: Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:52 pm  

Stuff that they cant even get a thread going on their board

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:53 pm  

What about playing off a the Celtic thing with the Crusaders? Means you have a natural rivalry straight away, and don't alienate anyone in Ireland. It's the nickname they're trying to sell really isn't it? Not the Celtic part (otherwise you get lost in the Celtic FC juggernaught!).

Celtic Shamrocks or something?

Shamrocks vs Crusaders in the future?

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:06 pm  

hmm its a tough one, go for it..whats the worst that could happen. It's not like we haven't had failures before is it! I hear the Ice hockey still does okay over there and that'd of been a harder one to get going than RL i reckon.

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:22 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

hey...that'll be 2 codes of rugby we can dominate you at
Seriously, I would have taken MM to Dublin before Edinburgh....there's more similarity between GAA and League than there is between RU and RL. Also, there is a (underlying) resentment as Union is seen as a ruling class game, whereas League would be seen as a "game for everyone"
Sod the championship....get em in Superleague (sorry widnes, your day will come )

and where would you play it in Dublin not croke park. The GAA only allow ru and soccer on their pitch because theyh had too.

[Hillsborough Lad]

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:23 pm  

Not too sure Croke Park would be needed...can't imagine a Championship (or super league!) team needing a stadium with a capacity of 80,000!

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:56 pm  

There are no other stadiums of a decent size in Dublin that could accommodate a magic weekend type format.
Croke Park is way to big and you would have the almost impossible task of getting the GAA to approve it.There is no way they would allow 6/7 Rugby League games to be played on their pitch over 2 days and it would also interfere with the hurling and Gaelic football games which are also played at the same time of year as Rugby League.
Dublin is a non starter for our game

: Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:15 pm  

Hillsborough Lad wrote:

Not too sure Croke Park would be needed...can't imagine a Championship (or super league!) team needing a stadium with a capacity of 80,000!

(Think he was on about The Magic Weekend on that one, mate!)

: Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:27 am  

Hillsborough Lad wrote:

Not too sure Croke Park would be needed...can't imagine a Championship (or super league!) team needing a stadium with a capacity of 80,000!

Tolka Park, home of Shelbourne FC is about 10 - 15 minutes walk from Croke Park and has hosted a couple of Irish Internationals in the past.

It is not too disimilar to the standards found in a decent NL1 ground and has the capacity of 10K. Being on the far side of Croke, it might even be witihin walking distance for fitter fans making it accessible from the heart of Dublin.

The other option for a side might be Dalymount Park, home of Bohemians FC with a 9K capacity. I've not been there, but I do understand that it is in need of renovation.

Both of those would be ample for most NL1 crowds ?

The other option would be the Royal Dublin Showgrounds, which played host to an RL Charity Shield fixture back in the 90s and is currently hosting RU whilst Lansdowne Road is rebuilt. IIRC the capacity there exceeds both soccer grounds ?

: Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:17 am  

Where is Ireland at in comparison to Wales in terms of playing numbers, jnrs, TV viewers etc? If they are on par to pre Celtic then they just need a sugar daddy and welcome in!

: Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:47 am  

The new Lansdown road will hold 50,000...(bit small for a new stadium?). That said, wasn't the daily average at MM last year 32,000, so games played in a fuller stadium may well get a better atmosphere.
The RDS OR Donnybrook in Leinster hold 18,500 and 12,500 respectively, the new Thomond park in munster, 26,500, Ravenhill in Ulster 12,300 and Galway Sportsground in Connacht holds 5,500. The only problem one here would be Connacht, but either St Jarlaths park or Pearse stadium would be options if the GAA were on board.
Backers would need to be able to provide £1,000,000 per season for a minimum of 5 seasons and the quota system would need to be set in stone.
Year 1, squad of 25 must contain 10 Irish qualified players including 5 "real" Irish. Maximum of 10 non europeans
Year 2...25 must include 15 qualified Irish including 8 real irish. Maximum of 8 non european
etc etc...Until they have the same quota as SL after 5 years.
I would imagine that if such a comp was to start up, the 4 guys who would be throwing £20,000,000 at it would want a big say in how it is run, thus the RFL wouldn't be able to ball it up.
Home and away games with an average of 15,000 at each would involve 6 rounds, 12 games in total with 180,000 supporters paying £2,700,000 at £15 a ticket. £1,300,000 short of breaking even year on attendance money year 1, so each team would need to find 365k from "other activities". Mind you, if you had 45,000 fans over your 3 games, that's only £8 profit from residual sales (beer/food/beer/jerseys/beer etc).It might work.....it might not, but the maths seem to point to a massive promotional drive to get it started.