Quote: bramleyrhino "Catalans saw the merger of two financially struggling clubs into one that is now generating average crowds of 7-8k plus. Youth participation in France has also increased since their introduction into SL. How much more do you think they should be achieving?
Again, using the number of people who came to Wembley as a litmus test is not a fair representation of their support in my view - flights to London during the August BH are not cheap.
And I stand by my point, it is not and never has been the job of Catalans to improve the French national team any more that it is the job of Leeds, Wigan, Huddersfield or Batley to improve the England team. We haven't beaten the Aussies for years, so why don't we bin off those clubs as failed clubs as well? That's the standard you're applying to Catalans, so what's good for the goose and all that.
What is wrong with simply having the Catalans in the league as a competitive club in their own right, rather than applying these impossible standards to them that we don't apply to other clubs for some reason? In an environment where we have promotion and relegation, they should be free to build the best team they can within the rules like any other club, whether they are French or otherwise.'"
Everything is more expensive on the August BHW but if Wakefield or Widnes got to the final and didn't half fill their allocation, the same people defending Catalan would saying we should get rid of small town teams.
You have just undone the argument that we need teams away from northern England, if Catalans (and Toronto) are just a club like any other then why couldn't it be Leigh or Bradford or whoever instead? Why were Catalan given special treatment to get them promoted and then ring fenced from relegation in their first year in SL? Why do Toronto get to play blocks of home and away games to make their fixture list easier?
I am not saying we should get rid of 'expansion' teams btw, just that I don't understand why some people seem to think it is better for the game to have Toronto in the league over say Fev, no matter what their on field performances are.
HOW MANY TIMES?????
£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000.
The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them. 
:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_76030.jpg
