Franchising had its merits in expecting a standard across the board for which clubs had to reach. However, the standards werent fairly abided by or judged by the RFL which made a total farce of the whole thing and brought to an end mine and many others enthusiasm for the sport.

I agree with Bubba!!!!!!

Next step will be singing When Glory Shone Around.

One step at a time

One team guaranteed to go up every three years under franchising (subject to having the standards, which several Championship clubs do have these days)

No team guaranteed to go up at all under Twelves and Eights.

The facts speak plainly for themselves.

What complicated the old system was (a) Crusaders folding, (b) constantly changing our minds about how many teams we wanted in $uper£eague, which was affected by (c) the restricted supply of players due to not investing in proper development.

The flaw in the new system is that it's very difficult for a Championship club to play their way into $uper£eague. However much money you offer, people want to play in the top division, not for a chance to play in the top division next season. Maybe. It's not a Fantasy League, where you can buy who you like. They have to want to sign for you. It's going to be a rare occasion when a Championship club gets promoted and the most likely scenario is a $uper£eague club imploding, as Crusaders did.

Griff, do you think the RFL would have had the balls to throw wakey out if cusaders, who were never by any stretch of the imagination ready to be in there, hadn't have folded?

They put us up against wakey for a licence remember, having told us to manufacture an attendance so we could apply and then helped us to put our application together. All to give the pretence their rotten system was working.

They then publicly berated our application because we had to guess what our income would be should we be in super league.

Would we have been any worse than Wakefield? Crusaders were hung out to dry by the RFL, the system was geared up to getting them in by hook or by crook and when they went pop the RFL happily let them stand aside so they didn't have to admit a SL club was failing and had to go. So no, the chances of going up under licencing were just as low, unless you were an "expansion" club not ready for it.

The years of lack of funding and lack of interest in championship clubs during licencing has now led to this ridiculous situation where championship clubs are trying to play catch up with that massive disparity in funding over the years to topple a SL club. It won't happen.

The sport is ruined, has little commercial value, has little money, is badly marketed and blindly run but yet sticks with the same muppets that created the mess.

That last line sums it up perfectly.

It will be even harder when there throwing money at Toronto and Toulouse .sky are runner the rugby league.no doubt.

Yep. Because they'd rather have had Widnes in, with their nice, neat ground.

Sure, Crusaders made it easy for them, but that's the way they think.

Expansion will never happen while the sport is under Sky and the Beeb employ people like Jon Inverdale, old school rah rahs.

This post is, unfortunately, spot on. We all know it yet the clowns sat in Red Hall continue on their merry little way.

Well looking on the Bulls forum, sadly their fans are less interested than ours are. Bringing the prices down has also alianeted a few more of their season ticket holders as well. Sounds like a right atmosphere will be produced.

What really gets my goat is that there isnt a collective group bringing the RFL to task. In football you have the Football Supporters Federation which keeps a watchful eye on the authorities however the RFL seem to get away with every ridiculous idea with little more than some grumbling on internet forums.

Toronto are paying their own way

Hear, Hear