There will be 16 clubs in SL in 2012

Really? If you are correct who will be the lucky 2 to step up?

I'm gonna guess Widnes and Toulouse and Halifax. Down Wakefield.

Widnes , Toulouse , then the door shuts forever

Could happen actually. I can see them becoming an 'expand when it's needed' sort of competition like the NRL.

More a case of anything other than dumping somebody out , and potentially committing that club to financial and social meltdown

Im sure AFC Emley will return the favour and let them ground share with them

No it does not. An abundance of youngsters maybe.

Sadly for wakey their last season at BV will be one where fans can watch umpteen journeymen and several kids who played all last year in the u20s competition. Add this to poor finances and no actual ground in 2012 and it makes for a dreadful SL bid.

given that the guarantee of a place for a championship club was first announced in 2009 (if not 200icon_cool.gif and the SLE clubs voted to keep it at 14 this autumn ... no

Not sure on those dates at all tbh, the 'guaranteed' place is fairly new!

Surely no one is surprised about it being called in by the government are they? I said repeatedly on the other threads about Wakefields ground that all this talk of "it's official" and "last seasons..." was far to premature as hoops like this will still need to be got through. I was conviniently igonred then, so how come they're not just ignoring it again now?

It's like going to a supermarket and being surprised you have to go through the tills at the end

Apart from the SL clubs not wanting to share the TV cash out more widely, another solid reason for not expanding to 16 clubs is simply that there is not enough playing talent around to provide two extra SL quality sides.

Is there though?

Surely if SL expanded to 16 clubs then you would have more people playing the game at a higher level, therby improving their own standards?

theres not enough british or european talent around is there ?.

Probably not right now...but does it really matter?

They will develop in time


And lets be realistic... no other side other than Wigan, Saints, Warrington and maybe Leeds (if they change their coach) stand any hope of becoming premiers anyway...

great idea fella, then after a couple of years they could be called emley wildcats and then a few years later just emley!!!!!you know where i am coming from fella dont you

Glasshoughton is part of Cas, there's no debate there, in fact it actually shares an electoral ward with Castleford town centre.

You say there aren't that many people in Cas, but it does have a population approaching 40000 and is neighboured by four towns with populations ranging from 13000 to 30000, three of which don't have professional RL teams. Then to the east, the nearest neighbouring clubs are 40-odd miles away which actually leaves the club with quite a large catchment area, from where large numbers of support already eminate.

, and so only one other , Widnes would take the best of the Championship , a couple of their ' yoof ' and fill up with mediocre aussies like the rest of SL

No problem

SL just keeps getting better and better

Have you not been listening to what we have been telling you?

you are right, there is no debate there.

And why would these three towns identify with Castleford?
and why would people from 20miles to the east, who probably havent heard of Castleford identify with castleford? if that were true the attendances wouldnt be so low.

Also when the idea of mergers or stadium sharing comes up, we see arguments from Cas and Wakefield fans that they wouldnt watch a team not named after their town/city that wasnt in newmarket/glasshoughton (depending on their affiliation) when the distance between those two towns border each other, Cas is in Wakefield and its about 5 miles from Newmarket to Cas.

Yet now we see Wakefield proposing to move much further away to Barnsley, and Castleford saying they have a target market of places not in Castleford where people WILL come and watch a team that isnt named after their town/city and will come from as far away as 20 miles to the east and local towns with different names.

They are Pontefract, Knottingley and Normanton - all RL hotbeds with no professional team. If they want to watch the pro game, chances are they'll go for one of the nearest, not to mention that Cas is the largest town of the five-towns area.


I suspect there are very few people within 20 miles who haven't heard of Castleford, but in reality if there's a fanbase in an area there's always the potential for that fanbase to grow. For example there's a large Castleford fanbase in Selby. The presence of Xscape and Junction 32 are also helping to raise the profile of the area as a whole and with a new stadium located on that development it'll be interesting to see what impact this has.


Cas were open to the idea of a feasibility study into a potential groundshare - it was Wakefield who burnt that particular bridge by refusing it outright.

It's reasonable for all clubs to aspire to expand their fanbase, why should Cas be any different just because it's a town with a 40k population? There are a lot of people who don't live in Cas but have links to the town and identify with it in that way, hence a geographically widespread fanbase. As for those who come that don't have links, well you'd have to ask them but I suspect a combination of good marketing, an entertaining product, and a decent family day out.

so the people in Knottingly, or Normanton, who live in Wakefield, why wouldnt they go watch Wakefield?

outside RL, There would me no reason people would have, christ even Xscape pretends its in Leeds.

Why do you think they are so many people with links to a pretty small town? These people arent coming to watch Cas, if they were the attendance wouldnt be so low.

As i said, you couldnt wish for a better location for a stadium than Glasshoughton, but if Cas dont find a way to get people to identify with them, they cant build that support. Cas is a small town, among numerous small towns in Wakefield. Wakefield itself struggles to identify itself as separate from Leeds. How are Cas going to sell themselves as the name to align yourself with over and above the much bigger names of Leeds and Wakefield, which are places a fair amount of your fans actually live.

Why would people identify with Arsenal? It's not as if it's an actual place is it?

Its well documented that Wakey have to move out of BV after next season, so what is wrong with going to Barnsley they have to go somewhere as well you know, unless of course you are too stupid to comprehend that which I doubt you are. I suspect what Cas are saying is that they need to target areas that do not have profesional rugby played in their area in order to keep up with the lucky ones, but once again you are turning comments around to suit your argument trying to make people look stupid, the answers dont always differentiate the comedian from the clown though.