Quote: bewareshadows "Licensing does not work as it is not open and transparent.
If you want a licencing arrangement then you need to have an open points system.
I think under licensing Widnes would also struggle as licensing had critiria around attendances. Proximity to other clubs. Etc.
Liicencing kept Widnes out of SL for many years as the rfl fudged these rules keeping in teams that did not develop their stadia and did not grow their fan base and that did not meet financial rules or develop youth as the "rules" said they should.
If you had real licensing it would probably shrink the league to 8 teams.
What you have shown is that Widnes can't work in a competition environment. Not that a competitive environment does not work.
The quality of SL this year is very even and Toronto are looking strong for promotion. It actually seems fairly healthy. One club having to adjust the reality of its situation is not a barometer for the whole system.'"
Licensing could work.
The licensing SL had, had two main problems imo.
1. It wasn’t honest and the Bradford situation exposed that.
2. It was very prescriptive. People who believed that some things ‘stand to reason’ and so don’t need any further thought decided that they could write a set of flat-pack instructions that would work for all clubs, whatever their circumstances.
The issue really is the sudden drop-off in revenue and with a full-time top division that has to fall... somewhere. They tried to smooth it out a bit in the 8s system, but it really just moved to midway down the Championship.