Thinking back, Sir Keith Joseph, Education Secretary under Thatcher, decided that Britain only needed one Music Conservatoire and ordered an inspection of them all. When it became apparent that the then Jewel in the Crown was not in London, the idea was scrapped, the PCFC reshuffle announced and all the colleges lost out.

Why does everything have to revolve around London? Besides SL with London therein would not be solar but rather polar (to use a musical metaphor).

Merely playing devil's advocate.

It has to be York.

Isn't Mr. Lenegan still a part shareholder there? Saw an article a bit ago saying the had popped a bit more money in? Hope he's not making the decisions

Quote ="The Phantom Horseman"Fev didn't lose the play-off game against York, they thumped them for the third time that season. And as for how much Mark Campbell can afford, I think you'd be surprised. He's consistently opened his own wallet to offset the very meagre Championship budget for 10+ years, in stark contrast to one or two current SL clubs. Don't forget, it's only just over three years ago that his money helped save York! https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yorkc ... -interest/'" Thanks for the post, I wondered how wealthy Mr. Flatman at York was and it seems he's no multi-millionaire either. If Featherstone got it I'd be delighted as it was such a disappointment after all the hard work Mr. Campbell put in for Nahaboo to let him down......

Quote ="The Phantom Horseman"Fev didn't lose the play-off game against York, they thumped them for the third time that season. And as for how much Mark Campbell can afford, I think you'd be surprised. He's consistently opened his own wallet to offset the very meagre Championship budget for 10+ years, in stark contrast to one or two current SL clubs. Don't forget, it's only just over three years ago that his money helped save York! https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/sport/yorkc ... -interest/'" Thanks for the post, I wondered how wealthy Mr. Flatman at York was and it seems he's no multi-millionaire either. If Featherstone got it I'd be delighted as it was such a disappointment after all the hard work Mr. Campbell put in for Nahaboo to let him down......

Sure, as someone who had to got to Taunton frequently with work, I am aware of the geography and what a bloody trek parts of the West Country can be.

But London is still the major metropolitan centre and very easily accessible from Milton Keynes, Reading, Woking, lots of smaller population centres etc etc

Well the bottom line has to be long term financial stability and a player development system, things that TWP didn't provide.

Newcastle provide this, although they may not be allowed to jump past the Championship, so they are red hot favourites for the place the club promoted to Superleague will leave. Exciting times for[u REAL[/u expansion?

Please don't be chasing him around, let him enjoy the RL fans website, he's a good guy.........

It's exactly what the game needs, need to rediscover our roots, and fortify the heartlands

Why, is it law ?

Yes, it is.

Fair enough

They already did that when the buckets went round

Sounds like Championship teams clambering to be the proverbial lamb to the slaughter to me.

As a Bradford fan, I don’t want it to be us. I don’t think many right minded Bradford fans would but the club has to apply to show ambition. I can see SL chairmen liking the fans we could bring and the fact we wouldn’t be a realistic threat and would finish bottom to be relegated. We would also surely be placed back into odsal which would please the RFL and get them some money back. That alone would probably kill us (again) never mind the lack of funding. And lets be honest it’s us fans that would be asked to make up to gap in funding like we have multiple times before.

But, would the SL chairmen vote to bring in Leigh or Newcastle knowing they would ‘spend, spend, spend’. (Wasn’t that the problem with Toronto anyway?) plus couldn’t Leigh with spending power cause issues for some teams in SL making relegation more of a threat?

I think any team could have a reasonable chance based on whatever criteria is chosen. I just hope that they make it a clear choice rather than just an announcement of a team and no explanation.

Toulouse or Leigh for me as the most reasonable picks on the balance of everything considered. London if they had a better ground.

Bradford to stay in the championship and win it in 2021 (Please, we deserve a good season!)

Interesting times ahead.

Well what if the Superleague clubs are after the Bulls away following, and a big name back in Superleague.

As has been suggested talks are advanced for Bulls to get back to Odsal, I'm sure SL clubs would overwhelmingly prefer this to Toulouse?

If sawyer and Wood has sorted them out then it's pretty much a no-brainer??

Hetherington always votes against his fellow SL clubs but even he must want the Derby back???

I have to say I have always hated Odsal, seen us (Wire) lose there so many times, they always did the kick into the corner which held up and surprised defences.

I also hate Widnes of course.

That is why I want them both back in Super League.

"Clubs who want to apply to take Toronto’s place must have finished in the top six of the Championship within the previous two seasons to be eligible for entry.

