Advertising is the way to go St Helens, easily the way to go.
Sports publications would be a good place to start, then clothing, then... the list is endless.
Also think internationally...
How many members with TRF?
How many hit's per day?
Any idea of traffic to the site (ie data up and down?)
Is there any stats that you get in regards to geographic locations of site viewers?
Your outgoings should be fairly easy to manage... domain name renewals and hosting only correct? It should be fairly easy to broker a deal to cover that at least, personally I wouldn't be going down the path of getting funding from a Games Company as there are significantly bigger fish to catch in the advertising market and it's also a conflict of interest to other games manufacturers, which in turn can shoot you in the foot.
I'd be trying to breakdown the ADVERTISING (those that don't like advertising can go f%^k off and go hug a tree you dirty hippies, get off the dole and see how things work in the real world that pays your unemployment benefit - but that’s just my opinion) on a section by section basis... ie; gaming, rugby, league, other with an overall main Advertiser.
A good place to start asking questions to see how the finer points of advertising work are student advertising companies, that is companies that look after the advertising in student diaries and publications, why I'd chose those companies are normally they are a lot more friendly and willing to give advice. Not to sure about the UK but some of these companies in Australia are already selling advertising space on student web sites as well and doing a good job of it to.
Would be interested in assisting with any developments.
Shame about the not making a buck though, shame.