Oh no. Not another accountant. Knows the cost of everything but the "VALUE" of nothing . RL is doomed I tell you!!

we are seeing the value of a league based in small northern towns, its on its .

If you want to crow about the inherent 'VALUE' of small northern clubs fine, but if you want the game to survive you need to find £35m a year to support the game and the money it will lose

As I remember , the money offered by SKY in it's insception was to the RFL not SL. SL was thought up first then to dilute the finances further SLE was formed with no monies going to the lower divisions. No wonder there is a you and us attitude.

Yeah, it was formed in the same way the EPL was formed.

Big clubs sick of having money paid for their product given to someone else. Its probably not a good idea to see if that idiocy will work again.

You give it to Wales London and France??

because they see the value that Wales, London and France can offer. It is an investment in their own future,

They choose not to make that same investment in small northern clubs because the upside simply isnt there.

Your memory differs from mine. My memory is that the money offered from Sky at the inception of SL was explicitly tied to the setting up of a Super League, partly as a by-product of their war with Kerry Packer Down Under; a Super League which would consist of merged regional clubs, playing in summer to coincide with the Australian season and with a trans-hemisphere competition, and with no way of moving between the RFL comp and the SLE comp at all. Ever.

Oh, and the club chairman took one look at the money dangled in front of them and voted to accept the whole package, including mergers. It was action by the fans which stopped the mergers and forced the compromise of a SLE containing existing clubs - the top 10 from the qualifying Championship season, alongside London and PSG (the only one of the mooted new clubs to make it through).

After that, the further compromises of clubs outside SL getting some of the £87m as a one-off, keep your mouths shut, payment, plus on-field promotion and relegation in and out of Super League as an extra sweetener, were introduced.

If you look up the facts you'll find a big wedge of cash was shelled out to form PSG.This was out of the original clubs coffers.Then Caisley Gary and Mo. The three stooges then deceided to form SLE. Guess who was the first chairman? Which took more money out of the clubs pockets. The mooted club you refer to was set up by the RFL with a share of all the clubs involved. So much for them being visionarys'

the crime of the century surely ! why didn't they concentrate their efforts in the french RL heartlands instead of a dodgy venture based at the most inhospitable concrete jungle ground in france ?

Because they only wanted cities at that time as new teams.

And don't use heartlands as an example or the expansionists will call you a "FLAT CAPPER".

we,the punters can only hope the 'powers that be' have learned some lessons at least ! why am I not convinced ?

Given that the RFL constantly cite PSG (and Gateshead) as exactly the wrong way of doing things which won't be repeated and that's why clubs wanting to bid for a SL licence should come from the Championship (or comparable competition), I'd say they've learned at least some lessons from what we all agree was a disaster.

oops,I forgot.......

touché

have been a roaring success

more a case of : Plan A being a badly conceived idea,destined to fail and Plan B being a sound idea but terribly mismanaged IMO

By who ?

well maybe by the comedians who put the club £2 million in debt,or made a horlicks of the players pensions or the visa debacle ? etc etc etc

There are clubs in SL running up debts of millions with attendances around 7/8,000 and people are surprised that all this happened with the Crusaders getting half of that

It was plain to see in 2007 that the Celtic crusaders were no where near ready for SL , but the RFL had made a promise

For me it does, it gives me top class Rugby, but I would like to see a Super League 2 made up of the better clubs in the Championship, with P&R between them.



Both are doing better than they were, but I'd hope for more competition by them in the next 5-10 years, involving a lot of hard work by the European Rugby League, Super League, by including a second French team, and the RFL, by organising friendlies to get them game time.



For me, some clubs could do with a Relegation to help them like Huddersfield, but there isn't the quality of club in the Championship bar very few excpetions. If we can help get the financial support from somewhere to bring championship teams up to scratch, until then franchising is needed.



The Sport in the UK would be dead with SL, but in terms of the game, I think it needs a little but more competitiveness, and I would *sigh* bring back competitive scrums.

You are actually admitting that relegation was a positive for Huddersfield

Back on to the original question. by definition, a Rugby League supporter is someone who generally follows a primary team and may also follow others, as well as the game in general.
If you look at a list of attendance figures from say, 1990 or even 1994 and compare them to 2010, you will see that not only are attendances far superior now to "back in the days before SL', But also, with the exception of Widnes and leigh (and maybe Halifax...), the best supported clubs over the last 15 years are all in the elite division.
My club are the only fly in the ointment......Crusaders may well become another, but in general, the best suported teams being in the ESL would point to SL giving supporters what they want.

Yep. It was, because instead of being beated 60-4 every week, we changed our focus, and we aimed to slowly build, and look where we are now. 3,400 average support 2003, 7,400 now.

I really hope you are right but I am sorry but I have already seen this scenario play out for the city cricket club folding in 1989 after almost 150 years.. a club I once saw Imran Khan play for...

for the rugby union club just after their centenary
[urlhttp://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/rugby-union/When-crowds-flocked-to-see.1933898.jp[/url

I see the same pattern with Trinity and I fear the worst.