No, just like most of the other clubs they'll come up with an impressive [dellist of things that won't ever happen[/del business plan.

I hope that the size of the league is increased and the "magic" weekend abandoned.

No because they didn't get a C grade licence last time. They won't be kicked out but they'd better get a C grade licence this time becuase they have contributed sweet FA on the pitch.

Just posted this elswhere but...

I think (& hope) next time round in 2015, 2 clubs will be put into SL and no-one will be dropped down to make a 16 team SL. There would be no P&R then for 1 year to help these 2 clubs steady the ship..

What I hope would happen then is Promotion and relegation will then be brought back into the game.

My idea would be that a club who wins promotion can only be promoted if they meet certain criteria (ground, crowds etc) a bit like if say Oldham gain promotion to Super League but can't enter as their ground isn't up to the required standards. If the club can't go up they recieve a handsome cheque and the relegation doomed SL club can then live to fight another day.

A bit like the whole Yawnion Leeds/Cornish Pirates scenario..

3rd best supported club in the competition. Daft thread. On youth players the reason they are getting battered at the moment is they're having to play all their young players now because of injuries and it's too early for them.

Hudds didn't lose [itheir[/i licence when continually bottom of the league (can't remember how many times, I lost count) did they, so why should the Bulls?
I've read some poor attempts at trolling but this is a serious contender for poorest effort of the year........

quite a few smug arrogant giant fans at the moment, evven though they havn't won anything!

question is, when uncle ken pops his cloggs, will giants worry about a licence when no more money comes into bankroll the club?

Its no wonder the midget fans are disliked with the arrogance they show, come back when you have achieved half of what the bulls have in SL.

i Was reflecting the comments of Bradford fans on your board such as viewtopic.php?f=19&t=494488 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=494527 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=492874 and this one In your last 27 games (ie, a full season), you have 11 points (1 win in 13 last year and 4 and a draw in 14 this year). To put that into perspective: Wigan: 40 Crusaders: 20 Salford: 20 Quins: 17 Wakey: 16 Bradford: 11 All from the Bradford board. I then extrapolated it to look at whether it could impact on your SL licence. FWIW i dont think it will affect your SL status. I also agree that until we win some silverware the Giants have achieved nothing ( feel free to use it for Sig material).

i Was reflecting the comments of Bradford fans on your board such as viewtopic.php?f=19&t=494488 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=494527 viewtopic.php?f=19&t=492874 and this one In your last 27 games (ie, a full season), you have 11 points (1 win in 13 last year and 4 and a draw in 14 this year). To put that into perspective: Wigan: 40 Crusaders: 20 Salford: 20 Quins: 17 Wakey: 16 Bradford: 11 All from the Bradford board. I then extrapolated it to look at whether it could impact on your SL licence. FWIW i dont think it will affect your SL status. I also agree that until we win some silverware the Giants have achieved nothing ( feel free to use it for Sig material).

i think its a valid question really, because the ground at odsal is imo the worst in super league and that seems to be the main reason for throwing clubs out, it wont happen this time even though to me its worse than wakey but in 3 years time it is a realistic scenario.

There weren't any licenses to lose when the giants were first in SL...and it seems the money they spent on building an infrastructure then (rather than over prices over seas imports like some of out nearest competitors) is now paying dividends, while others who failed to invest in the future are now up the proverbial creek...

Actually, when you posted you were not. Your post was made before any of those threads were started.

And one of those threads was anyway started by a fax supporter, one by a (admittedly genuinely concerned) declared opponent of the current administration, and the third by a well-known agitator who promised he would offer to pay the chairman for the head coach's sacking personally - but seems to have not got round to putting that offer in writing.

The Bulls' current dismal performances are bound to encourage questions such as yours though - maybe because of you having plenty of recent experience of your own club propping up the competition, as Bulliac points out, so you can relate? I see no issue in the question being asked, provided it is asked for the right reasons and not as a means of gloating.

You are very wrong about the young player pipeline, though - you should know, since you enticed two of our best prospects away by big-money offers. And you are very wrong about having no stadium development plans - as you surely well know since the OSV project is hardly both new and secret?

I took your original question at face value. But I think you have to be wary of giving the impression of gloating, when you are a supporter of a club that has got to where it is today primarily on the back of the largesse of its multi-millionaire respected owner?

It's not worked out on points.

The RFL has listed the areas of criteria and within each of those is what an A Grade club should be doing and they'll be marking clubs against that criteria.

Not sure everyone has yet appreciated the subtle, but potentially significant, change in the licensing criteria.

Does not help that I do not think the RFL has actually published the "A-Grade" criteria? If they HAVE, could you or someone point me in the right direction?

