Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:53 pm  

RED LEAGUE wrote:

Rugby Union is now the no1 sport in France not football. Apart from 3 or 4 teams in ligue 1 the rest are on par with Wigan athletic.

Perpignan is a rugby league area Toulouse isn't.

Top 14 average crowd = 13,269
Ligue 1 average crowd = 18,869

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:16 pm  

ATEOTD some people just have to accept that the nature of professional sport, as compared to the semi-pro game we had for a number of years, means that some clubs will not be able to sustain themselves at a pro level.

Realistically clubs need to be averaging 10k fans at home for sustainability as a business. This is incredibly difficult at the best of times - see Ken Davy having poured millions into Giants, and can barely get 5k home fans in a week. The same goes for many established clubs in big boroughs of several hundred thousand people - Hull KR, Wakefield and Warrington all spring to mind, as well as Huddersfield.

That said, it's those clubs that have the best chance of succeeding as businesses and as being competitive in the league, which is why the RFL should prioritise them. Sad as it is, Featherstone are never going to average 10k at home, given they are lagging behind Wakefield & Cas, their direct competition for fans. Sad to say, the same may well be true of Halifax.

Licencing is a good system which keeps clubs that'll never make it safe. Yes, the route into SL should be made much clearer, and not dependent on a 'is there a space for you' logic. If Fax, Leigh, even Fev can make their businesses work and show the necessary surpluses to survive in SL as more than a team to get thrashed for three years, then great, they should be let in.

But the ultimate goal of the RFL should be to create a stable, saleable, competitive top flight. And if that doesn't involve some of the traditional clubs, or requires them to merge with others to survive, then that's the price we have to pay to survive as a top-level sport.

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:51 pm  

Jean, why not develop the French league rather than having multiple teams in Super League?

Why do you show a lack of respect to teams like Featherstone, Halifax & Leigh?

Teams like pathetic Featherstone are a waste of time and should stop producing the talents such as;

Hardaker, Kirmond, Briscoe, Briscoe, Briscoe, Burrow, Ferguson, Whiting.

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:54 pm  

BTW - I don't believe there is any team in the Championship capable of running a Super League outfit. Just yet.

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 10:58 pm  

It keeps clubs ' Safe ' ?

It kills all below it, and some in it, a slow lingering death, but still a death

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 11:08 pm  

Little Drummer Boy wrote:

Licencing is a good system which keeps clubs that'll never make it safe.

LICENSING... IS IT SAFE?

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 11:12 pm  

Eat heartily your breakfast, for tonight we dine in HELL

Re: Toulouse : Mon Jun 24, 2013 11:25 pm  

Chris.Taylor wrote:

Jean, why not develop the French league rather than having multiple teams in Super League?.

Because there aren't now enough French players nor enough French money to support a professional league in France. Even as a semi-pro league, the game is in deep trouble. The only way to produce more players and attract more French money is to have another professional club, a Super League club, based in Toulouse. Over time some of the juniors developed by Toulouse will join Toulouse SL team, and some will join the semi-pro Elite 1 competition. So it is a win-win situation for French rugby league.

As for English rugby league, the growth of France's player base will strengthen the French national team, and enable more competitive international contests, which the British public are more interested in than club contests. It will bring more fans to the grounds to watch the internationals, make TV companies more interested in paying more for TV rights, and thus increase the wealth of the game in Britain and France.

Chris.Taylor wrote:

Why do you show a lack of respect to teams like Featherstone, Halifax & Leigh?.

Because while these teams are useful in entertaining small local communities, and in producing a few talented players, they have no broad appeal to the British, or French, or international public. They cannot attract 10,000 fans regularly to their home games and thus cannot make a profit. They have no appeal to the general public in Britain or the rest of the world, so they will not attract major corporate sponsorship. In other words, they will not make it in Super League as viable businesses. Also they do nothing to the broader appeal of the Super League competition.

By contrast London, which is currently a failure, has the possibility of achieving success in terms of the criteria above. But to do so it needs new leadership and new management. Toulouse has much more chance of succeeding as a business, and in achieving appeal to sponsors, than most clubs currently in Super League. It is located in a dynamic growing city with lots of money, lots of rugby fans (some of whom were surely in the crowd at Toulouse last Saturday), and the rugby league club's application to SL has the support of the Mayor and the very popular rugby union club, Stade Toulousain.

Chris.Taylor wrote:

Teams like pathetic Featherstone are a waste of time and should stop producing the talents such as;

Hardaker, Kirmond, Briscoe, Briscoe, Briscoe, Burrow, Ferguson, Whiting.

I don't think that these clubs are a waste of time, as I have indicated above. They are just a waste of time being admitted to Super League, for the reasons that I have enunciated above.

Re: Toulouse : Tue Jun 25, 2013 6:49 am  

Having been at the game in Toulouse this weekend, I have to question the crowd figures being given (12,000 and 14,800). I would guess that there were no more than 7,000 there and it seems to me that this is a giant promo exercise aimed at giving everyone the conception that Toulouse is this massive hotbed waiting to get into Super League. There was a huge banner at one end of the ground proclaiming them ready for Super League 2015. Add to this the fact that umpteen thousand freebies/flags etc were given to kids for this game, I would argue that the attendance was quite average to be fair. In the centre of town there is a shop selling rugby union gear, yet never saw any rugby league gear anywhere for sale.

Re: Toulouse : Tue Jun 25, 2013 8:17 am  

Starbug wrote:

It keeps clubs ' Safe ' ?

It kills all below it, and some in it, a slow lingering death, but still a death

If not being promoted to a league you are completely unsuitable for gives you a slow lingering death. You are already dead, and as such should probably be a bit quieter.