Leigh, London Broncos, Bradford, Featherstone, York, Toulouse, Widnes and Halifax are the eight clubs who are eligible to enter proceedings about taking the 12th spot.

Lord Jonathan Caine, the vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, will chair a seven-strong panel consisting of three members from each of the Rugby Football League and Super League Europe. The full application process and criteria will be distributed to clubs and published on Thursday, November 12. The deadline for applications is the morning of Monday, November 30. A decision is scheduled to be made by Wednesday, December 16 – but that deadline could be extended in specific circumstances.

The RFL say they will communicate shortly with League 1 clubs about the implications of the vacancy created in the Championship, which will mean the 2021 season begins with two fewer clubs than previously expected".

So Newcastle are out of this discussion. Other criteria yet to be revealed. Only two 'expansionist' clubs left are Toulouse and, to a lesser extent, Broncos.

Interesting five weeks ahead before "Secret Santa/Satan"

York are also going to apply, so 3 expansion clubs.

Expanded budget maybe, though your comment is presumably tongue in cheek. 25 miles from Leeds!

Which team should be given the 12th Super League place?

In the 2020 season Toulouse, Leigh and Featherstone had 100% records with Leigh and Featherstone each playing four games and Toulouse five games.
Leigh were the most successful team with a superior points difference per match played.
Leigh's points difference per match 30.5, Toulouse points difference per match 26.4 and Featherstone 15.75 points difference per match played.
Amongst the clubs likely to apply for the 12th spot in Super League Leigh have the strongest squad, the best facilities and a strong away following.

Leigh are best placed to be competitive in Super League 2021

The League system is the best (not perfect) system of determining the greatest team over the course of a season - each team plays every other, once at home, once away (and Bashes/Magics, fun though they may be, beggar that up), Gonzo.

Thanks for the blindingly obvious stats, but 4-5 games would not be taken as a sufficiently large control sample even by US Election pollsters.

Good honest appraisal.

Odsal is a noose around the neck of Bradford R.L & the club should avoid going back for so many reasons.

D.B has already stated that he can afford for Leigh to operate in Super League on a Championship central funding budget *I presume he means top of Championship on the sliding scale* & also thay he didn't have to put in a single penny of his own last season, this suggests he could comfortably operate a competitive team on the £1M funding being offered !

A reasonably strong squad being assembled to either win promotion from Championship or enter SL & be competitive (additional quality signings would be made for Super League)

I don't see any other club as Super League ready as Leigh though Toulouse could challenge if they have the budget, they don't have the core following as yet *but growing* & I know nothing about their owner.

Toulouse's possible Superleague inclusion discussed some years ago required adequate funding and a TV deal. I think the TV deal has legs with a "Derby" but the issue is the funding. When this was discussed at a meeting between SL bosses and TO's Carlos Zalduendo there was nobody like Mr Gausch to bankroll the club, But TO covered this by the following......They said....

1. If Toulouse were in Superleague they would get significant funding from the Maire. Whilst local city and town councils here don't fund their local Professional RL clubs, Mr Zalduendo felt Toulouses mayor would do this as it is more the "done thing" in France.

2. The aerospace industry is apparently massive in Toulouse and again Mr. Zalduendo stated that if TO were in Superleague strong sponsorship would come from there.

On the core following the average gate was 2,290 last year for what was a largely winning season. I find it hard to imagine TO can get any of that major sponsorship for what could be a struggle and then relegation back to the Championship. They would have to stay up to make sponsors sit up and take notice.

Despite this I note Toulouse are overwhelmingly favoured by fans replying to a who do they want poll. I wonder how many of them have assumed Toulouse are "expansion"

. Of course they have been around since the 1930's and my memories of them include then beating Widnes the "cup kings" a game that was on TV, and more recently I watched them play live in Leeds and they were highly entertaining............

Fair enough in isolation mate, but playing at Dewsbury isn't any long term future either. I saw them playing at Valley parade and I thought that was great. I note the idea the pitch is somehow not long enough but that was dispelled by stats from one of our very own fine chaps on here!

I think they averaged about 13,500 at Valley parade over two years... It didn't put the fans off!!

Geoffrey Richmond who provided City with their best years didn't much like the Rugby, but for me it's a no brainer to put Bulls into Valley Parade, If that was permanent then how much would Bradford council stand to gain from the commercial sale of Odsal - at which point I may need to give way to Bulls fans who have the fine detail of what is on and what is not on as regards such moves??