if im wrong tell me but i thought it was only halifax and widnes who were considered to play in super league. one of the requirements is for the team to have an average attendance of 2500. There has only been one home fixture that halifax have got that 2500 crowd you need and that was against featherstone who are top of the league. I would love halifax to come up dont get me wrong one day but the RFL would have to be stupid to let a club with 10,000 fans leave super league. Halifax will never average a 2,500 crowd this season.

Of course they won't that's obvious in the championship. I'm sure they won't average as many as the bulls in super league either but their attendances would increase massively in the top tier. In my opinion they would be better supported than both Salford and London and possibly on a par with widnes. I reckon their away support would possibly equal yours, they've always travelled reasonably well

I'd have thought the 2500 average crowd factored in the increase expected.

Don't forget, 9500 of our season ticket holders are Fax fans anyway just waiting for promotion.

dont be silly, I dont think they are fax fans and the criteria for getting in super league is 2,500 fans on average a season and they wont get that. Are you kidding, we have a much better away support than fax, great support at the moment.

Your quite right! We are all really fartown fans!

haha, fartown fans that are old bulls fans

Northern

At the end of the day it will all boil down to one question - Is SL strong enough to loose 10,000 supporters ?

Also think the other question is, Is superleague going to survive with another team taking a whooping nearly every week?

With the greatest respect to Widnes and London (possibly wakey, cas and salford) next season they will lose more games than they win if you take away a team who is in the playoff with more wins then losses and replace them with a team who like widnes this year who will take at least 12-18 months to get used to the league and may end up at the bottom, with a huge - points difference.

The gap between the haves and have nots will be even greater, i have never been a fan of the 8 team playoff system how can you lose more games then you win and still have a chance to make the GF, seems daft to me.

Agree with that. If we have to have play-offs then the top five was the best of the ideas used, though for me I could never get my head around [iany[/i non top of the league team being champions.

As for the top eight, the only thing which really puzzles me (since it's [itotally[/i about cash creation) is why they haven't come up with a top 14 play-off series - surely that would make even more money? Maybe it will be the next big idea.

From other SL teams POV, how many away fans do you take. IF they are voting on whether the Bulls should stay in SL surely that is the consideration.

I really don't know your away support, always seemed a lot better when you come to the KC than a lot of teams though.

I agree, and also, on the difference between haves and have nots;

Do fans really want sustainabilty or sugar daddy financed reaching for sucess?;

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugby-league/news/article/480/7919696/hull-fail-in-chase-raceHUll fail in chase bid[/url

"We will continue to invest until we win something. [uIt's not about breaking even[/u. If we have to pay a fee we will. [uI know what I can afford[/u.

"Last year's recruitment was way off where it needed to be. This club is screaming out for top quality players. [u[iYou get what you pay for[/i[/u."

Hull are lucky to have someone ploughing in the funds, and good luck to them, but it highlights the differences when someone is willing to write large cheques at the drop of a hat. For us, takeover or not it [iwill [/iall be about trying to break even and spending what we earn.

So for us, although I agree a top 8 playoffs is daft, if we're still in SL it could be useful for us, as competing for the top 5 is getting harder and harder.

A bit off topic

But it seems a bit ironic that a current England international couldn't get a transfer finalised because of visa issues and complications with 'border control'

Makes a bit of mockery of International Rugby

Will these new visa issues restrict the ability of our players and coaches to find alternative SL employment if we end up being liquidated?

And its been done at what cost, not really a good example to quote is it?

I guess it does when you think it through, but it's only what happens in every other sport so the international board decision to allow it is only going with the flow, as it were.

Probably not. If they got a visa in the first place they must qualify, so I suppose it's just a bit of bureaucracy which will slow it down a bit. I must admit it seems strange to give a visa just for one job in one specific place.

Maybe so, I just found the comparison interesting, and anyway, the only real topic in town is just p!ssing me off too much. Im not posting again till its sorted one way or the other, too many s and not enough facts and honesty both on and off line.

Doesn't really change anything, just that the door is open for him to possibly move to wigan next, will have to see who has the most financial clout FC or Wigan.



