Er Widnes as apart from the one and only financial collapse they are a sound club with all the boxes ticked.
Salford only have the Manchester thing going for them and their Chairman.
Come on Celtic Crusaders only got in due to them being in Wales, you honestly think they would have got in if they had been in the North of England???
No.

And thats why I get annoyed as the Franchise system is a scoring mechanism with only the 1 point for not having another SL club within a certain radius near you. The rest Celtic Crusaders did not tick i.e. no fans, poor ground, young players in the FIRST TEAM and played so many matches not a one game a season wonder!
So once again how come they were a shoe horn in???

do you think they'll last or turn out like paris?

It'sclear your bitterness is clouding your judgement on the matter so am not going to get into a big debate with you about why the two teams accepted were the right choice.. again..

You need to look at things slightly more objectively, Salford were getting the crowds, they have the financial backing and with that a strong business plan and a new stadium on the way (Ok things seem to have gone belly up now on that but we didn't know that back then). Plus is there another SL club within 20 miles? Or whatever the distance is supposed to be to get the extra franchise points.

Now am not saying Widnes are not sound now but at the time of franchising they had just gone through administration so how can you accept a club who nearly went from exhistance to one over a soundly run club? It just doesn't make sense.

Do I think Celtic would have got in if they were up north? No. But then there won't be a newly formed club up north as that wouldn't be expanding the game would it? You can't expect them to be getting 10,000 gates so soon after forming. Lets put it this way, they have been going 4-5 years compared to our 100+ years and are getting better grounds than us. Go figure. On top of this they have a reserve team, junior set up and have plans for a new stadium so Celtic IMO are here to stay whether you like it or not.

It is upto clubs like Fax, Widnes etc to make our own brand as competitive and strong as the teams in our regions to get us back in SL IMO

On your thread above, you answered your own question before you even asked the question ) then maybe the RFL's priority will be to re-establish the game "oop North" and put the failed policy down to experience. I'm not sure what BskyB will think of that (or whoever else has the TV rights) and that is what will largely dictate the policy going forward.

The only things that "local" clubs can do is perform on and off the pitch to the highest possible standards in order for them to make it hard for the RFL to reject their license bid. That is what we and Widnes and Leigh are attempting to do now, along with Wakefield, Castleford & Salford.

The 715 in attendance at Gateshead last night (the majority of who were hiding from the TV cameras) represents the biggest challenge for the expansion policy. Personally speaking - you just can't plant a sport in a given location and expect it to take off. The locals aren't interested.

I agree with a lot of what U/C says on this subject. As a business, our club needed a reality check due to previous managements/ boards. Let's be patient and build from within.

Nobody was more hurt than me in 1985 when I was playing colts and a little bit of "A" team rugby at Thrum Hall and being told I wasn't good enough to sign semi-pro, find an amateur club lad and then the Aussie invasion came around that time, but there was no prouder Halifax fan stood on Thrum Hall shouldering the lads on their championship winning celebraation around the pitch, and I'd have sang Waltzing Matilda at Wembley in '87, anything to get us that cup.

The club is in good hands now and is heading in the right direction. Let's forget about other clubs' chances, we can't influence that other than stopping them getting to the next few finals.

i agree, 1st tme postin on here, but its been a long time since we have had as many things goin for us as a club as we do at the minute. we were never ready to renenter super league this time, not even under the franchise system, and i think would have been in the same situation (league position and points wise) as celtic find themselves in now.
much prefer to build slowly from the championship, gaining more support from crowds, sponsorship, and probably more impotantly than anthing respect from the rugby league world(superleague)!
hopefully we can carry on the good work on and off the field over the nxt 2 and half yrs and end up with a geniune chance at gettin back to where a club with our history deserves to be! the top league.....
.....maybe im wrong with this but all i hope is that in three yrs time..wen the clubs like celtic, salford and suchlike in super league at the mo with lets say the weaker criteria...havent strengthened beyond our reach! helped witht the obvious benifits of been where they are at the min(been tv money and higher value sponsors).......

otherwise i can see 'Rugby League' in europe drifting even further apart than it is at the minute...as SUPERLEAGUE and the rest of us!!

all rantin aside tho......come on the fax!!! 1 game at a time

Salford were getting the crowds???? Yer right.
You on about that 6K crowd where they let everybody in free?
Celtic are getting more than us 'cos they are in SL and it is their 1st ever season in SL and only their 3rd in existence so the novelty value aint worn off yet.

Not bitter about US not getting in I accept we were not ready just people like you having the opposite of my blinkers on yet never admit it.

Widnes have a far stronger brand than Celtic Crusaders and I bet so do we - people know Halifax as a RL town still even now!

Just please take onboard my point and that is the 'expansion' clubs are in SL NO MATTER WHAT and I have to ask if you were Alan Sugar who would you fire and who would you keep in SL in the long term???
Only Catalans justify being in SL imo
Sorry totally diasagree with you mate, lets agree to differ on this.

You're talking a load of toot

Some people need to read up on what an IP Address is