I think it would if it ran out of TV money and sponsorship is the point. I don't think you're covering yourself in much glory in your posts on this thread.

quite a few clubs have been and/or are less than financially healthy and there's nothing sudden about it


what do you base that on?

They have grown gradually. Celtic played their way up to the NL1 Grand Final last year. They'd have been in based on that if there was no franchising.

ok i admit i was wrong. i got carried away in the moment and i hope you can all forgive me

RU has moved forward in many ways since it went pro and there's big money in it now to go along with a full slate of meaningful Internationals. RL has to keep up (if not close the gap) or fall behind, it's that simple. The days of being able to stick to the game's traditional areas are gone and that's all there is to it.

ok i admit i was wrong. i got carried away in the moment and i hope you can all forgive me

No. You're a very naughty boy.

f**k. thats all i need.

I wasn't having a go either, I was just answering your question with another question.

any chance of just answering it?

I thought it would have helped understand the answer better.

Anyways, yes Fax do pay their players, which therefore makes them professional (as opposed to amateur, which they would be if they didn't pay their players).

Basically my point is, anyone that doesn't think that sponsorship, TV deals, selling merchandise, increasing crowds, etc. shouldn't be important in sport and shouldn't be a major focus, then they wouldn't be watching a professional sports team as they require all of this to function in order to actually pay their staff! People don't seem to understand this though when building up these rather poorly thought-through arguments.

they are semi-professional. their living income is not solely based upon playing the game of rugby league.

that's what i thought

pleased to help rather than scroll down some waffling bull

Yes that is correct, and in no way, shape or form goes against what I said.

there is a big difference between being a semi-professional and a professional. i wanted to make that clear to those who may not have realised.

No. There is a big difference between semi-professional and fully-professional. Both are still professional. If you are paid to play sport, you are a professional sportsman.

This thread has been derailed.

I want the posters to go back to the original question

i got the make up of the current SL spot on before hand.

toulose and widnes are so far ahead of any other possible contenders the others shouldnt even both applying next time round.

the only question to me is do you go to 16 teams or do you kick out some of the current SL clubs.

id prefer a 16 team SL

please dont mix me up with someone whose only a pretend expansionist.

i get very excited about the sport of RL expanding in the nrl or SL.

i thought the addition of Les Cats and CC was a brilliant step for SL.

i await toulose entry soon as well.

and RL cant afford to exclude a club such as widnes from the SL from much longer.

the other options ive raised are longer term and hardly exaggerated.

gateshead and donny / sheffield are important areas that SL needs to expand too down the track.

and why cant france have more than 2 SL clubs if their applications are good ones. if toulose get into SL, their catchment area will be one of the biggest out of all SL clubs and a good chance to grow into a big club

Oh the irony of that statement.

OK then love, just to show how utterly clueless you are.

Do you actually understand the franchise and how it work, because I don't think you have the first idea.

So a word to the wise, it's not the Lego league, you can't just add and remove bit's just to satisfy the ever changing whims of people like yourself.

SL is made up of 14 Ltd companies with Boards, Shareholders and Employees - all of which are protected by company and employment law - this overides anything the RFL may wish. For any of these companies to have their trading ability compromised will require a lot more than an RFL franchise. Basically for any of the 14 clubs to stand down would require them to have failed to maintain their SL standard to a very large degree. Theoretically if Cas don't get a new ground they could argue that as it was OK last time then their score is the same and seeing as Widnes would not be able to match them on other criteria Cas if they took it to court would win. For any club to step down IMHO it would have to be a near voluntary act and as such unlikey.

Come 2012 and 2015 you cannot just get rid of a club to make way for another. From this point on the franchise is like an MOT test. So long as the existing 14 SL teams meet the criteria for SL and have run their affairs well and been competitive for most of the next three years they are in. They cannot be removed, it's enshrined into the franchise - why do you think they were all so desperate to get it.

Judging on the playing side this season then all clubs except Celtic look assured of a franchise. Even they are unlikely to finish bottom two for all three seasons, for me it's bottom two you need to avoid.

The only clubs in real danger are Wakey, Cas, Saints, Salford, Celtic and possibly Bradford on Stadium issues. The only other club at risk are London and maybe Celtic who's crowds for my money simply can't support a SL club long term.

So assuming all clubs sort their Stadia out then I can't see any losing a frachise.

This means SL needs to expand to 16 teams by 2012 and 18 by 2015 to fit in new teams for your plans to stand a chance.

That will require a 4 million pound a season increase in TV revenue (not including inflation). If you think that will happen you are truly mentally unbalanced.

If you want me to predict SL 2015 I reckon it may be someting like this.
Widnes will replace someone, probably either Celtic or London who may fail
economically or any of a number of clubs that may fail stadium wise.

Toulouse will not last in NL1 and will never make SL IMHO because there isn't enough talent in France to sustain them.

Utterly stupid names such as Glasgow, Paris and Dublin(especially hillarious) will never ever ever play in SL. If you knew anything about the UK you would know that, football is king in these areas and always will be - their simply isn't the interest and there never will be.

I also think the SKY money will reduce as TV gets less and less profitable in which case heartland teams will be far better placed to survive.

So for me possesion is 9/10th of the law and the existing 14 clubs will not be easily budged.

Welcome to the real world.