I know Swinton are a historical name in rugby league. They’re one of the most successful clubs in the sport having won 6 Championships, 3 Challenge Cups and are one of only six clubs (the first from this side of the Pennines) who’ve won All Four Cups in one season.
But they haven’t played in Swinton for a generation. They already have MANCHESTER on their badge and would be the only top-two-league club with that name. Manchester Rangers are in the fifth tier and have just recently been denied a professional contract as a club by the RFL, maybe because they knew Swinton were changing to Manchester? If that’s the case, considering Rangers have seen their backers leave because they said there’s no point in them being there if they can’t progress as a club, I wonder what Rangers think to this!..
I was pissed off with the RFL’s decision to not allow Rangers to progress up the leagues because they have everything in place to become a very decent club. They have the stadium (the Regional Athletics Arena at Etihad Campus), they had the backers (some very serious businessmen who were prepared to back the club up to Super Leaghe), were already pulling in crowds of 350 in the fifth tier and being the only club with the “Manchester” name had a huge supporter potential.
Would “Greater Manchester Lions” be a compromise? Because you can’t lose a club like this.
This has parallels with Newton Heath in football back in the early 1900s. Newton Heath were struggling in their bank account and at Bank Street and were getting crowds of about 400. They moved to Trafford and called themselves Manchester. I wonder if the Newton Heathens were unhappy with that at the time? But the reality was (and is for Swinton) that they would have gone out of business without that.
