Yeah and lose Widnes, Saints, Wire, Wigan, Salford fans because them fans wouldnt watch other teams.

The fairest way to judge it is mark teams out of 100 on each criterion and pick the highest scoring 14 clubs, with the highest scoring Championship club which is eligible replacing the lowest ranked SL club.

Quins, Crusaders, Cas, Wakey and Salford would all surely be in danger, though Wrexham seems to have some potential and the Saders seem to determined to make it work in N. Wales. If Salford can deliver the ground, I'm sure they'll be in too. Super League needs London, but it seems as though it's dying a slow death under the entity of Harlequins.

I think Widnes tick more boxes than some of the lower reaches of SL, while Barrow would also be worth a shot.

What has 10 years ago got to do with anything?

I thought they were three year franchises?

On that basis surely we should be judging what clubs have done since those last franchises were given and not what happened 10 years ago...that's totally irrelevant.

In that time we have had a 5th place league finish last season and were academy champions and the clubs work in the community has been top notch . Crowd numbers have gone down but that is obviously down to current economic climate coupled with our poor results/performances and poor ground at present.

Anyone who says we haven't worked tirelessly as a club since the last round of franchises in order to put that right and be playing out of a new ground is not paying close enough attention to our efforts.

If the (Cas biased) council keep to their word on the land issue then we could be still looking good on the new ground front....

.....really? 2nd place finish in 1997.....2 other play off appearances......currently the SL team with the least number of imports on their books, 2 cockney England RL internationals, thousands of youngsters playing the game in the south east, never finished in a relegation position, currently field teams at all under age levels, nice stadium to play in..........yep..I'd say the London Broncos/Harlequins Rugby League experiment has failed miserably



...oh...so that's what you meant. Crowds........the 2 points allocated for crowds.....silly me. I thought you had something interesting to say, but you were just stating the obvious. Of course London RL has no amateur set up, receives no support and development assistance from Quins RL, has managed to grow year on year on their own.....without Quins Community teams (award winning community teams) working in schools.......it always comes down to crowds/away fans with you flat earth lot



As it is, I reckon that SL should be expanded by 1 team, scrap the Magic weekend, introduce bye weekends (reduce the injury lists), have a no more than 3 non european passports allowed per squad and a minimum of 5 under 21's per squad.
Widnes added in 2012....with all teams who are currently in danger of being removed(of which Quins is one) being given clear criteria that must be achieved by 2014 or they are out.

Clear criteria would be:
Stadium. Built....nothing more, nothing less. It needs to be finished and have games played on it.
Crowds. 40% capacity, minimum. this would require Quins to be at 5,700.......78% more than their current average. We have had 15 years with a reluctance to market properly....that would focus their attention at the club!
If Salford, Wakey, Castleford and Bradford do get stadiums that are up to scratch...it is their responsibility to get the 40% average.....

All these and any other criteria should be published in the public domain, with regular updates from the RFL......it would stop w4nk threads like these popping up every 5 minutes if nothing else

The Barrow club has launched a new initiative aimed at young players in the Furness area. What a fantastic opportunity to be coached by the likes of ... Nathan Mossop, Ned Catic, Martin Ostler, Jamie Rooney, Michael Knowles, Andy Bracek, Zeb Luisi, Liam Campbell, Chris Young, James Coyle. For more info, visit the website ......... www.barrowrlfc.com/barrow_rugby_ ... newsID=753 BARROW 4 SL

The Barrow club has launched a new initiative aimed at young players in the Furness area. What a fantastic opportunity to be coached by the likes of ... Nathan Mossop, Ned Catic, Martin Ostler, Jamie Rooney, Michael Knowles, Andy Bracek, Zeb Luisi, Liam Campbell, Chris Young, James Coyle. For more info, visit the website ......... www.barrowrlfc.com/barrow_rugby_ ... newsID=753 BARROW 4 SL

Why not?
Even better, 2 leagues.....10 teams in each. 18 rounds per regular season.
Play offs between top 4 in each division


Saints
Wigan
Widnes
Wire
Barrow
Fev
Catalans
Crisaders
Salford
Leigh


Leeds,
Bradford
Hudds
Castleford
Wakey
Harlequins
Hull KR
Hull FC
Halifax
Batley

I agree with all that you have said but the crowds are a big concern for me and if your chairman(forgot his name) ever leaves Quins RL will you be up the 5h1tcreek.

