if we play like we are doing for 3 years and our crowds are roughly the same throughout , then we are told that we won't be promoted nobody will come to the games the season after

The excitement of a good relegation battle is unbeatable. E/g the premiership this weekend, Cas V Wakey last game of the season battles etc.

Yep and you tell me how long we had to get our team together with the scraps that where left?

Well said that man

Unless you are in the middle of it or have to pick up the pieces once you've been relegated .



Not the issue, you get good crowds playing well as soon as you lose a few the punters stay away, doesn't matter what division you are playing in.

Why didn't you just say . " I dont know " ?

I don't. But I'm not in the position to need to. I think it's quite easy to see things at the RFL are done on a very small time basis with no real ambition.

Ha, as a Cas fan, I can safely say I have been in the middle of it and seen the pieces picked up and fixed back together. As a neutral it's quality to see it come down to the final few minutes of the final game.

What's so bad about winning the championship (or whatever it's called) is that not a competition worthy of winning? Surely it's better than being a league where, in all likely hood, you'll get walloped every week?

Besides for those ambitious clubs, you can be promoted when you show you are a more stable club than a current one (which lets face it is hardly a very difficult task), based on finances, performance and stadia's.

Oh and as for the relegation battle excitement, that's only exciting for fans that support teams that will 'never' win anything. It's not a exciting to see the same teams battling it out not to be relegated every year. Franchising provides an incentive to aim for something better; like winning something meaningful.

Sorry i bow down

to your extreme knowledge

Winning the Championship is a great feeling, i remember the Batley game in 2004 when sean richardson dropped the ball and we scored!

It's just the fact that we could win everything for the 3 years, Halifax to get to the NRC final and have a higher attendece or better turnover and then they are promoted. To me that doesn't seem fair (that was just an example btw)

So you make a suggestion with no understanding of what you are suggesting or why you are suggesting it , or how it would work ?

Excellent , maybe you should apply for a job at the RFL , you'd fit in well

I live in hope that my team (Leigh) get into superleague the next time round.

I also will look at any current superleague teams that go down and still have the same opinion of being stuck in a dead end league for 3 years.Will they favour franchising then?

Improving the calibre of people involved in RL is hardly an out there idea. It's much needed however.

Bar Richard Lewis, who appears to have very little interest in RL these days, there is no one at the RFL with any credentials. They are there, much like the RL match officials, just because they put their hand up to do it.

So once again , what ' credentials ' do YOU suggest ?

What experience and qualifications should somebody have to run a proffessional Sports business , let alone a sports governing body ? IYO of course

One without a history of sporting financial ruin behind them would be a start?

Oh so you actually mean like halif ax, Back to back Grand finals and won one of them. Not put into SL but widnes are ( fair play to them ).

So by going off history then as long as Fax get a trophy or GF appearnace in the next 3 years then we should be the shoe in, like widnes were !!. Otherwise what is the incentives for the investors to put money in when its all just a very big expensive gamble.

Look at Leigh now, Chairman stands down, Done amazing job for them but enough is enough.
Fev chairman feeling very much the same apparently and its only a matter of time IMO before he also bails. Once the lower leagues have died down then its inevitable that SL crowds will do the same, Its boring watching the same teams week in week out year in year out.

Agree completely, ask 100 premier league supporters what was the best thing about the premier league this year, i'd say 95% would say blackpool and what a breathe of fresh air they were.

Super League will get boring, The league will be split up into 3 sections: Wigan, Wire, Saints, Leeds, Huddersfield, this group is called the GF contenders.

Group 2 is called the playoff hopefuls/ established SL clubs: Hull,Castleford, HKR, Catalan

Then group 3 is the failures who have nout to play for: Wakey, Salford, Crusaders, Bradford, Quins.


These groups will rarely vary with seasons to come.

I completly agree, widnes will replace wakey and stay in the 3rd group for at least 2 years!

That'll do they finished 6th in the league the year they went up too

Hahaha but at least they won something that year though.

Seasons not over yet

You are absolutely correct and furthermore the game below SL is dying, despite what the clever a***s on here who have known nothing other that SL say. The Championship 1 from 2012 will be known as the league of death because with new clubs coming in that are not much better than local amateur teams then crowds will drop at many grounds for their 10 home fixtures per year. Fans have been walking away from rugby league now for several years and some like myself get pretty bored with many of our televised SL games. But, let's all go on believing that SL and franchising are doing a great job and everything is hunky-dorey. It is, at the clubs currently sitting pretty in SL but how views will change for anyone whose club gets relegated. There is more to rugby league than Super League and the sooner we get people at the RFL to realise this fact the better for the game, otherwise there will Super League and nothing else.

The actual competitions on field are very good , especially the Championship , and if they mess about with it by trying to introduce too many new clubs all at once , they will regret it , one extra well centrally funded and supported club every 2/3/4 years is all that is needed , as you state whoever gets left with the newbies will probably disappear

No it's not, it's stronger than it's ever been with more clubs playing nationwide than ever before.