YORK Wasps' audacious drive to transfer London Broncos lock, stock and barrel to York is dead - for this season at least.

The killing of a move to instantly bring Super League to York was confirmed by Wasps' vice-chairman Russell Greenfield after he discovered the enormous cost of the current Broncos' players' wages.

He told the Evening Press that for York to have any chance of providing a home for the ailing capital club next season they would have to attract minimum gates of 5,000 to the Huntington Stadium for every single game.

Only then would the club cover the cost of the salaries of a Broncos' squad that includes a huge swathe of big-earning Australians.

"The big problem is that they are all contracted through to 2002," Greenfield told the Evening Press.

"There's no way therefore that I feel we can accommodate London Broncos next year. Bringing them through to York can't be done next season because the playing salaries are too high."

For a new club to take over the Broncos, whose backers for the past four years - Richard Branson's Virgin Group - are scaling down their cash involvement, they would have to take on the current mega-wages of its Super League playing-roster.

The other alternative would be to pay off contracts a year early, which would entail just as much expense, said Greenfield, who discovered the costs during a fact-finding mission to London.

He met officials of the cash-strapped club and also its landlords Charlton Athletic, who spurned the opportunity to take over the rugby operation. There's even a threat now that the Broncos may be without a ground as Charlton are looking at plans to re-lay the pitch at The Valley next summer, thereby putting a doubt over rugby league being staged there in 2002.

Wasps' vice-chairman Greenfield believed it would be 'touch and go' whether the Broncos would even survive next season.

However, if they did negotiate their current crisis Greenfield refused to rule out the possibility of re-kindling the Wasps' interest in bringing the Broncos back to York because, by then, the salary cost would not be an issue.

He explained: "The Wasps' bid for the Broncos for this season is dead, but I would not say it was dead forever if they can keep going for another year."

Meanwhile, Greenfield fully endorsed the Rugby Football League's new strategic review, which advocates a return to playing in summer during a 'common season' from February to October.

The review - to be discussed by clubs over the next fortnight before going in front of the RFL Council on October 3 - also proposes a four-division pyramid structure below the Super League, including the Northern Ford Premiership being divided into two divisions of a National League.

Said Greenfield: "For the sake of the game's future all games should be played in the same season and there should be more promotion and relegation places.

"There should never be a single case where there's no promotion or relegation because the public loses interest."

Updated: 12:03 Saturday, September 08, 2001