David Hughes.......and yes, if he walks, then that will be it for Harlequins RL. It is my favourite subject when it comes to the club...the abject failure to market the game, attract more fans and therefore not have to rely on one mans money.
For quins to be self sufficient, I would imagine 7,000 would need to be the average gate.........and if the club had speculated over the last 5 years and spent 250k a year on marketing, I am 100% sure that the average gates would be nearer that figure than the current 3,200.
As it is, DH has stated he wants to reduice his investment. What annoys the hell out of me is that he has thrown 1.5 million at the club over the last 2 years........and that, combined with ticket revenue, Sky money etc...has been wasted. How the hell Quins RL are losing 30 grand a week is beyond me..........and we are also told that the club are near their cap

With a team full of young cockneys (9 local trained lads v Bradford the other week) how the hell are we anywhere near the cap.
The club has been mismanaged from the top for years, but this current lot seem to have refined the art of f()cking up a perfectly good business.
I makes my blood Boil

What about the Quins RU side,will they not put some investment in after all it's in their interests.

Totally agree!! All the other posts on this thread (and all the others like it) are like turkeys arguing about how they should be slaughtered (but each one assuming, of course, that they're "special" turkeys and they won't be slaughtered at all!)

actually you could have hit onto something there, super league east and super league west, played on a home and away basis,the top 4 teams all play off and the winner of the west plays winner of east in the SL grand final

No they won't, because it isn't in their interests - I wouldn't imagine being associated with a moribund RL club (if only because of the name) is something they're overjoyed about!

Is this Back to the Future? Im pretty sure that system used to exist...

precisely.
it would also mean potentially improved crowds are most would be local games and no travelling over the pennines on a friday night

It would be interesting to read your theory as to why Barrow and Toulouse would be an asset to SL, would it be their stadiums or the type of rugby they play or maybe the attendances they achieve or perhaps all of these.

personally i think it will be 2 in 2 out - Wakefield, Salford to go and Widnes, Toulouse to come in - everyone else should be ok

Disagree mate,one in(Widnes)one out,probably Wakefield.

After it kicked off when an article got mis-read or something back in April-ish where Toulose claimed they didnt have to get into the final to get promoted, i think they (RFL) made it clear then that you HAVE to have reached the final or win NRC for go up. So as it stands it can only be Barrow, Halifax, Widnes and Batley (with probably Fev to come to be fair, and then maybe Leigh).

Can't see them changing two clubs at this stage, too much of a gamble, particularly if Crusaders and Catalans are rumoured to have financial problems

T.O or another french club are vital to SLE simply because its wants to be known as a european league.at the moment its a bit of a joke league when it comes to being european.as for barrow..not for me thanks but perhaps a joint frachise between workington and whitehaven might be worth looking at in the future.

What if Toulouse were to drop out of the Championship and attempt to gain a license the same way the Dragons did?

For me, the inclusion of Toulouse wouldn't be as beneficial for French RL as many think. Today, Catalans welcomed their 100,000th English supporter through the gates. I reckon if Toulouse had been in SL alongside the Dragons since 2006, both clubs would be welcoming their 5/60,000th English supporters through the gates. I'm not saying Toulouse and Catalans' proposals should be demerited due to a decrease in away support, but two teams in the south of France would be less attractive than one in Spain, Paris or Ireland. France needs a high-standard league of its own to really start challenging rugby union and in international competition, though I guess it may only arise once two or three French sides make the leap into SL.

Going by standards of the current contenders though, Toulouse probably don't come up to scratch.

From a sentimental point of view I agree but lets not forget that at least one if not both of Cas and Wakey will be kicked out of SL next year to incorporate Widnes just because they have a better ground, so on that basis what chance have the cumbrian teams got?

it will probably be widnes but what is the point in replacing like for like under a franchise system ?as you say they have a better stadium but other than that how can they be better than cas or wakey?

Thats one way of looking at it I suppose.

Another way is Cas currently have next to zero chance of a new ground of their own. Leigh have one. You'd also happily swap your debt for ours.

We average just over 2000 with next to no travelling support in a league were winning the top pot means nowt but your picture in League Express and £50 book of Argos vouchers.

The reason we dont get 40% is becasue we'd have to get over 4500 on for every game. Even the mighty Cas would struggle to get that after spending all but of one of the last 20 years outside the top division.

As for youth, I'd put our towns amateur set up against yours any day of the week and given £1m of Sky money every year we'd probably have half a chance of converting it into a better youth programme too, not thats it's shoddy now.

The Chairman is Arthur Thomas, I assume your thinking of Allan Rowley who only said in public what Steve O'Connor said in private.

Leigh are certainly not ready for Super League, but we're not as far behind Cas as you'd like to think we are.

They are not better than Cas or Wakey, but give them 12month in SL and they will be as good as them. With the income from Sky they will be able to attract better players and be able to compete more favourably with the more established clubs. Unfortunately they were lost to SL due to expantion and then lost out because of this franchise business, Cas got relegated twice and bounced straight back up and Wakey have never been relegated but now it looks like another good club is going to be lost to it as well all because Sky wants everybody to have a new stadium.