well their not going to get that with quins and crusaders are they?

And don't forget empty(new) grounds!!

be careful, think both those 2 have stronger squads that us for 2011

I would have thought that it would be in the better interests of Sky to support an increase in SL clubs, as a consequence of increasing it by one club then they get an additional 2 weeks to the season ie more TV matches. The clubs then get an additional 'home' fixture (more revenue), the coaches/players get 2 weekends off to 'recuperate' and the 'problem' of MM weekend and one club not playing would not be a problem because we could play our World Club Challenge game that weekend

So Sky would be 'better off' keeping all current clubs - why they would want to keep Quins or the Welsh side for their individual benefits beats me.

i like the idea but i cannot see it going that way at all,i can see it remaining at 14 clubs with 1 in 1 out and the most likeley scenario is a yorkshire club out to be replaced by a lancashire club to re-adress the balance across the pennines.who that will be is quite obvious cas or wakefield to think sky will care if either go would be laughable at best,theres a long time until franchises and lots can change in that time what the two clubs do in all aspects between now and that time will go along way towards been the team that makes the cut and the team that doesnt.

Think we need to stop having a go at Crusaders and Harlequins, if the game is to survive and we are to keep our stars such as Eastmond then we need to expand the game.
If people are willing to put the time and effort and their own money in to promoting the game then they should be supported. We need to look closer to home for our downfall, it was only a seson ago when we finished 5th in the league and our Acadamy team took the Grand Final destroying Wigan surely this was the time to invest and go forward.

RU salarycap is £4M, SL is less than half of that, added to that eastmond is claimed to said he would like a move to an RU club, and for £200K a year and proper international future, who could blame him?

add to that a multimillion dollar deal signed in aus with tv. no top aussies will come, half of teams produce no players so were gonna be left with a crap comp. rl on th road to ruin

basically RL is becoming the feeder clubs for RU

Don't forget as well that a Premiership Yawnion team receives 2.4mill from Sky and a SL team receives 650k. Disparity or what, and you can only see the gap widening in the coming years. They don't have the product but they certainly have the money and and momentum.

Lets re-invent the wheel then and just play in the North witha strong semi pro league staff sky etc make the game for the masses.

Then of course this would never happen because the bottom line in 90% of cases its about money not sport or its support

this is why we cant compete and pay good wages, this is why they wanted mergers to create big clubs with good support with teams being able to keephold of the youngsters. if we get kicked out then it wont make the comp any worse or better, there is just not enough good players to go round. catalan, celtic, bradford, quins, salford,. as areas produce hardly any youngsters so the gap is filled with 2nd and 3rd rate aussies. a few big clubs taking the cream the comp is poor. even the hull area is starting to struggle getting top youngsters.