must be illegal, as otherwise why submit anything or meet any criterea

Probably. But how else could they know, unless they are devaluing the franchising arguments on purpose.

I thought Salford would average less than 6.8k tbh. Quins too?

they do, that figure includes both home and away games. quins average 3.4k and salford 4.2k at home.

What if the stadiums are being built by the april 2011 deadline?

I just don't see how the RFL can say at this time that one will be dropping out, whats the point of putting together a application if the RFL have already chosen?

IMO it will be sad for the game to lose cas or wildcats, they are rugby league towns, i doubt any of them teams will recover from being dropped out.

Surely the RFL have to look at the applications in april when they have all been put in.

we are not losing a team, they are being relegated. widnes have a strong case to say they should have been in this time around, and i think can put together an even stronger case than a couple of the current SL teams.

if it were up to me i would give the teams 3 years in the wilderness who leave it untill the very last min to get their stadia built. they have had 3 years to get a move on with it. ever since the applications were put in last time they have been saying they will build a new ground. if they havent made a move by now (like saints have) then why should we keep them in when we have a team like widnes who can bring alot to SL.

i would like to see the RFL be ruthless to these teams and give them another 3 years to get it right then come back when and apply again when all is finished rather than them just promising they will do it and never quite getting around to it.

It's pretty unfair if both cas and wildcats have building started on threre stadia and don't finish bottom and get dropped down a league.

I just can't get my head around how the RFL can say before the applications are in that a team will drop down!

Not as far as me. 272.8 miles, 4 hours 51 mins one way

.

As for one team to drop out, Les Cats, Quins and Crusaders are safe as expansion clubs. Wigan, St Helens, Wire, Leeds and Hull are definatly safe. I'd expect Hudds, Bulls and Hull KR are ok so it's between Salford, Wakey and Cas.

I hope Salford stay to keep some sort of balance between East and West so toss a coin between the other 2.

To come in, i think Widnes deserve it and should have got it last time but i would like to see Barrow come in to have a SL presence in Cumbria.

I don't get why they had to announce anything. It's miles away already.

BUT I think they have to promise to change at least 1 side, just to ensure that sides in the championship continue trying to develop their off-the-pitch matters to a standard where they feel they are the best of the rest.

So even if the current 14 teams have better applications, they will stiil bring in a championship side?

I just don't like the fact the RFL have came out and said one team will lose the there super league license! On what grounds?

Fair enough, if by april and those teams ain't started building new stadia then they should go, but whats to say they won't be building by april 2011?

Good points. Brian Carney was asking questions on the same lines on Sky last night.

But personally I think Widnes are a better team to have in than Wakefield or Castleford, even if those two got new stadiums. The Stobart Stadium is an excellent facility, they have a good youth policy (top of our Under 18s group which includes Saints & Wigan) as well. Bottom line to all that is Widnes have had that stadium for 15 years now with only three seasons of Super League money in their back pockets.

Cas have had 12 years at least and Wakefield 11 of Super League finance but seem to have done nothing about facilities till they've been forced into it. So for that reason I've no sympathy. Maybe thats a bit harsh but I can see why Widnes would come in and a Cas or Wakefield be taken out.

Widnes will have a good shout but wht should any of the current teams make way if they pass all the lisence rules ?

The are few other teams that should be worried, it's pretty obvious the RFL have made there minds up already, the license system looks to be a waste of time and a complete joke.

totally agree, its baffling me too.

The RFL are proving what a complete shambles they have become!

Telling the world a team would be dropping out before the apllications have gone in,is shocking!

The celtic situation has been another waste of time, where will they be playing when cas or wildcats are kicked out of super league for not having a stadium up to scratch!

Celtic should have gone as they changed their license once they moved. Sh1t ground full of Aussies.

As I understand it, the clubs with sub-standard stadia last time around were only scored on the understanding that they'd have their new stadia before the next round of licensing. Saints have (pretty much) done so, Salford are getting there, but the other 2 haven't even got planning permission yet.


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It's important to remember, though, that the ground is only a small part of the total (ten-point) criteria (one point for 12k+ capacity, one point for "being up to standard"icon_wink.gif.

The Rfl will never ever touch catalan, Quins and celtic.

To be fair to quins they have just started bringing youngsters through to the first team and have very few aussies now, they are trying to abide by the license rules.

Celtic have been going two years, they have had two names, played at two stadiums and are full of aussies and get low crowds.

How are they any better than cas or the wildcats?

I agree...again

If the ground is only a small part of the criteria, then why are cas and wildcats under threat?

If the stadia is being built by april 2011, have better crowds than the likes of celtic, have better youth plolicy than celtic, then celtic must be the team with the lowest score.

The fact the RFL have said a team will go down now at this stage, nine months before the application deadline is just shocking!

It makes the whole application syastem a complete waste of time.

didnt Celtic go into administartion and form another club? they had to be financially saved and moved didnt they?

It's either their way of saying "relegation still exists", or the fact that they want to scare a couple of clubs into sorting out their stadia (i.e., the two in question who won't groundshare).

The RFL have really pi$$ed me off with all this to be honest.

I just think this makes the whole application for a super league license a complete waste of time and money!

Rightly or wrongly, Crusaders are "untouchable", along with Quins & Catalans. Expansion is a competely different argument here.

You can't realistically directly compare Championship clubs to SL clubs, as Brian Carney suggested, because too many of the criteria are unfairly biased towards the SL clubs.

Also, in the 2009 franchising, Widnes actually scored higher that Wakey, Cas & HKR (in fact they would have got a B licence, as I recall) but lost out solely because of their financial problems. I genuinely believe that they'll make more of a contribution to SL than Cas or Wakey.

Hardly expansion in North Wales

I don't deny that widnes will make a good contribution to super league, the RFL have kicked widnes in the teeth to many times in the past to deny them a super league licence this time around.

However, i don't agree that quins, celtic and catalan should be untouchable on the grounds of expansion, the rules need to apply to all teams who put in for a super league license.