Totally understand why there is no P & R and a big part of me agrees witrh it. My head says it will kill my club though and that hurts.

I think its the only fair way to bring a team in, as apart form Catalans the franchise thing as not worked.
If a team was promoted and it was allowed the promoted season and one more, I can see no arm in this and they would make way then for another team who IMHO deserves a chance.
Obviously all the top SL teams fans here aren't going to agree, just in case their team were ever in the frame to be relegated.
It would also make the season more exciting from day one till the last day, the crowds would improve because of this, as London v Salford with the team losing going down would get more crowds then at present were you would be lucky to have a couple of thousand on. meaningless games would then become interesting again.
Make the playoffs 6 teams again too 8 is too many.

Doesn't union have franchising without calling it that? There's no automatic promotion for winning the Championship, you have to fulfil certain criteria.

i believe Union did, but didn't the club who won the championship take them to court becuase they was not going to be allowed in and won, so got promoted in the end?
not sure of the full in and outs tho

London Welsh got Premier Rugby's decision overturned in the courts, as they were denied entry on the basis they were not the "prime" tenants at their chosen home ground (Oxford?).

The courts ruled against Premier Rugby, as a number of existing clubs are not prime tenants either - Wasps at Wycombe, London Irish at Reading, for example.

"Automatic" P&R between the Championship and Premiership does not exist in English rugby union. Neither does it exist to the Pro12 league of celtic nations in rugby union, or in basketball, ice hockey, speedway or many other sports in the UK.

This idea that automatic P&R is somehow intrinsic in British sport is a fallacy.

So, say your team gets promoted, wins 2 games the year after and comes bottom, who gets relegated?

Also, you say relegation means there are more meaningful games but then you take away 2 places from the playoffs meaning the mid table teams have nothing to play for. The last 2 years with the 8, the season hasn't been over for teams as low down as 11th. I agree 8 is too many, but it keeps things interesting near the end of the season.

Apart from 1, maybe 2 teams at the bottom though, franchising has created a lot of parity. Yes, we have the same 4 teams at the top, but in the last few years 5-11/12 has become a toss up season to season. We need to keep it going because once this current batch of players (late 20s) pass through, it will extend up the table IMO.


This was never going to be an over night thing. It takes time to bed in and start to show, like anything.

Not for me either. Wakey were once criticised for having up to 10 - 11 overseas players in the mid 2000's. I felt it was unfair as realistically we couldn't rely on youngsters and proven english players tended to find their way to the bigger clubs.

This Weekend we fielded:

Mathers (Eng)
Fox (Eng)
Collis (Aus)
Lyne (Eng)
Cockayne (Eng)
Smith (Aus)
Sykes (Eng)
Amor (Eng)
Aiton (Eng)
Poore (Aus)
Kirmond (Eng)
Lauititi (NZ)
Washbrook (Eng)

Wood (Eng)
Mariano (Eng)
Poore (Aus)
Wilkes (Eng)

So 5 out of 17 is much more healthy in that respect, plus we have a raft of talented youngsters on the fringes, Cowling, Walshaw, Trout and Annakin being the standout players.

I also agree that it would be a step backwards for the game as a whole, as others have mentioned - the gap between SL and the Championship is too great for a club to realistically leap and survive these days. They should concentrate on making the National Leagues more vibrant and try and get as many clubs as possible to Fax/Fev's level.

British Sport ? , dont talk bollox

1 stly , it has been the CHAMPIONSHIPS for 4 years now

Yes you're correct , that nice Mr Wood stated 4 years ago that the intention was to make the Championships " Vibrant , and worth winning in their own right "

So why in 4 years has he done NOTHING to achieve that aim ?

This is the real point here , the Championships are going down the pan , and nobody has a clue how to stop it

Aiton isn't English.

People have plenty good ideas to stop it, but Nigel Wood doesn't. Nor for that matter, does he particularly care.

I noticed that,but there were still 5,as he counted Poore twice and missed Andy Raleigh.

I think if anything it has gone the other way which is a massive shame

Yeah my bad there, but the point still stands.

P&R is too much of a hit for the relegated team and too much of a leap for the promoted team.

In my mind we do need to do more to sort out the lower leagues, but it will be tough in an ever shrinking world for teams like Fev, Batley, Hunslet, Dewsbury and Keighley to ever be a big draw for either walk up fans or TV audiences.

It's on 2 fronts as well, people in Hunslet will become ever more likely to follow the Rhinos and claim Leeds connections, Keighley have the Bulls nearby etc.

