Like anything in life, things take time. I for one think licensing is starting to fruition and show that we have an exciting league with more and more British players starting to come through the ranks; shows in my hometown teams teamsheet against Hull FC last week.

It's also showing in that we're not getting the out and out clear victories that we once had. We seem to be getting more and more shock results by the week, including Cas vs Wigan tonight.

The salary cap is another issue entirely but without licensing would Huddersfield have pushed onto where they are now? Would Widnes be playing as well as they are? Plenty more to say on the subject but i'll leave it at that for now.

Ask the SL chairmen - they're calling the shots.

Working for Who ?

Catalans and Widnes are good examples in my opinion as to the benefits of licensing.

That's just the point.

We don't.

More British born players is not due to licensing, it's down to the rules regarding federation trained/non federation trained quotas. It could also be argued that if Huddersfield hadn't been relegated under the previous rules they wouldn't be where they are now.

Oooh... another licensing thread

The main reason there are more British born players getting a gig in SL these days is because of the current exchange rates... the strength of the Aussie dollar in comparison to the weakness of the British pound. Factor in the billion dollar plus TV deal down under which means SL clubs have no option but to become more reliant upon home grown players.

It has naff all to do with licensing.

I don't think we have an exciting league. In reality we have a league that doesn't really matter as long as you are somewhere near the top.

The ONLY reason we have more British players coming through is the federation trained rule. It's the single best thing the RFL have done in the 36 years i have been watching the game. Clubs can't exploit the KOLPAC rules ending up with 9 or 10 foreigners anymore. Even if we had a cap of 50 million under the fed trained rules and the home grown player rule we'd see youngsters coming through.

The pro's and con's of licencing can be debated all day long but IMHO if the game can't come up with some decent sponsorship and media coverage pretty soon i fear for our future as a professional sport. I do shifts a work, often after a late shift i stick sky sports news on whilst tinkering on my computer. Last night it was on for 2 hours. Not a single mention of RL. The adverts for a summer of sport didn't mention RL. I saw adverts for F1, tennis, even the English SCHOOLS Athletics. Still no mention of RL. I honestly have no idea what we can do to change the media attitude, even Sky don't do much to promote the sport.

The game has problems which the new league structure do nothing to resolve.

Weren't Catalans protected under exemption in the first year during P&R ??? A great example of how P&R could work while building also if the promoted club were given exemption in year 1.

Because it prevents little village pit teams with decrepit stadia the chance to play in a league that they are clearly unworthy of being in.

Town Populations (2001 census) Current League Standings
Super League
1. Leeds 750,700
2. Sheffield 551,800
3. Doncaster 302,402
4. Bradford 293,717
5. Borough of Haringey (Skolars) 255,500
6. Warrington 202,700
7. York 197,800
8. Borough of Richmond (Broncos) 187,500
9. Oxford 150,200
10. Huddersfield 146,234
11. Hull 128,050
12. Hull KR 128,050
13. Perpignan 120,100 (2009)
14. Cheltenham (Gloucestershire All-Golds) 115,600

Championship
1. Oldham 103,544
2. St. Helens 102,629
3. Rochdale 95,796
4. Halifax 82,056
5. Wigan 81,203
6. Hemel Hempstead 81,143
7. Gateshead 78,403
8. Wakefield 76,886
9. Salford 72,750
10. Barrow 69,087
11. Hunslet 59,877
12. Widnes 58,300
13. Dewsbury 54,341
14. Keighley 51,429

Championship One
1. Batley 49,448
2. Leigh 43,006
3. Crusaders (Wrexham) 42,576
4. Swinton 41,347
5. Castleford 37,713
6. Whitehaven 25,032
7. Workington 24,295
8. Neath (South Wales) 19,258
9. Featherstone 15,244

Wigan are pretty big overachievers then...

Then why are the SL chairmen falling over themselves to get rid of it?

Just out of interest ( for the umpteenth time of asking) which club do you go and watch through the turnstiles? There's no ulterior motive in asking this question - I'm just interested. If you don't ever attend matches, that's OK too - I won't make a disparaging comment.

I think the only reason we are questoining the whole system is because of the markets crashing a few years ago. With the amount of money about for sponsorships etc being well down on the last decade we've hit a bit of a stumbling point.

It may well be that licensing has saved Super League, without it club may have well over extended themselves and gone to the wall, although, some still did.

I'm still not sure the british psyche is setup for franchising the way it is in the US and Australia. I'm also not sure quotas are important now the Aussie Dollar is stronger, maybe with a much more market influenced cap & quota system there would be no need for a licence system, it would just work out