Crusaders Leave SuperLeague

[Evil Homer]

Is that confirmed, or just a rumour?

I don't think it has been officially confirmed yet but it's almost certainly going to be the case, and great news for the game if it is.

 

[hutch]

yeah i didnt see the advantage of having toulouse in the championship. i like the idea that the french elite and english champioship sides could play in a knockout tournament like the northern rail cup. or the competitions could run alongside each other and the top 4 or 5 all play off in the semis against each other. could this ever work?

 

[bender]

yeah i didnt see the advantage of having toulouse in the championship. i like the idea that the french elite and english champioship sides could play in a knockout tournament like the northern rail cup. or the competitions could run alongside each other and the top 4 or 5 all play off in the semis against each other. could this ever work?

I think i am in agreement as well. I like the merger of the competitions, with a "World" club challenge between the winners of both competitions.

 

[pcpp]

I believe there needs to be a balance between automatic P/R and the licensing system.

There should be yearly reviews with each club being assigned a A, B or C licenses. The A license holders get 3 years guaranteed, B 2 years guaranteed and C 1 year (ie. in danger of conditional relegation).

If a C club finishes bottom two and there is a club in the Championship in the top two that exceeds some set criteria better than the bottom SL team, then conditional P/R will occur.

This would drive bottom SL clubs to continually improve while Championship clubs won't be left in the lurch waiting 3 years at a time.

 

[bender]

I believe there needs to be a balance between automatic P/R and the licensing system.

There should be yearly reviews with each club being assigned a A, B or C licenses. The A license holders get 3 years guaranteed, B 2 years guaranteed and C 1 year (ie. in danger of conditional relegation).

If a C club finishes bottom two and there is a club in the Championship in the top two that exceeds some set criteria better than the bottom SL team, then conditional P/R will occur.

This would drive bottom SL clubs to continually improve while Championship clubs won't be left in the lurch waiting 3 years at a time.

An A licence should never be relegated under any circumstances (unless they drop below A standard). B SHould be given realistic goals to achieve, and should not be relegated unless they are replaced by a B level club and there are no Cs left.

A C level club should be reviewed annually (i believe this is the case) and should be open to be relegated any time that a championship club can put together a better package. Incidentally, if there has to be a true promotion/relegation system, such a system should only allow promotion through a playoff between the first and last placed teams. Without this the system cannot work properly and even then, there are some major flaws.

 

[griff]

And to all those who think Dickie Lewis should be running IRL have a close look at how he has handled the whole franchsing/expansion process over there. This on top of all the other c**k-ups the RFL and RLEF come up with on a regular basis. The bloke just sits in the back seat at the RLIF and bitches about things under his breath and undermines his fellow members, but when given the chance to run things at a domestic level in his own country and he runs a basket case administration that constantly causes the whole sport major embarrassment.

Agreed. It was blindingly obvious from the beginning that the crusaders were living on borrowed time.

There was no compelling business plan, just a sugar daddy that wanted to stick one up the wru.

Bridgend or wrexham should hardly have been the sort of places that the game would have wanted to expand to.

The club has been a complete shambles and Richard Lewis should be taking a good hard look at himself.

 

[Coastbloke]

How many Welsh players played for the Crusaders..??

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Thomas, Flower, White, Kear, Dudson, Williams, James, Grant, Murphy, Burke have all played this year and Griffiths played but was on loan from Warrington. Several others are Welsh qualified and one or two others played SL last year. They needed a few more years to develop these players but that won't happen now. Wales will almost certainly never have a fulltime pro club again. This was its last chance and they fecked it up.

 

[RedVee]

very sad.

 

[The Observer]

Crusaders owners Geoff Moss and chairman Ian Roberts don't want to invest in the club, also want to get rid of Wrexham Football Club. The user comment at the bottom is most illuminating:

Wrexham's Crusaders to drop out of Super League

Owner Geoff Moss admitted withdrawing the Crusaders from the Super league was down to financial woes. He expressed doubts over the Wrexham Supporters Trust’s ability to conclude a deal to take over Wrexham FC within six to eight weeks – if at all.

And he appealed for “somebody” to step in to help in the interim period, because the club’s owners were struggling to cover finances.

'On Sunday when I spoke to the rugby league I felt the position was salvageable, but the shortfall between the projected expenditure and the coming three years was just too much for the owners to bridge,” Mr Findlay said. “You can’t expect two private individuals to continually bank roll the club.”

Here's the user comment.

Moss and Roberts didn't heed Brian Noble's advice of last season i.e.'Invest in the joint!' They had no intention. Again it is the way this unprofessional pair have effected matters - underhanded with little or no transparency! They have dabbled unsuccessfully in running not only Wales' oldest professional football club but also its only professional rugby league club and have been found wanting in both acumen and credibility. Unfortunately, they have left a heap of problems in their wake for others to pick up the tab!

