It would make 'our' competition more interesting Fred - yet another set of rules for another team! 'Parachute payments' would go a long way towards ensuring that whoever comes down, will have a good chance of meeting any 'onfield criteria' for future franchise applications!

Who do we want to come down? It's probably not going to be Salford but if Widnes were to be promoted & Salford were relegated at least we'd have a derby

Not Salford we want MORE teams in SL from this side of 'The Hills' than there is.

Didn't parachute payments cause the ' "yoyo effect" when promotion and relegation were used and weren't they scrapped for that very reason ?

Wakefield look doomed without one. I think Cas would be ok if they lost their franchise though and it would add weight to those of us who see franchising for the ridiculous non incentive system that it self evidently is.

When franchising was muted I did forecast year 3 would cause big problems. Well lets see who is right.

Who said this ? and when?

Parachute payment for wakey after 12(?) years of SL and all the Sky Money and other benefits that come with it would be an absolute joke. Same for any other club coming down. They have all been aware that they could be out if they didn't fulfill their promises and they should have cut their cloth accordingly. I would be furious if they did give them a parachute payment as it would basically be a bribe/sweetener to stop the relegated team from complaining too much.

Well it wouldn`t be the first time they have changed their minds but it would be nice if they all sang from the same hymn sheet once in a while.
Just as an aside the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture ,Media and Sports will be conducting an investigation into Football Governance .
They are asking for everyones views and while it has nothing to do with Rugby League how about all of us contacting our MPs and asking them if they will be doing the same for Rugby League.
The select committee has powers to call witnesses equivalent to that of a court I would like to hear Nigel and co` trying to explain their criteria for the Grand Plan to that lot.

Absolute nonsense.

Not arguing that Salford aren't in a vulnerable position, nor that they shouldn't be relegated before Cas or Wakey but your statement is factually incorrect.

Why is he incorrect ? He says other criteria. Well Cas and Wakey have higher gates and have had better on field results haven't they ? Mind you results do not matter with a daft system like franchising do they ?

What other criteria are there apart from youth development ?

Well it worked for 'em last time, so why not??

Watch out for the Portakabin, JCB, and several Hi-viz jackets, hard-hats, & shovels being dusted off for a photo opportunity come licence renewal time!!

Not to mention making a mockery of the competitive nature of the Championship!

Would the relegated team then be given a higher salary cap than the rest of the league?

take out the stadium criteria and tell me how salford are ahead of cas and wakey on any other criteria ?.

I was thinking that. If you judged all 3 on the 'Leigh way' i.e. Not played in new ground so it doesn't exist then Salford fall way behind. One season of big spending (mainly imports?) does not cover other faults over past years, also bearing in mind signing these players does not gurantee them a higher league placing.

FWIW I don't think Salford will be dropped and they will be one of first into a new stadium, however if jusged fairly after Crusaders & Quins they'd be next in line without a doubt.

On parachute payments, their had been talk of this on the Wakey board a few weeks back, saying the RFL had offered them a sweetner to take the hit. But as I posted then when they were kicking off about it. Why would the RFL pay someone off when in reality they could drop them without a penny? They will lose some of 700k given to suppport Cru they wanted back so hardly mega rich either.

You can't have a system where a side has what a few months to re budget (P&R) without payments yet then have one where you have 3 years to bear it in mind a and award them! Plus if we are being 100% honest Wakey / Cas & Salford were always considered the most at risk heartland sides (never going to drop an expansion team) so it would be very, very poor mangement if they never gave this a thought in their planning.

unless the rfl have changed the rule and no one can find it then thats what it must be judged on surely?.

Can't see that happening. Would basically allow them to buy their way to winning everything for 3 years before strolling back up to SL. Would still be the 'yo-yo' scenario that the RFL claim to dislike but spread over 3 years instead of one.

Well the parachute payment did n`t do us any harm in `06.

tongue in cheek there barty

That's exactly my worry. We currently have a very competitive Championship, that would be unbalanced by one team getting a significant financial advantage. We do have a salary cap, but what would the 'relegated' team spend their 'parachute payment' on?

?
I was talking about the relegated team being given a higher salary cap than the other teams in the league.

But I don't think the relegated team should get a parachute payment after 3 years (or 12 in wakeys case) of SL sky money and having all of that time and money to sort out their stadium.

If they are putting them into our league then they should have the same rules as us, fax, fev etc. No parachute payments, no extra large salary cap or larger over seas quota. They need to learn to adapt to the Championship on their own and not with exemptions and extra money as a 'please don't sue us' gift from the RFL.

there will be no legal action as I bet as last time the RFL will put a no legalities clause in the bid, that plus any club having the dangly bits to actually take any action would never have a chance of SL again.

Of course Fred...... However I can see a few vapour trails in the sky.......

I heard the whooooshes as well

With regards to the stadium, cas have outline planning permission and plan to submitt full planning permission before christmas (and there are no objections to the site), wakey dont even have outline planning permission and wont be able to get it till after the public enquiry which will take about a year. Cas should start construction in april.

Cas are financially stable (and in the last year have increased our income from sponsorship significantly) and even made a small profit in 09. Wheras wakey, quins and crusaders have all had financial difficulties.

Cas have higher attendances than quins, wakey, salford and crusaders and are about the same as catalans, despite dropping 900 off our attendance last season due to poor form, the recesion and most of our normally well attended home games being on sky.

With regards to youth development cas played 11 home grown players last season (including two who have just played in the academy series win over the aussies, 1 being the captain and the other scoring 3 tries in two games), and another playing for england in the 4 nations,we have since lost two, but brought one home grown player in, with 4 or 5 poised to make there debuts this year. This is far better than wakey, salford or crusaders.

Salford and wakey both have 9 (iirc) overseas players wheras cas have stuck to the rfl guidlines and only have 5.

Personally i prefered p+r but if we are using the franchise system cas should be ahead of salford and wakey (and quins and crusaders for that matter).

I would imagine it would be fev.