Looks like I was wrong then

never mind two I couldn't even afford the one

Some great memories from our S France trips and got to know a lot of good people through them too.

Super League was better when it was 12 teams and the top six play off system. Go back to that, with one down, one up, regardless of who they are. I don't mind relegation, provided we have a good crack of coming up. In 2006, if we had gone down, we would have never come back up again. If you win the Grand Final, that should be it. It would be a very vibrant championship with some very good clubs vying for the top spot.

It isn't ideal for the clubs coming up, but in the 10 years pre-franchise, us, Huddersfield and Hull KR managed to come up and stay up. It's not always yo-yo.

Hudds were promoted with a full time squad who'd been playing in a part time League, it was also prior to the salary cap being introduced for Championship clubs.
Not sure if the SC was in force when HKR were promoted.

This is the way things are tipped to go. We need to be squeaky clean financially from now on in and get Newmarket on the go asap to ensure we are not one of the two for the chop.

I dont think that you shold include Huddersfield in your example.

They received some unprecidented favour, to enable them to stay up, finally "merging" with Sheffield to protect their top flight status.
In addition to that, the divide between the two divisions is wider now than it was 10 years ago and any promoted club would need to change over half of their playing staff, just to have a chance of avoiding the wooden spoon (look at Widnes)

As a sport, we have to find a way of narrowing the gap between SL and the CC, before we can have a return to automatic 1 up 1 down relegation and promotion.
Having said that, it's certainly better to be relegated and have the chance of a return, than never to have the chance to play in the top flight.

You can add Hull to the list of promoted and stayed up. In fact there have only ever been 2 yo-yo clubs, Cas & Salford and neither has performed any better due to franchising. In fact, in many ways it has made their situation worse.

Widnes is a poor example as they were assured of promotion so elected to run a non competitive, low cost season in the Championship and recruit for the following year. This proved to be a very poor model for Widnes, the Championship and the game in general.

how about one promotion place being available to both the Championship League winners and the Grand Final winners.
If you win both you are automaticaly promoted but if there are two clubs involved they are subject to due diligance with the stronger of the two being promoted.

I despair also. we seem to keep changing thigs for the sake of it . Yes the Framing the future may have worked to a point by making clubs improve tehir facilities etc but look at the England team and how many of the superleague teams did not have a representative, has the salary cap produced a level playing field ? will moving to a new stadium always work ? it did fro warrington they had a big backer but does not seem to have worked for Salford. Yes the fans should have more say at club lever and at the rfl. I would love to see a fans rep on every club board and one at the rfl. I did apply for the recent vacancy of non- executive Chairman of RFL but as yet have not been selected for interview

. Would love to get in there and sort it

I must be in the minority because I'm happy with franchising just not the way it's been implemented in RL. I also think 14 is the perfect number, and given time it'll help improve the competitiveness of the competition.

I loved P & R but I didn't love the destructive nature it had upon the bottom SL & top championship sides. Too many sides panicked, but such is the financial implications it was inevitable. Franchising should redress this long term (granted not thus far) and there's been far more youngsters given opportunities.

I'm not sure another French side would add to the competition. We need to be investing in the likes of London & Salford to stabilise them.

www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... try2588812 Some info perhaps related to this meeting. Also further proof of how the RFL completely stitched up Bradford and treated them atrociously.

www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... try2588812 Some info perhaps related to this meeting. Also further proof of how the RFL completely stitched up Bradford and treated them atrociously.

And I bet you could .

On the subject of pormotion, it must be a reward for on field performance.Ok, there should also be minimum criteria, just as there was at the inception of SL but, it is wholly wrong to promote teams because of a shiny new stadium (or maintain top flight status because of it)
The question then is, do you promote the team that finishes top of the league or, the grand final winner (who may have only won half of their games in the regular season) and do we have
P/R every season ?

That link won't work for me, can you summarise?

It basically states that Hull FC pay £500k in rent per season where as Bradford only pay the RFL 90k per season.

It was more this i was referring to....


When the next round of SL franchising comes around, 12 teams and reinstatement of promotion and relegation is looking likely. (One for you Lobby)

I'm with you on the franchising part. We need to stick with it and make it better rather than canning it.

French side I'm in favour of but it would need to be a case of them being the very best option rather than a team further away that we'd like to see. If Fev are better overall Fev should get it.

90k seems very cheap, it was supposed to be "market price" !
This will be tempered by food outlets etc but, you tend to think this is another example of the RFL "helping" the Bulls and/or some very hard negotiating by the new owners.

No I agree, I see advantages and disadvantages of both but on the whole franchising can work and we've seen areas that it has, like Stadia, more home grown young players and community work teams are doing. Like you say with P&R, teams had difficulties planing long term, especially in the bottom half of the table and looked for quick fixes in search of success.

I often think where our team would be without franchising, such as would we still have the Richardson's in-charge, would the ground have seen any improvements, would we be on the brink of a new stadium, would we of been able to run the club in a more professional business like manor, like we have under AG so far and tbh I don't think much would have changed without it.

Yep agree with that as well, if a French side is good enough and a better option than the likes of Feath and Halifax, sure they should be allowed in. We just don't want to see anymore of this rushed, ill thought out, just because a team has good a bit of cash behind it and we fancy a club in that area then fast track them in. Grassroots is the key to any expansion area, investment in the schools and amateur clubs is everything imo and that sort of thing takes years.

If you lost two and had annual promotion, then you would have a championship with, say, Fax, Fev, Cas, Salford, Leigh, Sheffield, Batley all vying for promotion. It would be a vibrant Championship. It would be a hard start for them going up, but equally, let them try. Provided something is put in place to stop reckless spending to get in the top flight (half of income with regular solvency checks), and the same for all the top flight clubs, I think the game would regain some of its excitement.

Franchising is good for stability, but is it good for excitement? I don't watch rugby league because I like stable clubs. I watch it for the thrills and spills, the roller coaster. My only proviso would be that there are no sacred cows. No "you can't come up because London finished bottom. You've got to wait for Wakefield, etc)". Let the New Crusaders build and earn their spot by on the field success, which is generated by off-field.

As for the number of clubs, the top eight format isn't good enough. It is better to finish fifth than fourth, because you get to go into the crucial game with a couple of good wins behind you. The old format, where one of the top two goes through, was by far the best format.

Richard Lewis had good intentions, but the groundswell would appear to be, straight after his departure, that we want to change it.

IF there is a return to P/R and possibly a reduction to 12 teams (which has been suggested), does this put us back in the firing line again.
With the prospect of Toulouse also being included, where would this leave thie likes of Cas, Widnes, KR, Salford and ourselves (I am assuming that London are bomb proof)

Although Cas have said that there will be less emphasis on new stadia, there will be some very unhappy supporters if this scenario does happen.

A mini round a licencing to determine who faces the drop ? On current form and prospects thats my team gone!

Its a convenient opinion when your own club is on the right side of the draw bridge. Woiuld your opinion of been the same if we had been shown the trap door last season. Of course the system before 2008 was inadequate the gap between SL and CC was way too big I can only assume that 6 years of franchising will have made it worse. For me it's totally vital the game works towards some sort of [iviable[/i P & R system. The present system just alienates too many fans in the lower leagues. I causes bad feeling between fans and most importantly it takes a lot of emotion out of the game. It breaks all the rules of fair play and goes against a lot of fans values.