What reasons were given for removing promotion and relegation when Super League was introduced? What benefits has it brought to the sport?

I think the RFL, and perhaps more importantly Sky, wanted to see a fully professional league containing only teams from larger towns and cities, with large fan bases providing ever more subscribers for Sky sports. I suppose it was considered impossible for many of the 'little village' and suburb clubs, to compete at this level. Unfortunately for the authorities, that particular demographic is strongly represented and very vocal within RL. When you look at the criteria used under licensing, it was clearly designed to weed out those clubs who needed to raid the 'leccy box' to subsidise the part time wages paid to their players, however well they were performing.

I think it was assumed that RL would spread out from its 'heartland' and that new towns and cities would jump on the emerging bandwagon and set up clubs, in fact assistance was given to foster that idea, much to the annoyance of the 'flatcappers'. I think we may have all worked out that it didn't really turn out well.

When.clubs such as your selves did not give a rats ass about the championship and voted.for a closed shop franchise where we play for 3 years of pointless friendleys with still no chance of going up. Eg wakey bust fax record massive profit etc

Now we have a chance a slim chance where you.came close and blew it. You lot are not happy but at least we have something to play for. A taste of sl is better than no sl.

You lot should be hopeing they don't scrap the system and revert back to a closed shop from next season. You Leeds Wigan st'hellens did not give a monkeys about the championship until now your stuck here.

One of the benefits is that it has made Halifax fans VERY angry (as it transpires). Especially when we dare talk about it.

And there's me thinking that Halifax graced Super League....memory playing tricks again.
We did have promotion and relegation in the early years of Super League......some clubs got relegated.

Well said

And there's me thinking that Halifax graced Super League....memory playing tricks again.
We did have promotion and relegation in the early years of Super League......some clubs got relegated.

Well said!

It was also to try & prevent clubs spending beyond their means & going under. As Wakey would no doubt have done (again) if they had lost. If Leigh fail again next season I can see them heading that way too.

And in later years SL teams could go BUST as many times as they wanted . Until the RFL and the rest of theSL teams said enough is ENOUGH.

Yeah, they did - and often went belly up at then same time as financial meltdown struck - this was the principal reason P&R was dropped and licensing was brought in.

Rugby league has always had the problem of not enough clubs at a similar level to make decent divisions. In soccer, there are four divisions, of around 22 clubs in each, between the top full time clubs and where the part timers start; in RL the part-timers start in the top four of the second division, or to put it another way, approximately 17 clubs down from the SL champions.

After and earlier attempt, in the 1960s, to have two divisions, which didn't last long, there used to be a total of around 30 clubs [all semi-pro], all in one division but playing different fixture lists in two separate [Yorks and Lancs] leagues. Then, in the early seventies, we went back to a first division of 16 and a second division of 14, with P&R. The difference was often too much though and the term 'yo-yo clubs stems originally from this era.

That split of 16 and 14 lasted until the start of SL, and despite changing the number of clubs and the way they gained promotion they've never got round the problem of too few clubs and the semi pros starting so close to the top.

If you want a soccer comparison with modern RL, promotion from the championship to SL, is a little bit like [say] promoting a conference club into the Premiership. Obviously it's daft, and would never work, but that is our eternal problem.

The problem is that the issue that led to them scrapping P&R has come back with the new Middle 8 concept

Namely that the eventually promoted club, whether it be the bottom SL club or the best placed Championship club, is inevitably niles behind with their recruitment for the following season. This season it could have been us - in the event its Wakefield. Brian Smith referred to it as starting a 400 metre race at the 450 metre mark.

It's completely unfair and ridiculous, and will almost definitely mean Wakefield will be at the bottom again next season, as we undoubtably would have been if we'd won on Saturday.

Everyone goes on about how we would have an extra million quid, but when all the players worth having are already signed for next season, and all you can pick off are the rejects and scraps, then what's the point of having a million quid burning a hole in your pocket?

Paradoxically if they'd gone with a straight 'one up one down' then this would have been avoided, since it was obvious that Wakefield would be relegated from half way through the season and they could have started to plan accordingly, whilst the promoted club -which would have been Leigh - would have been able to start SL recruitment much earlier than the second week of October.

Not quite. Bradford dropped 7 points in the last month of the season, and came 2nd by 6 points. It's unlikely the promoted team will be able to start recruiting much in advance of the end of the season most of the time. A little different for Wakefield, but it's not always so clear cut in terms of having a team so far adrift at the bottom of the table.