Plymouth have a great following, just seem to be struggling on pitch. 

Moseley look strong now. DMP have a great base to work from. I'd say Pirates from a holistic viewpoint - fan base/financials/on pitch. 

Ealing could do it without the fan base, but would likely find a few thousand more, and the increased gates from all the London derby matches would boost the gate income. So are likely strong candidates. Their ground currently may be an inhibitor of making it a permanent thing.

The Pirates have great potential too, with gates to support once they move to Truro. And the potential to recruit players from local stock is there.

Coventry could do it too, they only have WASPS nearby to really contend with for regarding supporter base - Worcester perhaps. Those two match day gates would/should have the ground bursting at the seams. Their ground development has great potential.

Jersey? I don’t know if their location is an issue…..

Looking down the pyramid there are a few who, with the right investment could do the trick. 

If the lockout of equitable funding in the Prem is resolved then the top 4 in the Championship may all have some chance of a shout.

Leicester were taking large numbers of Cov fans long before Wuss and Gasworks RFC were even in the picture. Still do.

Looks like Leeds are struggling in Nat 1

Unfortunately I think this may be incorrect. I would love to see Pirates or for that matter Donny have a go in the Premiership but I have serious doubts as to whether they would attract support when they start to lose more games than they win. The best model in recent times is surely Bristol Bears and they had the two magic ingredients of almost unlimited financial support from their owner and a huge latent support base. Ealing seem to have one of these magic ingredients - Cov probably have the other one. 

then the answer's surely clear, Coventry Trailfinders! Playing somewhere between the two, High Wycombe for example.... 

I will now get my coat, though not before thanking Mr Dropout most sincerely for giving me a good laugh this morning at the idea that Mose could be the next Exeter. For a few seasons I was more worried about our ability to be the current Moseley... On the other hand, near on 1000 through the gates last Saturday, and, as ever, the fundamentals are right. There's just a horror of spending money  and getting into debt (understandably) after what happened at the turn of the century - we get by on just enough, when more than enough is what you need.

What is the "lack of care/support issue at Ealing?"

I interpreted that as just a lack of care and support for Ealing in the community. I do wonder if/when they get to the Prem what kind of crowds they could expect. They managed c. 4000 for the Championship Cup final against Irish with about a 60:40 split in Ealing's favor. I would suspect that the games against the other London clubs (provided that Ealing can find a stadium in West London), would pull in at least that for the first season through visiting fans. Games against Bristol and Newcastle in recent years brought in about 2000, even in quite poor weather. Not sure how the community would get behind the team in the topflight, but it would have to be better than now.

By which I mean that visiting London clubs with Coventry in both National One and the Championship it was very clear that a sizeable part of the home support, except at London Welsh, was supporting the London club that was at home that week, rather than being fully committed home supporters of any particular  club.

That is if course not to say all supporters, but enough to be very noticeable.

So, what would happen with Ealing? Would promotion help them pull those people out to wherever in West London (or High Wycome ;-) they played? Or, would increased ticket prices, Premiership beer and catering bills.  and mud table mediocrity result in those supporters drifting off to see whichever club was winning at home more frequently?

Totally agree (especially about LW being the exception) however I don't think it's just a London thing - I'd be interested to know how many of the same Birmingham faces pop up at Leicester, Wasps and Worcester, for example, depending on who's at home. I know a few that do Worcester or Wasps on that basis and one that does Wasps and Leicester.

You could argue that they're the floating rugby fans who've drifted away from Moseley since the 1990s, and in a couple of cases you'd be right, but I think it's more the draw of match day spectacle. Whether the appearance of premiership rugby in Birmingham would cause them to desert the other clubs in favour of commitment to that side only I don't know.

I was as guilty of it as the next person I suppose, given that living in Oxford I watched Welsh when they played in Oxford but I haven't followed them back to ODP. I'd have watched Glaws in Oxford if it had been them. It helped that they played on a Sunday of course, so I wasn't forced to choose between premiership rugby fights for survival with LW and Championship fights for survival with Mose...

The only possibility could be Cornish Pirates, judging from the hoards who followed them in the County Championship.

I'm up for an experiment.

There'll be a pretty decent stadium available in N. Brum after the Commonwealth Games. Do you reckon Birmingham City Council would offer W*sps an even sweeter deal than Cov City Council offered them for the Ricoh? I mean, it'd have to be genuine bargain basement, handful of peanuts territory to beat that, but...

No?

Just wishful thinking then...

Ah well.

I'd say you were welcome to them but I don't believe that. Basically they're not welcome.

