You seem to assume that we are still in the Promotion-relegation system, where position on the table was everything. Actually I have to inform you that a licensing system began this year, and position on the table is not a major issue any more. According to the criteria, Wakefield were lucky to get a spot in 2009. They are on notice about their future license.

Warrington will never be dropped. Their only problem is on the field. But they have everything else in place, including a poorly designed, soulless, but nonetheless adequate stadium.

Wakefield can be dropped because of a number of factors against it. These include being too close to Castleford, not having a good junior set up, not having enough supporters, and having a dreadful, disgusting stadium.

That is why Wakefield needs to think long and hard about what it is aiming for with a new stadium, and find out is it going to materialise before the Second Coming, let alone before the licensing decisions in 2011.

Really? How does one decide who plays in a Grand Final then? Do clubs have to submit a statement in no more than 50 words why they deserve to be there?

You misunderstand me. I was pointing out to my bitter friend from Wakefield that position on the Super League table -- namely being at the bottom or not -- is not a major issue for a license renewal decision. The other criteria are more important.

I know. I was just yanking your chain.

Cheap points to you this round, I guess.

I guess that I am really worried that the Wakefield fans -- with their limited education, and their high susceptibility to cheap promises made by overweight local charlatans -- are going have their hopes raised now, only to have them dashed later.

Here's a question for you Mr Phallus.

You state:

"position on the Super League table -- namely being at the bottom or not -- is not a major issue for a license renewal decision. The other criteria are more important".

Do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing - in sport? In sport - how much credence should we put upon clubs' actual performance on the pitch?

I think that the main thing in our sport is having clubs that can attract good crowds week in week out, the way that Leeds, Wigan and Hull FC do. Of course on field performance is relevant to that, but even poorly performing teams like Wigan and Hull FC can still attract decent crowds.

Note that all of these clubs have decent stadia. Poorly performing clubs with poor stadia, like Bradford, cannot draw the crowds they potentially could. So having a comfortable stadium is the key. Wakefield's management have neglected the stadium issue for decades. Bell Vue was not even fit for human habitation in 1979, let alone in 2009!

OK

So, where do Harlequins fit into all this - especially the highlighted bit above?

you could have the best looking stadium around with white seats, and the 2 blue stripes with the red-that would look great! got to do it!

Harlequins crowd problem is an ongoing struggle. Unfortunately the club is now financially strapped, and cannot employ the kind of quality marketing manager that it needs.

Quins, unlike the northern clubs, are starved of mass media attention. The only way that Quins crowds will improve is when a second London club is licensed and the national and local London news media start to take rugby league in London seriously.

What a banker

No, I am not a banker. But I can recommend you one. I certainly hope that Wakefield has connections with a good banker, someone who is willing to take huge risks.

If Wakefield is denied a license in 2011, then there will need to be a great gamble by Wakefield's bankers that the club can continue to achieve their 6,500 SL crowds in the Championship. Wakefield will be competing with a club like Leigh that has a nice little stadium appropriate for the Championship. But that is why I have proposed that Wakefield try to build an 8,000 capacity stadium, that won't look too empty on TV on Thursday nights.

Many Warrington fans are frustrated Widnes fans just chasing some glory. With little chance of any glory at the wire this season why don't you go back to Widnes and watch them in the Championship that you so obviously yearn to watch.

Wakefield’s Junior set up is better than Warrington’s and Widnes put together so no problems there.

Being close to Cas is actually a positive as it gives us a proper derby game, unlike the fabricated Cheshire derby that Wire and Chemics pretend to have.

Our support has grown by around 90% in the last five years and we averaged over 7,000 last year. We did this despite our stadium and the lack of travelling away fans who understandably don't want to come to Belle Vue on rainy days. This especially applies to the perpetually booing Warrington fans that came in a taxi.

When we get the inevitable attendance boost that Wire and Hull have already enjoyed I'm sure we'll be up there with the five figure clubs.

With regards the franchise, Wakefield scored exceptionally well in every other area apart from the stadium, which although very old still meets the Super League criteria. I have no idea which orifice you pulled these other criticisms from.

That's a tall order. Surely the RFL can help take steps to promote the game in the Capital on behalf of Harlequins and any other prospective club. I don't think clubs can do it on their own. The media have to be pursuaded to channel their resources from Football and Rugby Union if there is to be any progress in this area and i can't see them doing that.

You are right. The clubs cannot do it on their own. The RFL will have to do it.

However my point is that one club in the capital, in a competition which now has 14 clubs, half of them in Yorkshire, 4 of them in what was once Lancashire, is of little appeal to the national media. Especially since four of those clubs in Yorkshire cannot get a crowd of 10,000 to their home games.

Yorkshire needs to be rationalised (drop Wakefield, and maybe Cas, or combine them into a Calder United club with Wakey and Cas in the Championship as feeders), and more clubs that represent the nation and Europe must be given Super League licenses. Rugby League does not need to have seven Yorkshire clubs in Super League. The Championship is the ideal location for the smaller Yorkshire (and Cumbrian) clubs. The goal of the Championship should be to have clubs with roughly 4-7,000 home crowds in decent stadia, and on TV once a week. Super League should be for clubs that can hope to get 10,000 average home crowds. Salford, Harlequins and Celtic cannot do it now, but in the future, with rationalisation and more national mass media publicity, they probably can. Wakefield and Castleford are maxed out at 7,000. They simply do not have the population base for more spectators.

Only when we add at least one more club into London, and start to change the geographical balance of clubs in Super League, will the national media be motivated to give rugby league more publicity. It is the lack of publicity that is killing the crowds in London, making it difficult in Wales, and starving the game of more adequate corporate sponsorship.

.

Is that why we took over 10,000 to the NL1 Grand Final in 2007? Is that why our average is currently 8,003. You don't half talk some crap.

Tell me who counted the 10,000 Cas fans at Headingley. I want to meet him.

Now, early in the year, while you are winning, and with the statistical bias of a local derby against Wakefield already played, it may be 8,003. Let us take a look at the figures of home crowd average at year's send. That might wipe the smirk off your face.

Ican't believe people take this c u next tues bait. He is a complete wind up merchant, either that or a very deluded man with only half a brain cell!

Thats hardly fair on people with half a brain cell, is it.

Mergers worked in the NRL. (St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers). They can work in Yorkshire (Calder United).

Wakefield is history.

That overweight, pompus loud mouth Sir Rodney Walker talks the talk, but rarely walks the walk. He walks the waddle to be precise. Look at the mess he left the RFL in when he departed. He is good at looking after himself, with membership of boards and titles and the money that comes with those perks. But he shares responsibility for the multi million pound loss that rugby league suffered in the 2000 World Cup. It took the RFL years to get back in the black after he left. And you Wakey fans put your faith in this man's promises of a gleaming new stadium?

I think our average crowd this year bigger than yours dont understaimat the Cas fan Base we have a masive suport in Selby out my way Batley and Dewsbury. Kippax and Allerton Bywater, Nomington and Pontifract and most of East leeds like us or watch Cas.
I think there would be more people outside Cas who watch Cas than people who live inside Cas 10k average with a winning team is easly done.

With home games against Hull, Hull KR, Wigan, Leeds, Warrington and Saints left to play..plus the winning and feel good factor we have, I'd say that keeping our average is fairly achievable.

I don't have a smirk, it's more of a laugh; a laugh at how limited your knowledge of our game is.

Where as you have achieved ??????????

























Thought not!

Why are people who should know better allowing Albert to derail this thread with his franchise/merger trolling?

edited for accuracy