IF there are only 16 clubs that could sustain a SL franchise, why have the play off with clubs from the Championship who, by your own definition, aren't sustainable in SL ?

We either keep P/R or revert to some kind of Franchise/Licence system, without P/R, unless a club goes into admin/goes pop, which should be automatic demotion.

One of the aspects of the previous system is that new clubs could have been added "when they were ready" (such as Leigh) but, this was never done and instead, we went for the hair brained scheme we have now.

Not saying he would now , but he only started investing when licencing was to be ended , he would not have invested the necessary amounts if licencing had carried on , I know this because he told me so

I doubt you'd find many if any heartland clubs would find that investment without a cast iron guaranteed decision on the pitch

But you don't have a cast iron guaranteed decision on the pitch. Never do.

So it wasn't really the p+R aspect but the likelihood of Leigh getting to SL which encouraged him. The bigger question then becomes why were Leigh so unlikely to get a franchise

Yes you do , it was finish in the top 3 or win the MPG

Simple , we don't trust the RFL as far as we could kick Nigel

During licencing our attendances had dropped ( due to poor performance partly ) to 1,200 as fans became dissolutioned , they only rose when the prospect of the middle 8 s became likely , and our cup run had reinvigorated fans into believing we could potentially do it

Our proximity to the other Lancs clubs

In 2008 the RFL asked us to resubmit our licence application to include Hilton Park , this despite us having played our final game there and the LSV being 80% finished ( they had visited the site twice , including a few weeks earlier )

So do we believe the RFL would have considered us for a licence/franchise ? , no

And that can be guaranteed can it?

Whether rightly or wrongly, if you agree with their reasons or not, Leigh didnt think that they were good enough to get a licence for SL and thats the only reason that P+R was preferred, that it was easier to spend on players and hope for the best on the field than it was to get in shape off the field so that it would be in SL's interests to invite Leigh in.

Our location is/was always against us , so short of transporting the LSV to Stoke On Trent or somewhere similar , that thought process comes from the ridiculous way the Celtic Crusaders were pushed through in 2008 when their only realistic positive was their location

This argument done to death so this is my final post on it , but as I said Dereck would have kept Leigh afloat short term in the Championship under licencing , but would not have spent anything like the amount he did to gain promotion on the pitch , we discussed this at length when I sold him my shares in Sporting Club Leigh so he could then get involved again

HTH