www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 54,00.html Really appalled by this. The expansion plan just isn't working. Rugby league clubs we currently have works. And only just because Quins and Saders offer no support and neither does catalans, at home catalans arent too bad but there away support offers nothing to other super league clubs.

www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 54,00.html Really appalled by this. The expansion plan just isn't working. Rugby league clubs we currently have works. And only just because Quins and Saders offer no support and neither does catalans, at home catalans arent too bad but there away support offers nothing to other super league clubs.

That's assuming their announced attendances can be believed and judging by the Bulls game they're stretching credulity to it's absolute limit.

People developing the game in Ireland have ambition and a target (even if it's unrealistic) – outrageous! don't they understand it's a local game for local people?

Look ffs "Things change and people change

And my mind just gets hazy

I truly thought I knew you

How wrong can you be"



As the mint miss James wrote



Get used to the fact that RL needs to adapt to modern ways, this includes expansion and yes at the cost of small clubs. Yes we are a small club and unless we adapt and expand our customer base we will fall.



No dont point the finger saying there poo because. Only if we raise our game will we still be in SL,

I am in full agreement with expansion but this has to be done realistically to make it work. Expansion should take place in your own country to enable all fans the chance to see our great game. Having teams from Wales, Scotland, France, Ireland or such as Russia in Super League is totally inept. Can you ever see teams from these countries playing in the Premier Division of the football league, thus having Manchester United going to Paris for a league match one week followed by Inverness the following week and Dublin the month after that, there is more chance of hell freezing over so why do we have to be the only ones stupid enough to think that this will ever work. We have tried previously at Kent, Mansfield and Nottingham without any successs so why should it be any different in further afield.

Are you taking the ?



Man U, and the other teams that finished in the top 4 (?) of the PL, play league games against teams from other European countries throughout the season. Might not be Inverness and Dublin, but does include Barcelona, Madrid, Glasgow, etc.

Pff that Champions league thing will never take off

He has a point. The Champions league is for the elite clubs and does not run week in, week out like a domestic league. I don't think you can draw a sensible parallel between European Premier League Soccer where a single player is paid more in a week than the most highly paid SL player gets in a year and where crowds of 50k+ and global TV audiences of multiple millions are the norm, and RL where there are teams getting crowds of 2k and the salary cap for the entire squad is less than Wayne Rooney gets.

Add in the UEFA (or whatever they call that now) and it's the top 10 or so teams in English soccer, compared to the top 12 in English RL, so not much difference.

We then ask our RL teams to make one trip to North Wales, and one to South Wales, and one to France. Hardly compares to what the soccer teams hit in terms of travel.

The big difference is the UEFA is a separate competition and less than 50% of the teams are eligible for it whereas 100% of the RL teamshave to make the trips that to me indicates a vast difference. Also taking into account how much money has been thrown at Harlequins and the Crusaders can you say that this justifies them being in the Super League when they cannot survive on their own attendances and before you say give them a chance the Harlequins have had 30 years to make it work and as we all know it never will.

It's not exactly a lot of trips.



How much money has been thrown at Harlequins and Crusaders? Who by? When?

The game has always been about a competitive game of rugby league played in front of both home and away supporters. This is not a flexible statement that will change with time!



If the geography of teams restricts an away following.....well the geography ain't right for the game. The RFL must be bonkers if they expect that even the loyalist of fans can afford or justify the expense of traveling in their hundred's if not thousands week in week out. Either that or they don't care about the reality of the game as long as it fits with their ideal model.



We are not football, in any way or form. Hence comparrisons to the Champions League are about as far fetched as the tooth fairy. The money involved in RL is not even that which it was in football 40 years ago, and we don't and never will, have the World wide following which football commands.



Spreading the game might look good on a map, but empty seats don't look good on the TV or at the game. Yet the RFL's action confirm that they continue to negate the importance of having visiting fans, it will be the downfall of the game. Banter, singing, chanting is part of what gives a game it's atmosphere. Without this atmosphere....well you might as well save your increasingly hard to earn money and stay at home and cheer and shout at the TV with friends .....or use your £20 on beer and to go to the pub and enjoy the game in a pub atmosphere.



We all know as loyal home and away supporters, both supporters and teams feed off the buz and atmosphere at the game. It's the very same buz that makes us addicted to the game!! It's the very same buz that keeps us coming back, and enthuses our friends socially and at work to come to a game to see what it's all about. It certainly isn't seeing empty stadiums on tv that makes newcomers want to be a part of the game.



Simply put home and away supporters = buz = growing numbers,



NO visiting supporters = a game that your not bothered about missing = falling numbers!