Yes, I can just see the fans of a Championship Grand Final winning team going berserk because their club has just won £100k rather than promotion

no they shouldn't be forgotten and they arn't, do you still have a league to play in? do you still recieve money? can you gain a liecence?

really well it doesn't look like they are missing them as they have never been stronger over there.

no they aren't and they should lose there liecence if they still aren't when decision time comes around. but are they still better than the teams moaning about no promotion? yes they are.

I cant see a point in a competition which exists solely for clubs to try and get out of it. Why bother with it? Winning the championship means nothing, its promotion they are celebrating. Might as well just go in rotation, give each championship club a chance to sign up loads of average overseas players and be whipping boys for a year.

instead of throwing all the eggs into superleague could the RFL not strengthen the 2nd tier and market an elite RL-competition with 2 leagues? maybe the top tier having 10 teams and the next tier being made of as many clubs they can find that have the fanbase/business set-up to support a pro team (surely they could dig up another 10?)

transparent promotion and relegation between the 2 leagues with the bottom club from the 2nd tier having their place open to re-application with competition with any semi-pro clubs from the leagues below

can't be much fun for widnes fans watching their team getting beaten every week even if they can look forward to not being relegated and now that catalans wouldn't be in danger of getting relegated (which is the reason they scrapped relegation in the first place isn't it?) what have the RFL got to lose, the club going down would be going down into a pro-league with decent-ish gates and teams who have something to play for

and perhaps having london broncos actually winning some games and possibly pushing for promotion might even help them market the game in the capital?!

Because team sport engenders a certain amount of romanticism. Fans will always dream of seeing their team playing at the highest possible level and competing for the highest honours. But, of course, you know this. You just prefer not to acknowledge it, because it doesn't fit in with your reasoning.

No i acknowledge it, im more than happy to accept it.

I just dont think it is sensible or would be anything less than idiotic to structure our entire game to allow it, especially when doing so is so obviously to the detriment of the game as whole.

I personally think that it's what puts bums on seats and generates interest and excitement, and thus media hype. This is something which is lacking in the game now.

Don't under estimate the power and influence that romanticism can have on sport. I'm not saying that the licence system doesn't have any merit but, at the moment, I really cannot see what it is achieving.

Thats an easily measurable thing though isnt it. Are crowds as a whole vastly down in the last 4 years?

Crowds in SL are up and it would take a hell of a fall in the championships crowds to cancel out the SL growth and then some.

So Licencing is succeeding on both fronts , improving SL , and killing the rest

Then again at £ 7.70 to watch a SL match , they should be increasing , as long as we forget about the Challenge cup its all ' hunky Dory '

It's not that easy, unfortunately. If you only look at Super League and it's attendances you may well come to the conclusion that you have. What about the pro game as a whole? What about media interest and hype around the sport as a whole? This is not only generates real interest amongst the general public, including non fans, but also helps with lucrative sponsorship deals - something which is somewhat lacking at the moment.

There are a number of factors as to why SL attendances could be rising. The increase is largely being driven by the big clubs, such as yours, plus there's also the cheap season ticket offer at the Bulls. Widnes' inclusion will have boosted the figures a little too. Not much admittedly, but we had over 8,000 at the first game and will probably average about 6,000 this year. That will be enough to boost last seasons attendances. Then there's the new stadiums for Saints and Salford that will also contribute to those clubs bringing in more fans.

If we still had P&R we may be seeing an even greater rise in attendances than we do now. As Starbug says, what about the declining interest in what was once the most prestigious trophy in the game?