Quote: Clearwing "Is yo-yo-ing the problem it's perceived to be? Everyone bar none is lamenting current standards of the game. If a side has the necessary backing and ambition, promotion and survival in the top flight shouldn't be insurmountable. If they haven't then it's a case of one weak-ish club replacing another until such time as a credible long-term addition to the top flight materialises. Which tends to happen, often as not.'"
That would be the natural order, the strong survive etc, etc.
One of the major downsides to the old P/R and the upside to "franchising" is the opportunity for young players to prosper.
Back in the day, most (if not all) clubs under threat of relegation would sign journeyman pros who regularly swapped clubs in the lower half of the table of moved between promoted and relegated sides.
This didn't appear to happen anything like as much under "franchising" and we are likely to see a return of this "horse trading".
Mind you, Toronto re-started this trend many months ago
Seriously though, are we now going to see fewer youngsters getting their chance ?
Also, why didn't Toronto give any game time to their local players, especially when they were thrashing all of the sides in League 1 and comfortably beating the "easier" sides in The Championship.
This was definitely an opportunity missed on their part and hasn't helped them make too many friends among traditional RL fans.
A real shame and that boat may well have sailed
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. 
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