My point wasn't that is everyone elses fault Bradford are in admin was that it will take Fax or Fev if they do come up they 12 moths to adjust to the superleague, running a team close in the cup and beating a team who were on the slide is totally different to playing wigan, wolves, saints et al every week and mostly taking a tonking, like widnes proved and next year those in the top 6 will only improve so we may end up with a league where the top 6 could be decided by the mid year with the rest just making up the numbers, and like i said i mean no disrespect to some teams but they will lose more games than they win, like bradford the past few years they where not good enough and lost more than they won.
This was supposed to be londons revitalization this year and look where they are, widnes have pulled off a couple of shocks but on the whole they have taken a battering in some games, whereas next year they will improve but may still end up on the receiving end of some teams so it could be possible that if bulls do go then we may have 3-4 teams who lose over 15 and that isn't good in anyone's book.

Knock the league back down to 12 which ever way, and top 5 go in to playoff league champs get a bye to the GF, 2-5 have a playoff knockout, but the league champ has to play a game against one of the teams who is not involved in the playoff knockout final, and give that team they pick some incentive, so the league champs don't have 2 weeks off only 1, similar to how it used to be.

Its a bit like comparing apple's with oranges. Fax's attendances include playing the likes of York, Keighley, Hunslet etc at home instead of playing Leeds, Wigan, St Helens ers. Fax in superleague would automatically increase the attendances to equal and beteer the likes of Salford, Wakefield, Widnes etc.

On the subject of it being a License requirement, well so was having sound finances........

As a Fax fan I have no illusions of being in Superleague anytime soon. I believe the Bulls will liquidate and set up as a new company, being allowed a Superleague place. After all there is already precedents set with both London and Celtic Crusaders already doing this.

I'm with Spanishbob that Fax will be playing in the Championship for the next two years.

However, to get the facts straight, we did meet the attendance criteria for this round of licencing (along with all the other criteria - we were denoted a grade C), but failed on our business plan being "speculative".

£20,000 profit last year - not enormous, but in the black. And that's playing teams that bring a single bus-load (Leigh and Fev excepted) to our home games.

4th final in 4 years next weekend. Life in the Championship ain't that bad tbh.

I think the thing to remember is most Bulls comments about Fax have been drawn by a minority of Fax fans (and others) on the wind up. Most fans would love Fax to be in Superleague (just not at our expense). Your gates would of course increase in Superleague, but I agree you would need time to prepare. i look forward to crossing verbal swords with Fax fans, it is much better than with the Giants, at least you can remember winning something!!

Though they are faily balanced, i.e. a chip on both shoulders.

Fev beat Cas and pushed Wigan close with a part time team. True playing such teams every week would be different, But a Fev team in superleague would be a full time team. DP reckons a full time Fev team would beat the bottom 6 teams in SL.

Either Fev or Fax at this moment would be more prepared for SL than widnes were. Unfair to say Fev or Fax woudn't be competitive. Fev put 90 points past Widnes last season - Thats a lot of points to make up just to get to good championship standard never mind SL.

I also feel the average attendance criteria is very unfair. Both fev and fax have been out of the top flight for a very long time and do incredibly well to get over 2000 fans to every home match especially when you can stand and count the number of away fans, its sometimes less than 30. Im sure the teams love playing us at home as on many occasions we have out numbered the home fans at away games. It goes without saying that attendances would improve, if not more than double if either club was put into SL.

Would be great to see fev in the SL, but if its not to be, the championship isn't too bad a place at the moment.

I think the problem would the difficulties caused by liquidating in mid season. I just cannot see how a new club could be formed, coaches, players and essential backroom staff recruited, a stadium lease signed etc, etc in between super league rounds. If it were pre-planned, perhaps, but there's no suggestion from the comments being made that any discussions or planning is taking place to enable a seamless transition.

I just do not see how a Newco would be able to fulfill the Bulls immediate fixtures. Which would create a nightmare for the RFL. And, if we cannot complete this season's fixtures, I would be very surprised if the RFL would allow us back in SL next season.