That's be the fair and transparent bidding process then...

I rest my case.

that Sir is a load of sh@.
If your logic was followed through no club in Soccer, RU, or RL would ever get promoted after spending a minimum of 3 seasons denied promotion, because the club going down should always have a better team, a better youth system and a better structure due to income and funding being poles apart.
If we could get the heads of the VT mafia surgically removed from their ar$e$ to spend a few years at the coal face of a club with ambition but not in the SL clique, they would understand the damage being caused to just 5/6 clubs - because the rest either do not have the ambition or are nowhere near achieving it.
RL today is 20 or so clubs with the ambition to play in SL, the rest are not ready, never will be or never want to be.
Two divisions of Ten are needed immediately if we are to ever grow our game to reach its potential, the Wigans/Wire/Leeds/Saints will still be winning 90% of the pots regardless of this but we increase the intensity of SL1 whilst creating a platform for ambitious clubs to go FT and eventually break that dominance, and I dont mean the Leighs etc but the future big SL clubs in Cardiff/Swansea/Bristol etc

Ask the fans of Cas and Widnes who went through that day or of HKR/Leigh/Hudds/Salford who had gone through it before. The NL Grand Final was the biggest (financially and emotionally) game of the season. The desperation started when it became clear the drawbridge was going up.

The desperation started when the Widnes players turned up for their losing pay after the GF and were told the club was bankrupt and they were all out of a job

Unlike the Crusaders players turning up today and effectively being told the same thing - oh yes, thats progress all right!

With SL contracts becoming null and void on relegation it turned into a one off game for the players to safeguard their jobs. That's far too much to be at stake for one game. That game might have convinced the RFL that licensing was the way to go.

Maybe so.

But as a Robins fan have you ever felt as exalted as the night you beat Widnes in the 2006 grand final ?

Ifa club took that defeatest attitude I wouldn't expect a club to get promoted. Clubs need to start thinking about what they can do for SL and RL rather than what SL can do for them.

There are such things as commercial confidentiality.

Out in the real world, whether I win or lose a piece of business, I typically don't get to see my competitors bids.

shame the powers that be live in cloud cukkoo land instead of what you have said...do you know i hardly go and watch the Dons these days, and hardly bother watching SL on Sky.....Im only one man who used to love rugby league...but now i almost couldn't care about its path

Another thing...my Dad got me into RL.....if I had kids i wouldn't get them into it under this system...that's just me...but i feel its quite a statement

And did you follow the Dons when they won promotion in 1994 ?

I remember the day they beat Huddersfield at Tattersfield to virtually assure themselves of promotion and it was just magical to see a club that had struggled for so long hit the big time.

Then, they won at Saints and beat Widnes in their opening two Division One games.

Surely, that's what sport is all about. Having the right and chance to earn a crack with the big boys. Even if its only fleeting - as for Blackpool in the Premier League this season - the memories last a lifetime.

Do you enjoy watching: Running, passing tackling? Do you enjoy seeing a flat defensive line sprint up? Do you enjoy seeing a long pass put a fullback in space behind a dummy runner? Do you enjoy a shoulder barge tackle forcing a knock on? Do you enjoy seeing the short pass that puts a player into the gap? Do you enjoy watching a winger fly down the touchline....and a fullback make the tackle in the corner just before the line?

If yes, watch the sport. If not, perhaps RL isn't for you. There's nothing wrong with that. Infinitely more people prefer seeing a round ball bounce around (and don't seem to really care about clear corruption and match fixing in their sport) and many more people than even that don't care about any sport at all.

I did bud, whilst i was only 13 my Dad took me to every home game.....i was there at the Huddersfield game, 3 major memories

a) Hudds fans singing 'the Dons are staying down...staying down...staying down'

b) Vila Matautia scoring a match winning try but before grounding the ball holding it in one hand...something me dad frowned upon

c) a can of coke costing......50p!!!! FIVTY BLOOMIN PENCE!!!!!!!

Great memories tho...and of course i was at Mount Pleasent in the promtion game against Batley....its what promotion is all about

It was an amazing feeling to know that we were going up but if we had lost I shudder to think what could have happened. The temptation to go for broke the following year knowing that the drawbridge was going to go up could have been too much and if we had failed again who knows where we would be now. The licencing system is meant to stop the getting promotion/avoid relegation at any cost approach and the consequences of it failing so I don't see how that side of things can be criticised.

I think your slightly missing the point, of course i love RL....but to be fair to the round ball game, they have the pro/rel that i long for. Also i'm well aware of corruption in that sport, hense why i always checked out AFC Wimbledon's results on a weekly basis.

You kinda went for broke that year anyway...Paul Mansson was on a big contract for example....but hey you went for it and guess what...you got promoted and didn't go bust...wow it can be done

Didn't the Dons get into huge financial strife that season in the top division IIRC?

So if you love the spectacle of the sport, why would you give up on it because of a disagreement on whether P&R should be on just on-field results or should also include off-field criteria too?

And that is what sport is about.

Memories of matches and occasions that last a whole lifetime.

Even for Doncaster fans.

never been flush..it was alwasy going to be tough to compete at that level...and they relegated 6 sides anyway

As did nearly every team that came up and went right back down again.

I still go from time to time...i'll not give up just yet....i'm just happy im not a Barrow or a fev fan...then i might have something real to moan about........but i know what your saying, i'll be back supprting the Dons....still no debate will ever change my mind, i disagree with the franchise sysytem and always will.

As do clubs in SL , and clubs in the Championship , so your point is ?

And which clubs went up and came down in financial trouble ?

Don't suggest Leigh , that is a myth , we broke even

Richie missing the point, NEVER