah the only thing you have is location

lets face it you dont have much else going for you at this point.

as for the franchise, most fax fans i think are already ready to be shaffted by the RFL and left out in the National leagues for years to come, so i am already prepared for it.

the only good thing Barrow have is location, what else can you say ticks your franchise box apart from winning the grand final of course and congratulations again on that achievement, but there is nothing else but them 2 things going for you.


i fully expect Widnes to get in, who else, although we dont have the location we have other things, so Halifax, Baroow or Toulouse for the last spot, if 2 go up.

but rest assured i am already prepared for dissapointment, were just not in the expantion zones now are we.

now excuse me am off to do a protest outside RFL headquarters until my demands are met

In response to Faxtastic, (and on 2012 franchise applications in general)

If I am brutally honest, I don't think it would be good for Barrow to get a franchise in 2012. I also think it wouldn't be good for Fax. Neither of our clubs has the fan base or I suspect youth development programmes at present to support a successful SL franchise.

The only club approaching these necessary standards and infrastructure is, may my tongue turn black for saying it, Widnes! However I still think it would be a big step up for them, possibly too big, unless they establish/demostrate the financial viability that SOC is striving for and add another 2 - 3k to the gate. Possible but ambitious and no criticism or offense is intended.

The problem both Barrow and Fax share is we need to more than double our existing gates to be a viable franchise, with a salary cap of £2m pa thats a £4m turnover. Not sure how many clubs are currently doing that in SL, tho the info is available, but none of us in the Championship are anywhere near that. This is also where expansion will always fail unless the club can be underwritten by a substantial financial backer until the sport/club starts to attract the nembers and sponsorship required to support itself.

Which should be the main focus of the RFL for all Championship clubs , but do they really want us to achive that , if we did , it makes it more difficult to bring expansion clubs through the lower tiers

well they have the biggest attendances in the league and may be able to draw more in. they are certainly in the best position. whether thr RFL think they are a club that is expantion enough is yet to be seen.

i dont think the RFL will have be able to turn Widnes down 2 franchises in a row.

Steve O'connor has threatened legal action if we dont get in.

I doubt it would be as simple as that , unless of course the RFL have stated to him that the only reason last time was because of the financial situation

That would happen the moment we enter SL. We averaged around 7,000 fans the last time we were in SL. And that was with a poor team heading for relegation.

Has he?

everyone can get bigger attendances in super league.

dont have the actuall figures but am sure we will have been avaerageing 5k a week in super league.

Yes, we would all increase our attendances in SL. I'm not sure what your point is?

My point was in answer to "Off! Number Seven", who stated that we would need to add an extra 2-3 thousand in SL to be sustainable. I assumed he was not talking about getting an extra 2-3 thousand while still in the Championship. that would mean we'd have to average 6,500 and no club in this league will ever achieve this. That would be impossible. Several, existing, SL clubs don't even get that average. So it must be a total for SL. As such, as I pointed out, we averaged that last time in SL, and would almost certainly do so again. Ergo, we should meet his target of 2-3 thousand easily.

Yes faxstatic mate.More away fans which is obvious with big clubs like leeds,saints,wigan,hull,warrington etc.Only a few teams bring poor away support.The frogs and the welsh minibus.You also get fans who only watch top tier rugby and is a better market in superleague.

naa misunderstood what had been written in the previous messages,

just been through them my mistake misunderstood what was being said.

Oh yea of little faith

It would, and you know it!

Having no promotion will guarantee it stays that way too.

Somebody said , it couldn't be done and he with a chuckle replied

Maybe it couldn't but he would be one who wouldn't say so till he had tried

So he started right in with a trace of a grin , on his face if he worried , he hid it

He started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done

And he did it

2000 - 5,500-ish
2001 - 4,800-ish
2002 - 4,000-ish
2003 - 3,000-ish

4,200 average over 4 years.