C for me please.

And its a big C for me.

if it was me id be feeling guilty but there you go.

i was hoping you lot would take (future) relegation from SL with good grace, thinking along the lines of well, we were lucky to be in there last time over better clubs

but it looks like youll just blame someone else when it happens and whinge like hell.

dally - has someone from Wakefield upset you in a previous life or something? You come across as just a Wakefield hating k**b!!! What gets me more than anything is supporters of other clubs who are lucky enough to support a club who in turn were lucky enough to hang on to the shirt tails of their local football clubs thereby managing to play in modern stadia. Why they have the brass balls to look at the rest of the more unfortunate clubs of the RL family with disdain is beyond me.

It wouldn't be 'relegation' though would it, it'd be exclusion on the basis of factors other than playing ones which in most British based sports would be seen as ludicrous.

The original applications were given to the current SL clubs plus the two teams that finished highest in National League 1 and made their grandfinal. There was then much gnashing of teeth and complaining from other clubs who finished lower down the league but felt they should be let in because their stadium was better than those of some of the chosen teams. 2 of these teams had proven themselves not good enough for SL by being recently relegated from SL and then failing to immediately bounce back unlike Cas who on both occasions they were relegated came straight back up by dominating NL1 and strolling the Grandfinal.

Spot on fella! The only SL club I'm aware of that has built a new stadium for itself is Warrington and their fans rarely get involved in looking down their noses at the more unfortunate ones such as Cas, Wakey, Salford, Bradford, Saints etc.

all the RFL has done is taken away annual P&R decided by on field performance

it has been replaced by a sort of P&R based on a 3 year review of a clubs operations based not just on playing standards, but all facets of a club.

excuses excuses. your club couldve shared with cas to build a ground.

wakey are the weakest heartland club outside of salford, who offer massive potential via manchester

the club arent going anywhere and have made a number of promises which havent been met

now there is a very strong club waiting to get in, its a simple matter of youve had your go and failed, give someone else a chance

and wakey arent the only underforming SL club either.

cas and salford are clearly also in the firing line too but there arent enough credible championship clubs yet to replace them

relegating a SL club will show the other SL clubs theyd better get their acts together or theyll be relegated too.

and it shows other championship clubs that if you can build up like widnes, youll be in SL too

Er sorry, Widnes went bust only 2 years ago!

If you replace a longstanding SL club such as Wakey or Cas with Widnes all it shows is that any past record is forgotten provided you currently have a wealthy backer...

so widnes dont have a SL history now?

heck the last time they were in there ie the year they came 3rd last their crowds were as good as wakeys last year and wakey had a great year.

time in SL wont count for much. its what clubs have done in that time

clubs like Huddersfield, warrington and LEs cats have all grown

then theres wakey

If the previous licences are anything to go by, the judgements will be based solely around the previous three years (finishes in previous three years, no salary cap breakages in past three years) so it will have nothing to do with what happened 6/7 years ago.

Indeed, it's an often overlooked fact in these arguments.

Cant believe that this troll is still banging on with his anti wakey rants, what a real pen is this guy is.

IF (and IMO with every passing day the if becomes bigger & bigger) Wakey don't get a new franchise it will ONLY be because the progress on the new ground hasn't been sufficient to satisfy the RFL. Given that the only remaining hurdle is planning (and many of us - including me - have tried to explain to you already why that is likely to be granted during the summer) Wakey fans have every reason to be confident of their place in SL in 2012 & beyond.

As a shareholder in the club (like many other Wakey fans who post on these boards) we know that the club is in a reasonably secure financial position and the finances are manged far better than was the case when Mr Pearman took us to the brink of ruin.

I'm also fortunate to have been involved with the club through my work over the last few years so have been able to see at first hand some of the hard work that the club have made in that time.

In (what is compared to 15 months ago) the unlikely event that the club don't get a new ground, all Wakey fans would accept that as the reason we would fail to get a new franchise. There certainly won't be any whinging at the RFL decision or at the club(s) who have moved up from the lower leagues.



Totally agree with you (for once

) although we MIGHT find that Widnes going into administration a couple of years ago may be mentioned in the decision summaries (whether it's something that will count against them or not really depends on the strength of the rest of their application). IIRC the period of administration was before the 2009 franchise announcements were made, but it's possibly something that may still be considered.

whoa hold on there a minute. radical ideas like that would almost be like creating a sport! with leagues and everything. what we are aiming for in rugby league is to create a "laughing stock" where men sitting in offices and wearing suits win promotion and relegation battles. GET WITH THE PLAN!!

no longer will we debate who has the best half backs/forwards etc its all about toilets these days

Of course, the irony is that the two best teams in the Championship that year got franchises, as it was the 2 grand finalists who came up.

