This is why this proccess is open to abuse with biased opinions
As you say Everything possible will be done to keep Quinns, Celtic. What do you mean everyting possible will be done? ...and why?

That leaves Cas, Wakie, Salford. But YOU think, Cas should go down. You like me, have an opinion. Opinions always vary...would someones opinion be fair to take away a team from SL?

Just curious but why would you say CAS? (yes, I am defending my team)

Everything you said highlights that the RFL could basicaly do what every THEY like.

If the system is going to work...its got to be 1 rule for 1, 1 rule for all....NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE GEOGRAPHICALY

The license system we now have was created to make rugby league a more popular and valuable product.

Where a Super League club is geographically is very relevant to Super League's popularity on television, and hence value to the television networks. This all translates into the value of the TV contract that the RFL can negotiate.

But so far the RFL has not bent the rules in favor of expansion. They have bent them in favour of giving old clubs like Wakey, Cas, Hull KR and Salford a second chance to justify their presence in Super League. If these clubs fail to abide by the rules (e.g. by having a modern SL standard stadium built or at least under construction), then in 2011 they deserve to be demoted to the increasingly attractive Championship.

2012 - 12 clubs (not enough British/French quality for 14)

Saints
Wigan
Wire
Widnes

Bradford
Leeds
Hull
Huddersfield

Quins
Celtic

Catalans
Toulouse

A strong 14 team Championship of.....

Salford, Wakey, Cas, Fev, HKR, Halifax, Leigh, Oldham, Barrow, Whitehaven, Doncaster, Sheffield, Gateshead, and either Batley or Dewsbury.

2015 - 14 team SL

The original 12 plus Gatehead and Barrow (and be open about it too dont hide behind it by nudging criteria and turning blind eyes). You have a game them that is as national as it could ever really be over the next 20 years.

Then swap 2 from the original SL with 2 from the Championship based on on-pitch merit alone. Not geography, not baby changing facities, not stadia.....good old fasioned on pitch performances.

If its Celtic, Quins, or Toulouse then tough, by 2015 it would speak volumes anyway.

personally i'd have 16 teams
top 6 in playoffs

teams involved
1.Leeds
2.St Helens
3.Warrington
4.Hull FC
5.Hull KR
6.Castleford
7.Quins
8.Catalans
9.Wigan
10.Wakefield (only if they build new stadium)
11.Widnes
12.Celtic
13.Huddersfield
14.Toulouse
15.Barrow
16. A new Scottish or Irish side

Yes. I do agree with the highlighted. Just that it must be 1 rule as for all

Ground pending, whats your difference in quality of the highlighted teams? ...just curious

to be fair Wire are having an off season we have been a hell of a lot better than CAS over the the past few years

Personally I'd rather it be on what you do on the pitch but thats another story.

So, getting in touch with the times and using Richard Lewis rules.......you have a ground (and probably still will come 2012) and are too close to others.

Same goes for Salford, HKR, and Wakey.

Sorry

Featherstone and Barrow

Well if were stuck with a ground then yeah, we deserve to be gone, but if its built, we have just as much rights as any other team. maybe others are too close to us and not the other way round eh


As for what we do on the pitch, that can only be assest over next 3 years, and were not off to a bad start

Cas has done very well on the pitch this year.

Terry Matterson is a good coach, and he has recruited very well. The likes of Sherwin and others being added to the two previous standouts (McGoldrick and Westerman) have been good choices by Matterson.

The town has a very intense rugby league tradition, and probably one of the best ratios of spectators to town population in all of world rugby league .

But the problem is that the town has a very small population (much bigger than tiny Fev but still very small) and doesn't add too many new subscriptions to the Sky accounts.

The damned sensible thing as I have said many times (following Uncle Mo) is to have a Calder United club --- not a merger -- whereby Wakey and Cas and Fev have their own identity in the Championship, but a west Yorkshire club encompassing all three areas of greater Wakefield plays in Super League.

If the clubs cannot see this reality then they will have to stand or fall on the strict enforcement of the 10 SL criteria the RFL has set up. They cannot ever satisfy the geography criterion, obviously. But they can satisfy the stadium criterion. If they do not, then I think that they have to go down -- which will not be so bad for them, nor for rugby league in Yorkshire. The Championship is getting better, and wealthier and more prestigious than ever before.

Clubs can pull people from places other than the town they are based. Cas for instance can pull from Castleford, Pontefract, Featherstone, Selby, Wakefield, Leeds, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Bradford.

But I think you fail to see that so I'm going to nothing your posts as per usual.

My ideal Super League would see it have a maximum of 20 clubs:

1) Hull KR
2) Hull FC
3) Leeds
4) Bradford
5) Huddersfield
6) Sheffield
7) Wakefield
icon_cool.gif Castleford
9) Salford
10) Wigan
11) St Helens
12) Widnes
13) Warrington
14) Leigh
15) Celtic
16) Harlequins
17) Gateshead
1icon_cool.gif Catalans
19) Toulouse
20) A Cumbrian team whether it is an existing club or a new franchise

Been a Cas fan through and through (born n bread) for the last 30 years, I would go for "stand or fall" and all beign well and the stadium producess, I know the Tigers could "stand" their ground with the best and the rest.
The town has a very intense rugby league tradition, and probably one of the best ratios of spectators to town population in all of world rugby league .
Do you think the highlighted part deserves a team in The Champoinship or fight for thier OWN idenity in SL?
Castleford "town" maybe be small, but if and yes, thats a if, the ground goes ahead, there would be many surrounding areas that Cas would attract new fans, e.g Allerton Bywater, Kippax, Ferrybridge, Pontefract, Rothwell, Normanton and Methley (all of which are tradition rugby areas for amater RL), and then theres the one who begrudge paying £18 to get into the Jungle. A new ground would definataly push our average attendances over 10,000
Surley you couldnt take away a "top flight" RL team, just because theres not anoth Sky sports subscribers within the "town"

Are you p*ssed?

Actually I did have a couple last night. But as I said that for me would ideally be what it would eventually become. Doesn't mean that it will happen.

this has developed into pure alice phallus through the looking glass

Yes, but also no. If you are too close to another club and are competing for the same player pool, this should be taken into account, as should the possibility of tapping into a whole new player pool. I think the idea of giving 1 point in the franchise system for this is fair.

would you like to see that applied to the french league?

Maybe [u3 leagues of 18 [/uwould be better for the game. it would give more room for expansion.

[uonly a top 5 playoff[/u and promotion and relegation considered every 2 years

Irish, Scottish more southern and midlands teams, maybe a Spanish or German side thrown in too.

Lets have some ambition

i'll have some of what you've been drinking pal
wouldn't it be a good idea to have some league set up in spain and maybe even a spanish rl before we start talking about a club(s)?

That's what i mean in being ambitious

its way too early to discuss this. a lot can change over the next 2 years