And then let us all in for free for our final home game against Batley , the North stand 4,000 tickets have already gone ( meaning I'm having to sit in the East stand for the 1 st time

) and if the demand continues we could be looking at a sell out by Saturday

Any other club was allowed to spend the same if they had it

Not against it all, it just means that promotion and a strong on-field team isn't necessarily an indicator of 'good things', Celtic Crusaders were exactly the same and did exactly the same things and they are universally hated on here for it. In fact Celtic were arguably a stronger entity than Leigh because they actually ran junior teams and had development pathways.

You would hope that would be the case.

I suppose I just think their was a lot this year about clubs like feath, bradford and Sheffield pushing themselves to the edge just because being competitive on the field is 'good enough' I also question how much adding Featherstone or Batley to the top flight if we already have Cas, Wakefield, Leeds in that area. How much can they actually grow?

And I genuinely do believe that their are only certain clubs who will ever (big statement I know) have the potential to push into SL in this or any format, and eventually we will see a couple of clubs who are constantly in the middle eights, whether that be championship or SL. That is conjecture at this point but IMO we've already seen it start to happen with it being about 4/5 championship clubs then everyone else.

No they didn't , Leigh's spending is all out in the open , not hidden behind a £ 150 K salary cap in NL2 , and then a £ 250K one the year later when they were promoted

As regards their support base , their stadium , their players legality to work in Britain , where their funding actually came from ?

As far as your argument of Leigh's reserve grade this year , are you aware we don't have anybody to actuall play

Ah, the token Welsh team (love Wales by the way, great Country) who had [iSpecial Disspensations[/i on overseas quotas *under the development area banner*, a good number of which did not have visas, poor following, RL not wanted by the majority of the people who favour Union, financially practically bankrupt.

You're not registered as Jean Capdouze too are you ?

Will we see the first ever all Championship 11,000 + attendance for Leigh v Batley.

Mr Beaumont has invited Batley fans & fans of any other Clubs to enjoy Rugby League for free on Saturday, already looking like a total capacity sell out.

Are you coming Headhunter ?

Wouldn't count on it. There'd be some on here who think free tickets are still too expensive.

Er yeah, they did. They spent more than the other teams, bought a bunch of players that were too good for the competition they were in and won promotion on the back of that. The club was a total shambles but as far as on-field goes they did the same thing as Leigh. They had a wealthy owner who bankrolled them to success. I don't begrudge Leigh or anyone else for doing that BTW, that's the way modern sport works but the fact is that if the owner pulled out they would go the same way as Celtic Crusaders, as would every club in the bottom half of Super League. Leigh were having bucket collections before Beaumont stepped in. Trying to claim that the success any more noble or 'deserved' than anyone else is a childish fallacy. To be fair at least Beaumont has put his money in and achieved what he set out to do, which is more than can be said for the likes of Koukash.
Halifax, Keighley, Wigan, St Helens, Warrington and Hull FC all ran reserves this year. Dewsbury started the season but withdrew.

Ah I see our phony frenchman is still coming up with all kinds of rubbish.
I have him on ignore so only see when people quote him.
When people start saying words like deserve to be in the top flight about a sporting team you know they have lost any notion of having sound reasoning.
The league table does not lie, those who deserve to be where they are , are where they are.

I liked having Bradford in SL, but they went bust twice under the closed shop that was licencing. If you can't make it when there is the protection of a Cartel, then it's sad but that's life. Survival of the fittest!

They didn't just let Leigh spend more money than anyone else though did they?

The playing field just wasn't level & now it is. If a club (or should I say, rich individual) wants to plough a shed load of cash into trying to get into S.L. then fair play to them.

If for instance, Huddersfield were to be in the Championship next season & their Chairman bankrolled the club up to the cap, would you have a problem with that?

You brought up the comparison , I or nobody else has suggested Leigh promotion is more ' Noble ' than any other

Just for the record Leighton Samuel wasn't the primary financier of the CC s , that was RFL development money via Wales RL through their offices located conveniently at Mr Samuels Dekor company

They ran full time on 150K ?

I don't have any problem with what Leigh did at all, the cap should be the same across all divisions and it will be from next season so there isn't a problem. I was just replying to the guy who was talking about on-field success being a sign of good things happening off the field, which isn't true. Leigh were on their way to being relegated from the Championship before Beaumont got involved.

Yes we were , so what actually changed ?

What happened that gave Dereck Beaumont the desire and will to put large amounts of his hard earned into the club ?

Probably the same thing that led to Sheffield Eagles trying to run a full-time squad when they couldn't afford it and now looking like they're about to go bust.

Nope , the structure changed , Dereck would not have been willing to put the investment in unless the outcome was decided but what happens on the pitch

You really are slow, what do you think my last post was about?

You mean like Toronto then ?

Toulouse perhaps ?

Neither Toronto or Toulouse are funded at the whim of one wealthy backer, they're running full time squads because they can afford to do it and they would probably be in Super League already if the structure hadn't changed.

So how are Toronto funding next season ?

Similarily Toulouse , how are they funded ?

Toronto are funded by "a consortium of 10 businessmen" apparently. I don't know how Toulouse are funded and I don't care. The point is that neither of them were struggling clubs that only exist in the way they do because they happened to be bought by a millionaire owner who they are totally dependent on. Not singling out Leigh for this BTW, as I said, there are probably 6-7 current SL teams that you could say the same for, that's the nature of the sport in the UK but the whole thing is massively exacerbated by the current structure. Great for Leigh and the others as long as their owners are involved, not so great for Sheffield or Bradford who don't happen to have millionaire owners, tried to artificially compete and spend above their means and now are in turmoil.

So a ' consortium ' , I was once part of one of those , but eventually you end up with 1 person who's ambitions/willingness to invest will supersede the rest

Then it will be one single benefactor

Toulouse do not have the income streams currently to finance a 1.8 million cap spend in the Championship , so somebody is going to be picking up the tab

Poor Headhunter, he's really 'tramuatised' by Leigh gaining PROMOTION to Super League.....PATHETIC !

Do you want a bet ill go £100 for every spectator above that and you can have £200 for every spectator under that average?

..................... we've just beaten a 1/4 of the league teams we are joining its the hardest sporting route to promotion in any sport in the world, we didnt have to tick boxes or grease palms we had to beat 3 of the teams in the league above. We did it and on your other rants heres a list of players under 30 from Saturday

McNally
Higson
Worthington
Brown
Drinkwater
Weston
Patterson
Hopkins
Dixon
Hood

.............................................................. =#FF0000[size=85edited by Poptart. Don't try to get round the swear filter. This is way over the top as a reply. Your point was well worth saying without making it personal. Consider this a gentle warning. You'll be taking a rest if you continue[/size

Or an owner who got the rules changed to allow him to spend the same as the other 4 clubs can who we have to compete with to get promotion.

=#FF0000Quit the insults or take a break - Karen

Wed just won 2 Northern Rail cups in 3 years eye we were on our way to beging relegated...