However, to get the facts straight, you were not denoted a grade C.
rlhttps://therfl.co.uk/licensing/super_leaguerl

Castleford Tigers - Grade C
Harlequins RL - Grade C
Salford City Reds - Grade C
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats - Grade C
Widnes Vikings - Grade C

Other Clubs
Halifax RLFC
"...the club fell below the standards expected of a Super League club."

The club fell below the standards because their financed were "SPECULATIVE" unlike Bradford's. Yeh right.

Those would be the fans that follow Cas or Wakey, then?

Like they did when I used to work in Normanton.

You are in a dreamworld if you think your crowds will soar in SL.

We had all that from Leigh fans, who assured us they would roll up in their thousands.

It never happened there, and it won't happen here.

This is me, a fax fan, defending a Fev fan. If Fev was to be given a Superleague spot I am 100% certain that they would take more away fans to games than Catalan and London do........

It's certain that both Featherstone and Halifax would take more away support than both Catalan and London since they only need to travel 30 minutes (or less) to reach Leeds, Wakefield, Castleford, Huddersfield and the 2 Hull clubs and 60 mins to the other side of the hill.
The real point is that neither of these clubs or any other currently in the Championship would do anything to raise the wider profile of the game.

Both Rovers & Fax have a proud history but unfortunately time has overtaken them, although there is a case to include Fax should Huddersfield fail to improve their support and player development.

That has to be one of the BEST statements ever!!!!

I love to read all these posts and listen to people's opinions. I myself work and support the keighley cougars and have done for many years. Rugby league is a great game and far more exciting than watching football or rugby union. Although all these games have different positives, Rugby league lags well behind on many factors. Rugby league is still only popular in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria, its still struggling in being developed throughout the country.

Super league in my opinion is a closed shop and I feel sorry for the bulls fans in what's happening to your club. However I'm seeing a lot of double standards in people's posts and this is very disturbing.

The championship this year is one of the toughest for years, and many of the clubs are fielding ex super league players. I've been to quite a few games with crowds of over 2500 this year. Many of the championship clubs would double or even triple there fan base given the opportunity in super league. The only way for super league to succeed is to open up the shop, bring back promotion and demotion and to stop being a monopoly.

Teams in the championship and below need something to aim for, this creates excitement and support which brings money into the game. Yeah a lot of our grounds need updating etc but this can't be done without money in the game or mystery benefactors.

Quite simply it can't be one rule for one team because they have 10,000 fans and another for someone else because they only have a bus load.

But it's not a closed shop. It's just different. Anyone can apply for licences.


This is a false argument, though. They have something to aim for. Same as SL; (1) league leadership (2) playoff champion. Playoffs are playoffs, and everyone - fans included - liek them and want to win. Promotion at the end of it is not necessary. Otherwise how would the playoffs in SL, from which there is obviously no promotion, ever work?

Also winning a championship is a big "promotion" feather in the cap.


You've lost me there. You can't update a ground unless you have the money? Well, yes.


But of course it can! Indeed, support base is one of the main licence citeria. Anyone can blow the money (many sports clubs are very good at that) but the biggest crowds are what bring the lifeblood money in. Or are you saying that an application from Wigan should be viewed exactly the same as an application from Gateshead?

Yeah all teams wanna finish top and win the playoffs however this is not the same has winning promotion to a higher league. All fans want there teams to be successful and to have the best players. Big difference between winning playoffs and being promoted to higher league than winning playoffs and playing the same teams every year.

Super league is a closed shop unless your face fits and you have loads of money a nice ground and oh added bonus of being in Wales or London.

Promotion and demotion brings excitement to the game, look at the premier league and football.

Championship has 14 teams next season so more games more revenue at least it will be different but it's not the same when you know that your teams in that league because there's no promotion or demotion and your not there on merit.

The bulls are in a mess and I do generally feel sorry for the fans, but to say the bulls must stay up in super league because they have 10000 fans is a double standard.

Dubane makes a very valid point that trying to promote the game beneath SL is very difficult.
Crowds would be better in the Championship if there was a real prize of promotion, and i still remember what a cracking spectacle Cas and Wakey served up many years ago in a relegation dogfight.
Clubs will be mismanaged whether P&R exists or not, so on the stability argument, Licsensing is always going to fail. If its aim is stagnation then it will succeed.

Would it not be better for the bottom placed team in SL to play the winner of the championship in a match before the GF say in a winner takes all match, and who ever wins will be in SL next season. We have seen that some of the top championship teams can stand toe to toe with the lower SL teams should I say

The problem the RFL have with promotion/relegation is that this will put pressure on them to let the Bronco's go.

If London are ever relegated, I can't see them keeping their, already small, fan base. If promotion/relegation comes into play, London will be in contention for relegation almost every year.

I'm not saying it's right or not, but the RFL won't want to lose another expansion club. Again, imagine if Catalans had a bad year and went down, the RFL would be in a bit of a pickle!

In a way that would be a good competition as some Championship teams have had good results against the lower Superleague teams, but it would hardly be a level playing field. The Superleague club would be all full time players with a huge salary cap whilst the Championship club would be made up of mostly part time players on a small cap.

I do sort of see what they are trying to do with Licencing as the promoted team more often than not took a lot of players from the relegated team, so the net effect wasnt fantastic, but its the way that Licencing has been approached that riles a lot of non superleague fans. It would have been more paletable if the RFL had just come out and said that they only want big city clubs to expand and the likes of Featherstone and Halifax just do not fit with their views of expansion, then we could just get on with what we do.

In a way that would be a good competition as some Championship teams have had good results against the lower Superleague teams, but it would hardly be a level playing field. The Superleague club would be all full time players with a huge salary cap whilst the Championship club would be made up of mostly part time players on a small cap.

I do sort of see what they are trying to do with Licencing as the promoted team more often than not took a lot of players from the relegated team, so the net effect wasnt fantastic, but its the way that Licencing has been approached that riles a lot of non superleague fans. It would have been more paletable if the RFL had just come out and said that they only want big city clubs to expand and the likes of Featherstone and Halifax just do not fit with their views of expansion, then we could just get on with life in the lower leagues.

Dont think i made my point very clear bob, i mean if the winner of the championship plays the relegated team in from the SL in a one off match before the GF, then who ever wins will play in super league next season.

Parachute payment for the loser and cash injection for the winner as a carrot on the end of this stick as it where