But also, in terms of TV audiences (and this applies to SL as well to a degree) - beyond those who are already into the sport, they will always struggle to market fixtures between teams from places that your average southerner has never heard of. In all likelihood, I'd suggest that theres a great many people who probably havent heard of Wakefield down south, let alone places like Dewsbury, Featherstone, Workington etc - they simply don't care and THAT is the biggest challenge facing our game IMO.

Utter bollox

I guess many haven't heard of london judging by attendances

I agree with having no promotion and relegation because the gap between the two divisions is too high. A team that comes up needs to have the time to be able to plan.

More [url=http://eggchasing.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/for-the-love-of/here[/url on promotion and relegation and more [url=http://eggchasing.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/dual-registration-why/here[/url on the dual registration farce

I'm not personally arguing for P&R (at least not the simple version anyway) but the argument you give is a bit circular - supporters of P&R would argue that the gap is only so big precisely because there's no P&R.

I'd like to hear genuinely radical solutions to solve this 'drawbridge' problem. Maybe nobody is thinking outside the 'obvious' couple of options.

There was always a gap between the two when we had P & R. There weren't many sides who were promoted and then survived the season after unless the winners of the Championship weren't allowed into the league which happened a few times to Huddersfield. The biggest problem was that the team that came up tended to release all the players that they came up with and brought in low quality overseas players and overaged players.

The idea of the franchise system is that each club in the top division has a 3 year plan. They can blood the youngsters with no fear of relegation. Similarly when a team is promoted ala Widnes they can take half a season to assess what they have and then look to build a team that can compete. If Widnes were in danger of relegation last year then the likes of Joe Mellor wouldn't have got a sniff. Now he's being given a chance to play in Super League and prove himself. A chance that he wouldn't have got otherwise.

The clubs in the Championship have the same chance to build a side that can keep them at the top end of the Championship over three years and get themselves in order for a licence application. The biggest problem is that some of the applications seem to be built on total BS as I indicated in that blog.

Now let me see. Most people on here who are against it are already in super league.
I totaly agree that there must be realistic criterias to be met.
If they did teams could build up to it even if it was a 5-10 year plan.
I for one know someone who would put in a good lump of money into my club if there was promotion, but wont do it because he says he wont waste money just pumping money into something that cant go forward.
How many other business men or women think the same way or it could be stoping sponsers who already invest putting more in.
Like someone else on here said what other sport does this system exist in.
Yes young players have come through but why should championship clubs not be able to build round there young talent instead of having to let them go.

Quite the contrary. An investor should see that he can invest in a club, as opposed to a team. If he does that, there's a chance to get into the top league based on the quality of the club. That should seem a far more secure proposition than investing in just the team and relying on match results which depend on so many factors outside your control.

You could save us all a lot of time if you just put that instead of your usual ramblings.

The game needs to grow it's audience in order to attract the big TV deals. The majority of British sport enthusiasts live in the south of the country, where we have little presence. This is why London RL is still going, in order to "tap" that market.

Imagine if you were flicking through the channels, looking for some sport to watch and you happened across a game that looked kind of similar to one you were already familiar with but played between teams from 2 small towns from the Truro area.

Would you watch it? I know I probably wouldn't - because I couldn't care less about a game between 2 clubs that I've never heard of playing a sport that I have no interest in.

:1716celv

The reason your post was bollox is because you suggest that the Championships need TV coverage to build , they dont , if anything it damages them , especially as they recieve no monetary compensation for being featured

=#FF0000:1716celv

Quote In my mind we do need to do more to sort out the lower leagues, but it will be tough in an ever shrinking world for teams like Fev, Batley, Hunslet, Dewsbury and Keighley to ever be a big draw for either walk up fans or TV audiences.

It's on 2 fronts as well, people in Hunslet will become ever more likely to follow the Rhinos and claim Leeds connections, Keighley have the Bulls nearby etc.

But also, in terms of TV audiences (and this applies to SL as well to a degree) - beyond those who are already into the sport, they will always struggle to market fixtures between teams from places that your average southerner has never heard of. In all likelihood, I'd suggest that theres a great many people who probably havent heard of Wakefield down south, =#FF0000let alone places like Dewsbury, Featherstone, Workington etc - they simply don't care and THAT is the biggest challenge facing our game IMO.[/ devalued the competitions

There are currently no clubs in the Championships anywhere near ready to take on a 3 year licence , and that is a massive failure of the sport