Quote Extreme Dave="Extreme Dave"I have been a Leeds supporter since I was little. I’m from the North-East and always have been extremely passionate about my RL. I started to support Gateshead (not as much as Leeds) when they came around in 99 as they are my local club.
I suggest once again you do a little research into the Gateshead story seen as your well off the mark with what happened. Gateshead was a set up from the start by the RLF to keep Hull from folding. So the cost of a new club (you may not like it but the potential was defo there but build a great club) was removed to keep yet another struggling heartland club going that was on its way out. When a buyer wanted Thunder, he was refused and immediately after this the ruling came that Thunder had to “merge” with Hull. I ask was it worth it? Seen as Hull have done little to prove they where worth saving.
I agree the RLFs handling of some things are not the best, however, IF your team does go down, it does not mean it will fold and be the end of civilisation in your hometown now does it. With such a following, you have a much stronger chance of coming back up and recovering. Or are you trying to say that once if you go down, your fans will desert their club?
Your making out that any heartland club should not go down as they will loose so much and that you talk as if they deserve not to be relegate because of their history and fans etc. When Thunder where bottom and getting trashed each week, did you complain, NO. You couldn’t careless.
The rule of Thunder having quota players is coming down each year, we are allowed 3 I think (might be 4, I can’t remember). Has the rule made that much difference, Thunder have battled relegation all season, so this “advantage” isn’t proving your point.
So in a few years when Thunder and Toulouse (if not in SL) have to play by the same rules as all other clubs, fight for a top position or again look like avoiding relegation and sending a heartland club down, will you complain? I reckon so.
This is not aimed at you solely, but all who have this issue.'"
I am not insinuating that leigh getting relegated to Championship 1 will be the death of us , we are the second worst team in the Championship without a doubt , our points scored tells us that , we finish in a relegation spot we go down , no problem , we will bounce back
Longer term things are different , every time we have a club exempt from relegation or being able to sign players that other clubs cannot, that eats into our fan base and makes it more difficult to attract fans and sponsorship
So you understand the hurt seeing a club you support sacrificed for the benifit of another , well that is something we as fans of heartland NL clubs saw last season when it was plain to all what was going on at Celtic , Widnes most significantly , also the way the RFL blatantley refused to let leigh put the LSV into the application and yet they had several other clubs plans put on a par with our 90 % completed stadium
We also had Richard lewis making a total idiot of himself on TV stating that we at Leigh had a worse junior development than Celtic despite us topping our reserve comp 3 years in a row
I can live with expansion on purely location grounds as that is what we have , what I cannot take is the RFL not having the balls to come out and state it , they could have saved Leigh and Widnes a lot of much needed money last year , instead they promise everybody that they are wanted and that all clubs will be judged equaly
The RFL have been duplicit in the shambles of the Celtic visa's , they are now hoping that if it is ignored for long enough people will forget aboiut it and they will release a statement very quietly that they have investigated it and nobody can be found guilty of anything
But who is going to investigate the RFL about it