More people turned up to the Featherstone protest meeting that attended any games the following season!

In a venue that held 300 people, mmmmmm I think not, but keep fishing.

If you are refering to the protest march that was held at a game between Fev v Cas which included supporters from all three clubs (Fev/Cas/Wakey) you maybe closer, but again I suspect not, but lets not let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Fev grinder
Don’t get me wrong, the history of the game is in teams like Fev and cas etc, you cannot ignore that. And numbers are ok for towns of that size. But to expand the sport, if the North American venture takes off, the English clubs will very very quickly get left behind. Fev cas wakey, hull hull Kr, Warrington Widnes, financially and on a business setting none of them make sense as individual clubs.
As I say, mergers would be fiercely opposed quite rightly by folk from those towns, reality is regional top flight teams would have to emerge with traditional teams feeding them

The sport is dying in the heartlands, the evidence is clear having been to all the Championship and half of league 1 grounds over the last three years.

Failing to engage the increasing ethnic communities around all the heartland clubs is a factor.

I went to Batley recently, the ground is in a predominantly if not wholly Asian area. I got there early and on the way to park the car passed a field with a large number of kids in kit. I parked up and went back.

The kids were from Batley Boys ARLFC, both boys and girls from under 7's and next age group up. Good to see the girls but not an Asian player to be seen. Adjacent to the Bulldog's is a cricket ground, guess the ethnicity of the players?

This is not about history.

I honestly don't get how mergers help the game, we are in a situation where the number of people participating in RL is in serious decline, this being due to a number of factors such as amateur RL moving in the main into the summer, the reduction in funding towards academies, pro teams reducing the number of teams they manage (U19, U21, reserves), the introduction of DR which means lower division teams can run with leaner squads, etc. It appears to me that we are losing an armature club if not on a weekly basis, almost certainly on a monthly one.

Due to this drop off in players we have a situation where less funding comes in from sport England.

If we carry on at current rates in 10-15 years’ time there will be virtually no players below SL.
I personally want to see a successful London, Toronto, New York teams to add wider interest to the sport, but at the same time there is no reason why the so called lesser lights (Fev, cas, wakey, hull, hull Kr, Warrington Widnes, etc.) should not carry on competing. Let’s face in those terms Wigan and St. Helens become small clubs to be replaced by Liverpool, Manchester, etc. These “lesser” clubs will find their own level within the sporting hierarchy. If this means that over time Fev have to play in a League 1 or a League 2 or even have to go out of business in the future so be it.

Bottom line is that we have to increase the number of people participating in RL not trying to reduce the numbers.

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This for me.

As Call Me God goes on about London Broncos not marketing its self, the RFL as singularly failed to do this for the sport in general. And now SL just wants to pull up the drawbridge and look after their own interests rather than the interests of the sport at large.

"I honestly don't get how mergers help the game,"
My original post was tongue in cheek, hence the inclusion of Springfield in the list. Doh.


"This for me."

Not specifically, but a comment on the sports failure, and to be honest it is not just RL, to engage the whole community.

Blimey....I was only jesting about the Mergers

But now we're here......NZRU run 5 Franchise sides in the Super Rugby Competition, playing in South Africa, Australia, Japan and Argentina over a 7 month season Feb-Aug with Breaks for Internationals in June/July.
Then from Mid August to late October, they run the Provincial Rugby Comps (2 7 TEAM tiers with P&R) where the non All Black Super Rugby Players run out for their local provinces.
......NZ is a country of 600,000 fewer people than Yorkshire..........so keep Castleford, Wakefield and Featherstone for the local competition and have a team picked from those clubs selected for the International SL?

Just a thought.

CMG

It’s funny you should suggest this, one of the ex Fev committee men (TM) suggested this over 20 years ago. With the RL “teams” playing in the winter and area representative teams playing SL in the Summer (Humber, Calder, Leeds/York, Calderdale, South Yorkshire, London, Liverpool, Wigan/Leigh, Cumbria and Manchester).

However there are so many issues with it, venue logistics, player burn out, funding of SL & winter league, sponsorship, split of representative players across the winter league teams, etc.

However I guess you know all of this.

Maybe Super League should.
The RFL seems to have given up on London. After two pretty well attended internationals at the Olympic Stadium ,the RFL has all 3 of the Autumn's Tests along the M62, Magic Weekend has never come to the capital. And there is talk that while London could get a game the World Cup will be based in the heartlands cities. So standyby for games in Liverpool, Leeds , Manchester and Hull. All with easy access to the M62.
If it wasn't for the tradition I reckon the RFL would move the CC Final from Wembley to Newcastle or the Etihad.