So that's 17 pages (plus at least ten years worth of posts) and not one shred of evidence of RFL funding for the London club. Maybe it's time we let this sleeping dog lie and concentrated on what we do know. But just (hopefully) to put it to bed once and for all I would love to know when this period of RFL handouts took place. Previous posts in this thread have accused us of being funded since 1996 - the SL era.
Well in 1996 we were owned by Barry Maranta of the Brisbane Broncos, and previously by the Broncos themselves. That's Brisbane Broncos - the best supported team in Australia and not short of a few bob, or a few extra players who they filled our team with. Maranta then sold to Branson in 1997 - that's Richard Branson - the billionaire who remained our owner until 2001. Surely with such figures involved the last team in SL during these years who needed RFL handouts was London Broncos!
In 2001 Virgin pulled out and the RFL's solution was to relocate the club to Leigh - again hardly throwing money at London RL then. David Hughes stepped in at the last minute and took on the role of bankrolling a loss making club, of which he had previously been a minor shareholder, and trying to make it financially viable. Over the next 4 years the club continued to lose money at an alarming rate and eventually went bust in 2005. Part of the reason for this loss was the Virgin lie that they lkeft the club debt free. They did not.
The club survived in 2005 thanks to the votes of the other clubs. The RFL could have avoided the need for this by giving handouts to London Broncos if they had wished but they did not, and neither did the club ask for such things. Financially the club reformed after David Hughes wrote off a personal debt the club owed him of around £1.5 million. The need for a new owner was pressing though, as Hughes is not a super-rich man, and so Ian Leneghan stepped in and oversaw the club's transition to Harlequins RL. As major shareholder he funded the club for a number of seasons before his home town of Wigan came calling.
What followed was an awkward period where Leneghan was the owner of Quins but unable to provide any funding. Again David Hughes - the Legend - stepped in and oversaw the funding of the club, even though he had no obligation further than his 30% stake at the club. That's part of what last year's big announcement was before the Warrington game, where Hughes wanted to be able to take control of the club again, and required the RFL to make this happen - not financially - just by their rules and regulations in requiring Leneghan to release the claim on his shares. There was another part to this statement about development - that the RFL should take a more pro-active role. Again not by funding but through properly organised development programmes across the capital and the south-east. Rather than leaving it to Quins and Skolars to take on that role. A move which I have to say makes perfect sense.
Now I am of the understanding that in the early 1990s the RFL made extra funds available to the London Crusaders to cover the travel costs that the club had to pay to travel to each away game. This must have amounted to all of a couple of thousand pounds per season!!! So for about 3 seasons the RFL funded us to grand total of less than £10,000. There's your evidence. I'm giving it to you. However as they offer something similar to Championship clubs visiting Toulouse, and possibly to Toulouse themselves to travel over here, I will be able to sleep in my bed at night over such handouts.
So here we are, still struggling, still making losses but with an owner who we know has the club at his heart. The RFL undoubtedly want the London franchise to work and are perhaps more willing to give it more of a chance than they are with clubs from around the M62. That's probably because they do know the value of the London club to the TV deal - far better than anyone on here anyhow. And isn't it interesting that the anti-London brigade seems to stem from clubs not in SL. Those in SL probably know how the land lies.
