Saracens & Ealing

Seriously?

5 million might buy you a half-decent grandstand.

Quite.

York City's new Community Stadium comes in at around 44 million, while Boston United's tiny new Quadrant is slated to be around the 12 million mark.

Neither would be Prem-compliant (Boston's nowhere near it).

I better look for that Euro Lotto ticket, guess a £10 might buy a brick for a needy club.

I agree about Saracens, they refused to open their books and expose the true extent of the `cheating` over numerous years. They preferred to accept the demotion and obviously expected to bounce straight back into the Premiership.

The geographic spread Nationwide just does not work. Yorkshire Carnegie are the prime example. The principle that all rugby supporters from miles around would flock to see Yorkshire Carnegie in a massive Stadium just did not transpire.  I think we all need to realise the limited appeal of rugby union to the paying public. The best supported team in the Championship , Bedford can not afford to maintain a professional squad . They abandoned their excellent development teams because of spiralling costs.

Ealing Trailfinders through the ` wealthy benefactor` Mike Gooley have become the most sustainable team around. The grounds are close to 20 acres and have been continuously developed over 20 years. The site is used day and night with multiple revenues. The latest is a huge indoor training facility, about to be constructed. Rugby Union, Rugby League, football, cricket, Netball, Gaelic football ,public gym , commercial Nursery, weddings, conferences, film and TV venue

Mike Gooley has created a legacy and a long term commitment to Rugby  by creating a scholarship system at Brunel University where young Rugby talent are coming from all over the country and some from existing Premiership Academies. There is a partnership with Henley College ( ex Wasp`s Academy site ) for ACE scheme to flourish with talented players from the age of sixteen both studying and receiving top flight rugby coaching from the Ealing pro coaches.

The Amateur section of the Club Ealing Trailfinders 1871 is going from strength to strength . I witnessed a few weeks ago three teams playing opposition, two  amateur Wasp`s and Harlequins and they were able to sit outside and have a beer . There was an event upstairs / outside to watch the England game . 

The current U16`s have a squad close to 50 players ! and attendance two weeks ago was at a record 43 players  on a Sunday morning and Ealing were abled to support the squad with nine qualified coaches.

There is so much more but I feel that maybe enough of blowing the trumpet for Ealing Trailfinders but they are not comparable to any other club in my biased opinion.

I accept that I am biased but I cannot see any other club coming close in being the right team to be accepted to the Premiership. 

The national stadium, 2 premiership sides and 3 championship sides would constituent any location to be a hotbed for rugby, in my opinion. Supported by the huge number of amateur players that are within that area.

Rosslyn Park according to the last complete set of data averaged 655 through the gate, and with LIWG i'd argue it was a number of factors.1) They're not the flagship side for their club, that's the Premiership side. 2) They're not really in London, they're more to Surrey. 3) They've experienced a poor run of form in recent years, which has seen them drop from L4 to L6.

The good train links meant a lot of the London clubs bought old market gardens round there.

Many were failing as rail made it easy to bring food in from further away.