Not as long as RU exists, it's the just the way it is.

Criteria lol.

Let's not forget SL demanded clubs have up to standard stadiums and could fill 10k seats and that lasted all of 5 mins.

Great Britain is dead and rightly so. A GB side full of English players 1 to 13 is not great Britain.

Not sure this adds up with respect, Most of the SL applicants are in the North of England so if we give places to French teams then there are less English teams....

The stark choice in a debate in principle seems to be would Bulls and Leigh be better for Superleague than Catalans and Toulouse?

Their fans don't attend SL matches in the north of England, a five figure number of Bradford and Leigh home fans would attend and several thousand away fans would be attending as well. Add that up and it's a lot of fans and a lot more money through the turnstyles............

The Bulls already have the youth structure, they were made to keep than going despite the horrendous collapse of the club itself and the move to Dewsbury.

It's as if the idea of getting them back into Superleague was cooked up by those who run Supeleague the minute they collapsed. Kind of [i"well we'll have to let the Bulls go for now but keep the academy as we will need to get them back"[/i

In 1996 at the creation of Superleague Lyndsay & company spoke of the following potential clubs...Toulouse, Barcelona, Rome and Paris

So they added the word Europe to the new entity "Superleague". Only Paris joined but collapsed in 1997 so I don't agree that that original name confirms there is any policy to become a European League. I suppose they could have changed to name to "Superleague (Transatlantic) Ltd" last year if that had been the case



People have constantly suggested that we may see a French TV deal if both Catalans and Toulouse were to be in Superleague. The first issue is do we block Bradford and put Toulouse in instead on a wing and a prayer that a French TV company can see the value of two French clubs playing mostly English clubs?

It has been noted that SKY will not countenance any less than nine English clubs in Superleague, Adam Pearson said this when he was interviewed by the RL press when TWP won promotion. They understood our policy to try to expand the game. However North America failed, and France has failed as Les Catalans aren't a French team any more and Toulouse only got 2,300 crowds, before their last two play off games attended by only 1,000. It's clear there isn't enough interest in France for their TV companies to provide a paying TV contract

Look at it this way. If we only had Warrington and York in a French Superleague what contract would SKY give us then? Giving SKY 12 English clubs would be excellent business at a time they are looking to reduce their contract with us.

As for your assurance all the Bradford people who were paying for SKY when Bradford were serial trophy winners and big time charlies, are all still paying for SKY then forgive me but a crowd drop from 15,000 to 4,000 probably indicates they are not?

Do we block Toulouse for a historically mismanaged club in Bradford?

yes

Serious applications are in, see the applications thread soon.......

"Block", stupid word to use, be frikin serious.

We need to convert some soccer fans in the north of England into RL fans. That's the only way IMO.

I'm not sure about "conversion" I've taken soccer people to RL games and they really like them. They just like soccer better, and nobody switches. It's maybe at a young age when a choice is made, I feel that some people prefer soccer as it's easier to play but others prefer Rugby league as it's all action unlike pro-soccer which is like a chess game to me?. Certainly Spurs.v.Arsenal yesterday was a bore-fest

Now I would say that the biggest conversion may have come when SKY paid for a professional Superleague. An average 5543 fans a game watched the old top ("first"icon_wink.gif division. Once we professionalised that rose to as much as 9833..........

The first part of your post is utter nonsense or maybe it's a Yorkshire thing? Plenty of people on this side of the Pennines actively follow both sports

It's not. You won't be surprised that plenty of people on this side of the hills actively follow both sports too.

Glad to hear it Wanderer I wasn't criticizing btw just couldn't understand the post and thought that outlying towns might not support say Leeds United (other football brands are available) on the basis that if you are from Wakefield or Cas it might be anything Leeds 'over my dead body'.

I follow both sports 'over here' and have to reign in my football bias as there is my team plus three Premiership rivals in the stands next to me at the HJ (mine is currently under-performing ha ha)

They do over here too.
Traditionally, if Leeds United are flying high, it has a negative effect on Rhinos attendances (apart from the big games) but, many Cas & Wakey fans also support Leeds United and other clubs.
Just like football, some fans just prefer RL and dont really bother with the round ball game.
On the point made about converting more football fans.
It doesn't matter where any new fans come from, although, for those in charge of marketing the game, it would helpful to know where RL has most "pull" and then try and target that audience but, ANY new fans would be gratefully received - assuming that we/they are allowed to attend games.

Mine got beat 6-3 at home on Saturday in League Two. The four consecutive Premier League top eight finishes of the early to mid 00's are now distant memories sadly.

Anyway, IMO we should ban being able to kick in a forwards direction, up 'n' unders don't come across very well on TV, especially on the BBC and SKY, Channel 9 and Fox do a better job of showing them, but still, they're better when showed on slow motion replay, which is not ideal. By doing that we should go to 11-a-side. ban the scrum, give teams the option of a 7 on 7 play after a knock-on.

And get rid of the VR, have in-goal judges instead.

The comment was as a sport has a whole. I didn’t single any club out. But if new boys in town want SL then look at what the product wants and make it so. No point saying let Toulouse/Newcastle/York or any other off the field club who hasn’t experience of SL.

If the Bulls can get their fanbase back then that checks the box for SL. But still ignores what is present in SL. So those who don’t meet the present criteria being asked should also be relegated and replaced.

Well, I think that you just ruined the game completely.

That's your opinion, Ben Ikin said the sport will be 11 a side in a few yrs time, I'm not the only one who thinks that going back 10m is too far, with 11-a-side we can go back just 5m.

I agree with that "generalisation" to a point but do "plenty" actually buy the season tickets for say both Leeds United and Leeds Rhinos? Or Wigan and Wigan Athletic?

Agree again, but who are [u"those who don't meet the present criteria"[/u

It’s a very simple question? SL are asking these days. What can your club bring to SL? Ignoring the real question? Of course which is what does your club bring to SL now? No need to mention names, the answer is obvious.

Too many have had a free ride for far too long. Time for a serious reshuffle. The product is stale and the whole sport is paying for it. Time for some freshening up.

I've really no idea about dual season ticket numbers but that wasn't the point I was directly responding to. Although I did have season tickets for both and the general rule was a 4 game clash put my RL season ticket on a par with pay per game. Additionally your two choices particularly Wigan as examples are interesting as I thought (stands to be corrected) that the rugby and football club's don't mix that well? but that's not the same thing as not following rugby and football

The issue that I had with your post was that you seemed to suggest that there were two types of sports follower, pretty much determined at an early age and that it would be a hard sell to convert one to the other,

I disagree with this proposition as I think that there are large numbers who follow both sports and of that group there are plenty of disillusioned football supporters that our game (yes I've plumped for RL as my primary interest) should target. Not only is it a better game IMO, more action without the histrionics, players haven't lost all sense of 'normal' life or the community they represent.

Our game is accessible in comparison to a trip to Old Trafford or Anfield so perhaps the real issue is getting the football fans out of the pub when a match is on to watch some live sport, although disappointingly the same can be said of RL followers, the amount of times I've been stopped after a game on the pub doorstep "how have the Wire gone on"? is something that I wish we could address and improve upon as I'm sure that this happens elsewhere?

I get the "for £20 I can watch the game in comfort and have X pints" so we as a game we might struggle to convert that cash into club income through a turnstile but it's not a bad place to start or at least shouldn't be overlooked