The next Exeter

No 7 wrote: The Blues wrote: It’s not that unique to be owned by another business. The following have had their sponsor name in the team name. Mike Gooley like everyone won’t be around forever and new owners may have different ideas and plans. To truly stay in existence the club needs to be self sufficient at their level with then any extra investment being the difference from lower/middle table to upper end. Earth Titans - aka Rotherham Titans Pertemps Bees - aka Birmingham Solihull Orrell - effectively owned (via Dave Whealan) by JJB sports which also owned Wigan football club Bristol Shoguns - Mitsubishi  NEC Harlequins  Should have added that SW Communications are/were (can’t remember if they still are) were the driving force behind Exeter along with a land sale to Tesco from which they have built a more sustainable rugby business. It is unique where I stated Mike Gooley not only owns the sports ground but also owns the company that have sponsored Ealing for 22 years.........that is unique and not comparable to any other club.

The Blues wrote: It’s not that unique to be owned by another business. The following have had their sponsor name in the team name. Mike Gooley like everyone won’t be around forever and new owners may have different ideas and plans. To truly stay in existence the club needs to be self sufficient at their level with then any extra investment being the difference from lower/middle table to upper end. Earth Titans - aka Rotherham Titans Pertemps Bees - aka Birmingham Solihull Orrell - effectively owned (via Dave Whealan) by JJB sports which also owned Wigan football club Bristol Shoguns - Mitsubishi  NEC Harlequins  Should have added that SW Communications are/were (can’t remember if they still are) were the driving force behind Exeter along with a land sale to Tesco from which they have built a more sustainable rugby business.

Edited by No 7 - 26 Oct 2021 at 13:05

That then makes us Blues the best supported has beens in British Rugby. 😇

Really enjoyed the interview from Steve Hill of Richmond in the Rugby Paper today. He of course said that ambitious clubs should have a clear path to the Premiership, but I particularly like his quote about Ealing. "Ealing deserve their day in the sun, even if it is only a day." As a fervent Ealing supporter, I hope that they are able to get promoted and win a long term place, but at the very least I'd like to see them have a season or two in the Premiership - it's better to be a has-been than a never-was.

Pertemps Bees - aka Birmingham Solihull

Edited by The Blues - 23 Oct 2021 at 10:32

The Blues wrote: From what I can recall. Frank Warren… until his assets were frozen at court due to a legal battle with Don King I believe. We had a bit of a dream team with lots of up and coming stars but ended up having to borrow players from Worcester from the league below to fill in the gaps when players started to leave. There was pretty much a Blues player in every other Premiership club at the end. We generated crowds of 5,500 + and this was late 90s We then came down after 2 years to ND1 without any players or coaches and had to rebuild from scratch having raised hundreds of thousands of £‘s in a few days from Bedford people and other rugby fans to save the club.

Missed out the bit about having 2 “interesting” owners in between for a very short amount of time!

I was not fully aware of the Bedford Blues experience in the top flight and where the finance came from . I  read a few articles / reports that I found on the internet.

In many ways Ealing are already the next Exeter considering where they started from and what they have in place currently. My concern is that after winning the Championship-I do not think they lose another match- this season they will simply not be anywhere near competitive next season. Worcester are currently woeful and were the same last season yet have a stack of current and past international calibre players. Bath and L Irish have tremendous international calibre squads but are struggling for any wins. Where are Ealing going to get/afford players of that quality to even get close to one win. By the end of this season they will have achieved Mr Gooley's dream-I hope it does not turn into a nightmare

Many rugby supporters have a main team to support, whatever the division they play in, but many are not prepared to travel to the away games. And as there is nothing to compete with watching a live game, they look around to see who is playing nearer to home. It is well known that I support Ampthill but I live near Ilkley on the West/North Yorkshire border. So I have adopted Wharfedale as my local team to watch. I was there on Saturday to witness a creditable draw with Hull Ionians. But when Wharfedale play away I have a choice of going to see Harrogate play, or Leeds Tykes now they are playing in Bramhope. I could even go to Otley or Ilkley.

London and Birmingham supporters will be the same. So, if Ealing go up to the Premiership, of course they will attract more support at first, but it will depend on their results there. If they lose their matches support will dwindle, and the attendances at away games like Sale, Newcastle, and even at the south west clubs won’t be great.

I cannot therefore see Ealing being the next Exeter. Cornish Pirates have a better chance.

I then look down the leagues to see if anyone is on the rise. Bourneville stood out. But then in the last few weeks Bourneville scored over 60 points at home to Wharfedale. Then Wharfedale beat Blaydon. And then Blaydon beat Bourneville at Bourneville last Saturday. Crazy. So I don’t think Bourneville will be the next Exeter either.

I think we are at least a decade away from another Exeter.