The risk with setting any criteria is that you can skew them towards getting the result you require. For instance, you could say that an A Grade club would have no open terraces, and the more open terracing you have (regardless of seating capacity) the lower by comparison you will be marked. And that this criterion is seen as totally fundamental to the process. By that means you could engineer it that Bradford were ejected since, despite having over 6,000 seats, they have a huge stadium of open terracing. (Close the Rooley Avenue terrace and problem solved in that case...)

Or you could rule that an A-Grade club would not be dependent on the largesse of its wealthy owner, and (in non-recessionary times) had consistently made profits or only small losses over the past 3-4 years. And say that THAT was seen as fundamental. That would grant Bulls an A-Grade, but eject most of the sugar-daddied clubs.

So if anyone HAS seen the A-Grade criteria, and the rules regarding how failure to achieve those criteria are assessed and graded, I'd very much appreciate sight of them. Ta.

Nope, they've not been released but then again the amount of information clubs have to submit I'm not surprised.

I was told the Bulls submission was some 1,600 pages...

I wonder if the clubs know the criteria? They surely MUST, especially since ultimately it is the clubs that run the RFL, and the questions must indicate the criteria being assessed? In which case, why are they not being published? And just how much subjectivity and scope for "exceptions" does that keep from view? Unless the process is clearly set out for us to see, there will always be conspiracy theories about why x club was let in and y club was ejected. IMO.

you cant release the criteria until you have decided which clubs you want to keep

otherwise you might look foolish by say making financial stability important then removing that importance when one club goes bust, or say making crowds a criteria, warning clubs with low crowds and then later saying you shouldn't judge certain clubs on crowds

Stupid me - should have realised that.

The reason 'the criteria' hasnt been released is to stop people making a similar mistake. The problem almost all conspiracy theories have is that they attack totally the wrong point. I.e 'the criteria' has been/will be fudged to get the result the RFL (in these crazy theories this is usually an expansion club) want.

The problem with that is the RFL dont decide which clubs are in and which clubs are out on how many points are scored from 'the criteria'. The only way the criteria guarantees your acceptance is if you score an A grade, and others dont.

The franchise process is a tender process. The RFL choose the best bids, not the ones which meet the most criteria(outside of the A grade), but the ones which are the best. This is a subjective opinion based on every single aspect of the club. Every little one. Some clubs may get in because of something they do well outside 'the criteria'.
There will always be conspiracy theories not because 'the criteria' is secret (it isnt btw, the clubs are told, and even had input on them) but because it is a necessarily subjective decision based on plans for the future. With something like this, it is understandable that people simply refuse accept that someone else, with a lot more information, came to a different conclusion to what they did, it is understandable the retreat to conspiracy theory. But they are simply wrong.

If a club wants to guarantee its place in SL, be an A grade club, if you cant, you need to accept that your club is failing to be where they need to be and maybe dropped.

Or in other words , who makes Nigels favourite butties the best

I remember going to Hudds-Salford a few weeks ago, and remember two blokes with claret and gold tea cosys on their heads standing up and acting the goat. One of them had DURHAM on the back of his shirt.

This post doesn't surprise me at all.

And FWIW, Bradford will definitely NOT lose their license this time around, partly on the back of obtaining a B license this time meaning (I think) we can't be excluded this time.

So...what are the criteria for an A-Grade club then? The criteria that if met guarantee you a Licence?

There are 50 of them, in 5 areas, they havent been released to us but they have to the clubs who had input on them. it doesnt quite guarantee you a licence, it guarantees you a licence if you are one of 13 or less clubs who scored an A grade. Though if 14 out of 14 applications do score an A grade, someone somewhere has f@cked up badly.

In fairness, I was only using your statement "If a club wants to guarantee its place in SL, be an A grade club".

But if the criteria are not made public, then to pinch an old quote we have a process "...for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is"?

And that provides very fertile ground for the conspiracy theorists to sow their theories in, does it not?

For example, I heard a rumour that criterion #1 is "any existing club not located in Bradford is deemed to meet the requirements of a A-Grade in respect of this criterion". And Criteria 2-50 are all dead easy ones that any club could attain, such as "A-Grade clubs shall have a grass playing surface" and "A-Grade clubs shall own their own balls" and "A-Grade clubs shall have at least one toilet in their ground..."

See what I mean? The RFL have clearly conspired to eject Bradford - its a scandal!

If all clubs were anywhere near then maybe.

But when there are some so obviously far away from the 'model club' the RFL have no need to fudge the criteria.

But when you have to phrase your conspiracy as 'out of all the clubs who didnt meet the grade, the RFL concluded club A to be the worst bid' it sounds much less conspiratorial.