It is not only Welsh Rugby League and the Crusaders that have faced financial problems. Rugby Union and soccer clubs have also faced this. Cardiff Blues, probably Wales' biggest Rugby Union club, faced a winding up order:
Cardiff RFC Ltd face Winding up Order from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

Cardiff City Football Club, under previous owner Sam Hammam: were in meltdown and heading towards receivership

Now Wrexham FC.

 

[bowes]

yeah i didnt see the advantage of having toulouse in the championship. i like the idea that the french elite and english champioship sides could play in a knockout tournament like the northern rail cup. or the competitions could run alongside each other and the top 4 or 5 all play off in the semis against each other. could this ever work?

You're thinking along the right lines, though the seasons are at different times of the year. I'm sure a time can be found to play it. The alternative is French groups in the NRC with 2 clubs to join 6 British clubs in the quarterfinals.

On Crusaders I hope to see them stay in the Championships as a club for Wrexham or perhaps North Wales though may have to drop down 2 divisions to Championship 1 (Championship is preferable though). The other issue is is there a suitable ground in Wrexham?

There is a possibility of a Chester club in Championship 1 from 2013 so if Crusaders fold their north Wales fans could go there (the South Wales fans have Scorpions)

 

[RedVee]

^ Bowes, thank God for the Scorpions then.

Are they safe for a few years?

 

[bowes]

I really hope so. I believe they are but noone really knows the future format of the Championship divisions. And how that will affwect any of the C1 clubs (heartland or expansion)

 

[Coleworld]

This is terrible news for Welsh Rugby League, what i want to know is it plausible for the Welsh to start their own league or because of the close vicinity of England they're better off having their Semi pro teams compete in the Championship.

Its definitely a blow but from reading posts and past news it seems like the club wasn't run professionally, i still believe that Wales can comeback stronger.

Poor old International League, it really should be in a better state then it is at the moment, a complete mess, we need a commission for all nations. Right now NRL & SuperLeague are the dominant leagues and decision makers but should not dictate the growth of the game.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

There isn't the player base and financial investment available for a semi-pro Welsh league. If Crusaders survive (doubtful), at best there might be three semi pro clubs in Wales in the next few years. You would need more like eight for a decent comp. At the moment there's barely eight teams worth of players in South Wales at amateur level, never mind semi pro level. The best thing might be a Championship 1 comp that is split into north and south with South Wales teams playing against teams like London Skolars and two or three other "southern" clubs that might step up, like Hemel.

 

[Masoe_eats_babies]

I'm just shocked people didn't see this coming. It was pretty obvious and one of the main reasons people were calling for the Crusaders to not be in the SL, it just isn't viable. You cannot force expansion, no matter how hard the RFL might try.

Well actually you can, but you need a good amount of money, something the RFL doesn't really have.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The club was unviable in the same way most clubs aren't viable. Most clubs lose money every year. The only difference is there was no one to make up the shortfall for long enough to keep it going. Maybe if the RFL didn't waste money on nonsense like the "England Knights" and didn't undersell internationals by playing them in tiny stadia, which they still can't fill and have to offer a bunch of cheap tickets to, they might have had the money to fund expansion.

PS: The flatcaps will be after Quins next.

 

[billy2]

I hope someone or some group in Wales will now put together a better business model and a plan for re entry in a few years.
Expansion should be pursued, but only if it doesn't significantly weaken the League.

 

[Evil Homer]

The club was unviable in the same way most clubs aren't viable. Most clubs lose money every year. The only difference is there was no one to make up the shortfall for long enough to keep it going. Maybe if the RFL didn't waste money on nonsense like the "England Knights" and didn't undersell internationals by playing them in tiny stadia, which they still can't fill and have to offer a bunch of cheap tickets to, they might have had the money to fund expansion.

If internationals cannot sell out smaller stadiums, then what would be achieved by renting out larger stadiums other than raising costs? I understand that you absolutely despise anything and everything related to English RL, but some of the things that you post at times just don't make any sense at all.

 

[griff]

I'm just shocked people didn't see this coming. It was pretty obvious and one of the main reasons people were calling for the Crusaders to not be in the SL, it just isn't viable. You cannot force expansion, no matter how hard the RFL might try.

Well actually you can, but you need a good amount of money, something the RFL doesn't really have.

You can choose where you expand to, and go to places with a large potential upside. Gateshead, bridgend and wrexham just aren't places that are large enough to sustain top tier clubs, given their lack of support for RL.

Places like Melbourne can and London can (sort of) overcome the lack of RL support through sheer population size. Expanding to Bridgend was like trying to start an NRL team in Ballarat.

If the RFL were serious about wales they would have gone into the biggest markets. Instead, the crusaders just fell in their laps and they looked past their obvious lack of viability should their sugar daddy get bored.