We have tried the franchise route, we have tried the artificial creation of expansion clubs, now lets get back to where we should be.



Stop ripping the game apart by excluding heartland clubs, engage all the RL family and financially support the foundations being laid across the country so that one day they become vibrant clubs built in and around their communities.



Bring back P&R for entry in 2013. Yes have criteria, stadium/finance etc but make that criteria consistent for those in as well as out.



I hope the great RL people in Wales get a grip of their future and may I wish you well, and offer the support you will need to rise from this farce.



Franchising in GB RL should now be laid to rest.

Only in rugby league could we ditch something that generates a 20,000 crowd (the last NL1 grand final that guaranteed promotion between Cas and Widnes in 2007) and the attendant interest with promotion and relegation.



Has there ever been a more dramatic night in SL history than the Wakey-Cas game in 2006, played in front of 11,000 shoe-horned into that 'stadium' ?



We need people running the game who understand rugby league and its supporters.

Not bean counters

Indeed. Just ship a little more prize money on a sliding scale to the top of the Championship plus parachute payments to relegated sides to get rid of the 'financial cliff edge effect' and all would be fine.

No one outside of those teams really cared about those.

Football, gridiron, rugby union, ath;etics have all ditched events that have created far bigger attendances and public interest.







The only people that were interested were those with an interest of either club, it was a terrible game and is a very good reason for ditching automatic relegation.







But you are a bean counter yourself, wanting automatic promotion and relegation because of the crowds it has produced on a couple of occasions.. The idea of franchises was to raise the standards of clubs in SL, that it has achieved.

Raised standards, lowered them is a truer reflection of whats happened.

Let the cream rise and the sh@ fall

I'm not anti or pro P & R, but this is a really good post. Seems common sense to me the Maurice has worded it.

Would all of the 118 débutantes Richard Lewis was on about have made their débuts under a P&R system?

How many more Clubs would have gone bust in the attempt to either stay in SL or get into it.How many more overseas players with European passports would have been brought in and would any ground improvements have been carried out.

More.







More.







None, all the money would have been spent on wages of overseas players as the clubs battle to stay in SL. There would be hardly any youth development the likes we haven't seen in Super League since 1996. Salford and Saints, who had been promising new stadia for years prior to 2008, wouldn't have been forced to act upon it.

So how have standards been lowered?



Under the old system Catalans would have been playing in the Championship rather than finishing 3rd in 2007, Crusaders would have been playing in the Championship rather than making the playoffs in 2009. Teams now have better and more stable youth development. I doubt the likes of Castleford, Salford and Wakefield would have be looking at new stadiums if there was no franchising.

BINGO!!!!!!!!









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