If only.

This.

Sustainable long term business plan !.

Ealing football club ( RU ) 1871. Now in their 150th year are in the most sustainable phase of their existance . Our partnership with Trailfinders ( 22nd year ) grows stronger each year. Our amateur section has in excess of 750 members and is growing.

The relatively new  Rugby Union Academy in partnership with Brunel University is all part of Mike Gooley's long term legacy and will be long lasting way into the future.

The climb through the leagues has been gradual and carefully mastered by Mike Gooley and the team he has built and if Ealing Trailfinders do make it to the Premiership the exposure in the press and the TV will be be exceptional for Trailfinders Travel .

There is no others sports facility that I am aware of that is so well used day and night seven days a week. The diversity of sports is exceptional.

Fair point - Cornish Pirates is not the same thing as Cornwall County Championship team. Having said that, there is a great deal of potential support when the stadium is built. When we had one season in Truro, and the team were competing at the top of the Championship, the crowds were pretty big. The game against Harlequins was a sell-out several weeks before the game. If we could get into the Premiership (a big if, I admit) you could see games against Bris, Glos, Wuss, Exeter etc filling the stadium to its initial 6,000 capacity. A lot of opposition supporters would, no doubt, love a trip to beautiful Kernow! There is positive news about the stadium and the latest about the long awaited government (promised) contribution should be announced in November.

AKA a franchise fee.

Another barrier the old boys club are putting in the way of any ambitious club

Exeter had a long term plan, yes they have had cash, but they built organically and slowly with a team of local talent which stayed together and became good enough to stay in the Premiership until they were established and could buy extra talent.

If Ealing keep the money coming in (and using the facilities every day will not fund a premiership team) then they stand a chance, but sadly it will be very similar to the names above and if they cannot build alongside the money a sustainable model and it will fail.

From what I can recall.

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.

Every team who comes into money thinks that their situation is fool proof! Good luck.

Don’t forget the infamous John Gurney of Luton Town who acquired Bedford Blues for £1 from boxing promoter Frank Warren in 1999 and promptly sacked head coach Rudolf Straeuli and cut salaries. He then attempted to merge Bedford with Coventry Rugby and rumours feared he would move it all to Ashford, Kent. Such was the feeling in the town a buy-out consortium representing supporters and businessmen presented its plans to the rugby authorities then put them to the supporters at a meeting at the Goldington Road ground on a very highly charged Thursday evening. Gurney finally agreed to sell the club back to local business people after the English Rugby Partnership blocked the move to Coventry's Coundon Road.

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

Orrell - effectively owned (via Dave Whealan) by JJB sports which also owned Wigan football club

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.

The Soccer premiership is looking to ban related party sponsorship.

This is to ensure financial fair play - the risk being that the owner hides the fact they are financially supporting the team by disguising their payments as inflated sponsorship deals.

This is mainly to stop the Saudis supporting Newcastle, but would also affect Manchester City.

If it came into rugby, I think it would essentially prevent any owner from bringing another club up.

Both Worcester and Exeter have been adverts for their owners companies, Worcester heating and SW Comms. As are Ealing with Trailfinders.

Further down the pyramid, Old Elthamians and Secure Trading are in the same pattern, though their sponsor did not own the club. However, it seems clear that he was paying more than the market value.

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.

Who actually owns Sixways or Sandy Park?

Tony Rowe's SW Comms seem to have sponsored Exeter forever, and Worcester's links with Cecil Duckworth's Worcester Bosch also lasted a very long time.

One question: What happens when Mr Gooley is no longer with us? I assume that there is some form of Trust established to continue his legacy, otherwise that land is on prime development territory and would sell for an astronomical sum, one would guess, would they Ealing Rugby Club be able to relocate somewhere nearby if this were to happen?

In my opinion Ealing are very lucky to have Mr Gooley, and I suspect that there would be many a club that would be very happy to be in a similar position. As for us, Doncaster Knights, our home Castle Park is facilitated by a limited company Castle Park Ltd who administer all of the facilities including conferencing, weddings, parties, sporting events etc. something that I am very proud of and encourage local folk to look to utilise when planning events. One day, if the rugby gods are smiling, perhaps we shall be in a position to play in the Premiership and then we will still be able to have one of the best grounds in the league but at present we shall remain content in the knowledge that we have one of, if not the best, grounds in the Championship.

I believe it's a guarentee of 5 years worth of money. 

The club will have substantial facilities to develop a core home grown squad with the facilities/programmes available to them now.