It made perfect sense when replying to a brainless post like the one bellow.

Someone has to finish bottom. It doesn't mean that you will see a poor spectacle. But, having absolutely nothing to play for probably will. It will probably also ensure that clubs are happy to recruit even more journey men, as there is little at stake.



You are confusing your own petty little views with reality. Just because you don't like watching the bottom end teams, doesn't mean everyone else does. The problem with licencing though, is that it compounds the situation of journey men and substandard games, because there's nothing at stake for half of the season at the bottom end of the league. A battle between 3 or 4 clubs to avoid relegation would change this dramatically. You are far more likely so see full-throttle competitive games as such.

Great post, Tony. My sentiments exactly.

I genuinely hoped it wouldnt be like this for Widnes, it does however justify my argument that licencing and a 3 year tenure at the bottom of SL ( I believe this wont happen to Widnes ) would probably effectively kill Leigh in their current situation and probably any other Championship Club

There are essentially 3 options

Continue with the current system but spend heavily on building the Championship to close the gap

Return to annual P and R

Total restructure of the system with 10 SL and 10 full time Championship

That would be great, but I doubt Sky would be happy with their money being spent on a lower division. They want it all pumped into SL. At the end of the day, they will call the shots on that one. It'll be their way or the highway. I'd like to see 2 leagues of 10, but with P&R and both leagues funded. It won't happen though.

I didnt compare last seasons attendances to this. I simply said that it was easily provable whether or not P+R puts bums on seats. You argument is just a circular argument based on your preexisting prejudice. Whatever cause you want to attribute the recent rise in attendance to, we know it isnt P+R. We know this because there is no positve correlation between attendances and P+R being in effect. There is in fact a negative correlation between attendances and P+R. Now i can accept that this doesnt prove a correlation between P+R and lower attendances, it does, without doubt, show no correlation between P+R and higher attendances.

That game. 5 years ago added 3k to Wakefields attendance. There were 13 home games before that only 3 were attended by more than 5k. Their 3 home games prior to that were 5.5k against Leeds, 3.3k against Les Catalands, and 4k against Bradford. The same Bradford side that Wakefield got 9k against in the first game of that same season.
If relegation was so exciting, got so many bums on seats, led to such visibility, then where did 5k fans go who went to see Wakefield V Bradford at the beginning of the season where there was no link to relegation who wouldnt go see Wakefield v Bradford in round 22, their 3rd from last home game of the season with relegation looming.
Its good for RL. Bradford are getting about 11k currently. There isnt a team in the lower leagues who even being optimistic are likely to get even half of that. Bradford go but and drop out of SL that 11k goes to 2k/3k and a team with much less scope is promoted. They average 4k (which isnt enough to run an SL club on sustainably) and the game itself has lost 4k fans who are no longer watching the game, all because Peter Hood isnt competent. Its a good thing that Bradford have the space to reorganise. We would achieve nothing by destroying their visibility, 1st team, youth development and infrastructure

It will likely be a poor spectacle compared to the matches at the top of the table. I'd naturally much rather watch the teams at the top of the table than the bottom, surely everyone would. You can't be serious about journeymen. Surely you can remember the garbage that Widnes and other clubs used to sign in order to avoid relegation, and how clubs like Wakefield would put out teams with 14 or 15 overseas players in the 17 because they couldn't invest in youth for fear of relegation. Think about what you are posting.
It definitely does not compound the problem with journeymen players, and to suggest otherwise is completely ludicrous as I have already stated. The only issue is that, as you say, clubs may look to build for the following season rather than panicking and spending money they don't have on poor players so that they can avoid relegation and continue their meagre existence for another year. But surely that isn't a bad thing. That doesn't mean the quality of matches will suffer, they will only suffer in your own mind because you have built up the idea of relegation as a spectacle. As an RL match, I'd probably prefer to watch matches involving teams with nothing to play for than relegation-threatened teams TBH, they are far more likely to contain exciting play and also probably to be a higher standard. Your argument seems to be based on incorrect or poorly thought-out assumptions. Relegation does not make the sport more enjoyable unless you like watching clubs being destroyed, years of work being thrown down the drain and people needlessly losing their jobs.

What would you disagree with in that assesment?

Thats self evident. But lets not pretend that there is ever going to be a system with no risk of clubs going bust. There always will be. You cant make a cake without breaking some eggs.

Yet more people are watching and more people are playing than ever before. Whilst i dont doubt your sincerity, it certainly isnt something which is being replicated in great numbers.

There are many many other options. They just may not be palatable to you because it doesnt involve prioritising a relatively small number of clubs in the championship over all other parts of the game.

Seems Sam Tomkins prefers P&R as well (with apologies to mods if link needs tidying up). menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... mfort-zone

Seems Sam Tomkins prefers P&R as well (with apologies to mods if link needs tidying up). menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... mfort-zone

Quote JENKY="JENKY"Seems Sam Tomkins prefers P&R as well (with apologies to mods if link needs tidying up). menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... mfort-zone'" Seems strange that Sam Tomkins believes that for himself "winning is everything" but for everyone else "it’s a case of ticking over and seeing out another season". Quite disrespectful to players at the bottom of the league to say that not only are they not good enough, they arent even trying .

Quote JENKY="JENKY"Seems Sam Tomkins prefers P&R as well (with apologies to mods if link needs tidying up). menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... mfort-zone'" Seems strange that Sam Tomkins believes that for himself "winning is everything" but for everyone else "it’s a case of ticking over and seeing out another season". Quite disrespectful to players at the bottom of the league to say that not only are they not good enough, they arent even trying .