For some reason that is not that clear, Dally has a thing about Wakey being in and Widnes being out. There are two perspectives, rugby and franchise.

If you look at it in pure rugby terms, Wakefield have never been relegated during the Super League years and Widnes have. That was their biggest weakness, as they were not in the Super League when the franchising decisions were made. In pure rugby terms, Widnes did not deserve to come up as they did not even get to the Grand Final, let alone win it.

So, in rugby terms, nothing wrong with Wakefield's place in the Super League.

If you want to look at it in pure franchising terms, the RFL looked purely at Belle Vue and not at potential accommodation. Although it is old and crumbly, it had the right capacity and the right attendance percentage, and we ticked other boxes too. The biggest weakness for Widnes was that they had recently had financial strife. In assessing the franchising criteria, Wakefield won out. It was made clear that the promised new ground was not part of the criteria, as it hadn't even got passed the planning phase (and ultimately didn't).

If you love rugby, you should be pleased that a club maintained its top flight status based on rugby criteria, not on the "new toilet" criteria. If you like shiny new stadia, come and see us in 2012.

Mmmm he'll have to think about that one Neil, one thing for sure though he will be back

He's like a turd floating on top of the toilet you know the one no matter how much you flush it, it just wont go away.

You're an idiot - end of.

Sorry I have to bite!!!

Which one? The answer to this should be a doosy!!

it aint keighley.

you werent complaining about the toilet criteria when you got into SL.

now the RFL have woken up to the wakey modus operandi, you dont like the system!

you are aware these people you are making fun of decided to award wakey a license.

oh yeah i see why we should laugh at them as well.

do you think the RFL will believe the promises on a new stadium next time?

if barrow win next years GF it wont be widnes either

etc etc

Why are you slagging off Widnes?

It’s not our fault the RFL have said a club from the Championship will be promoted to SL, at the probable expense of a current SL club.

There are a host of reasons Widnes would be a good choice, other than the stadium. We have managed to run a full academy set up for nearly 10 years, we have the best attendances in the Championship and a SL attendance record that is compatible or better than some of the clubs we are likely to replace. There’s even talk that the club is about to build a training complex on the old ICI recreation ground, with grass and all-weather pitches that will also house our youth teams. We have excellent sponsors, with a globally recognized brand, with the clubs’ owner a member and major shareholder in the company. We are now financially sound and would be likely to be playing with a full salary cap.

I will mention the stadium after all. It’s not just a modern, comfortable place for fans to visit, but the infrastructure within it is now state of the art.

* Brand new dressing rooms and locker area.
* Chill-out area for players
* New modern player’s gym, with £50,000 of extra gym equipment added
* New treatment/physio rooms
* Comfortable press areas where hacks can write their reports, with internet access and warm drinks.
* A briefing room with large screen and equipment for highlighting areas of interest.

There’s plenty more too. It is a credit to the sport. We are achieving all this from the lower leagues. We are not just throwing everything into the squad anymore. We are trying to build our club up to be more self-sufficient and financially sound. This may reflect itself in a youth orientated squad that may not be as initially competitive, but that was what the licence system was supposed to be implemented for. If clubs just continue to put all their eggs in the performance basket, we may as well stick with P& R. Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer P&R, but that isn’t what’s in place now, is it? Widnes actually understand this and are acting on it.

Only the top clubs could have achieved what we have achieved from a position in the lower leagues. We have not been poor in this league either. We’ve been in two Grand Finals and won the Northern Rail Cup twice in 4 years. That betters any other club in this league. If the RFL are going to just promote one or two of the Grand Finalists every 3 years, they may as well say so and scrap the whole licence criteria except for player performance. Unless the RFL do that it is pointless putting forward clubs that should be awarded a licence on that basis. That is not what is on offer.

It will be over three years since our administration by the time the next licences are decided. How long can that be held against the club? Every club in Rugby League has been there, or dammed close to it.

I also wouldn’t start talking about past records either. Wdnes are still one of the most successful clubs in the game, and their record puts both Wakefield and Castleford to shame.