Spot on. I find it hilarious to read all the posts about expanding to all 4 corners of the UK when we can't even expand particularly successfully to Sheffield or even, as it would seem, maintain a presence in Bradford.

Agreed. But some fantasists would call that a "flat cap" mentality

Sheffield have had a decent championship team for a number of years.

Bradford have gone bust spending too much money chasing promotion at all costs.

Bradford have gone bust twice in SL under no threat of relegation , it's not even bad management either really , bottom line is playing out of Odsal just isn't viable any more

Problem is the RFLs attempt at saving the Bulls has just made the situation worse

You are describing making the game comfortable as it dies because the cure might kill it.

I agree with you. But there are some Championship clubs that could in theory do what Leigh have done. I am thinking mainly of Halifax - a team that has fallen on hard times but would get the fan base back if they could get sorted. On the other hand, you could argue a club like Salford isn't scalable, despite having a sugar daddy. You just can't ever seeing it get to the next level in terms of support. You have to wonder about Wakefield and Huddersfield after so many years in the top division with all the funding - how far have they progressed?

It will be interesting to see if Leigh can consolidate their position in SL and what happens to their fan base if they do - and will they pick up fringe fans from other local clubs?

Possibly, but the cure's we are talking about are tantamount to slaughtering a goat and hoping the the gods are favourable to us.

There is no evidence in any modern day sporting context that starting from a failing perspective, destroying what you have and expecting to rise like a phoenix from the flames, could work. The nearest I can think of at the moment is ladies football but in essence that is running off the back of football and is still viewed in limited numbers.

You need to start from a solid base, grow from grass roots and get the kids on board. Even then at best we are a minority sport and always will be, there is no place for RL at the top table once we realise this, accept it and size our sport around this fact we will only damage not cure.

Leigh will have the bad the best chance to reclaim fans both last year and in the early parts of this year, coming from a club that was in this position 10 years ago we saw an initial spike, then if you become an also ran it can get pretty dull and you start to lose more than you gain. Saying that they may kick on again and win something, tough ask though

Every example of a sport growing has come from a turning point. A decision to abandon the old ways of doing things and look to a new way. There are many many examples. RU's growth has come from a conscious decision to embrace professionalism and has seen some of the old names fall by the wayside. Darts hs seen huge growth by abandoning the old structure and embracing the PDC structure, NFL literally has a period of its history called the great expansion where teams merged and moved, the NRL fought tooth and nail to keep it a old structures and old fiefdom a but 20 years later has a billion dollars tv contract and an almost carbon copy of the Super League structure they fought so hard against. Even football with its change to the premier league and a deliberate shift from its working class roots to attracting more women and children.

You are right there is no place for us at the top table nobody is going to roll out the red carpet and invite us to it. It's our job to demand one.

You are giving us sure fire recipe for the death of the game. Accepting we are a niche sport and focusing on that niche will leave us focusing on smaller and smaller market and will leave us spiralling. Standing still isn't an option. The world with leave us behind.

It is unarguable fact that our growth comes from people who aren't currently fans of the game. There are an awful lot of them for us to go at and there are huge rewards if we are successful.

Just a question, but would you still be championing this change if Leeds were to miss out on a franchise?

I've said before, it would be brilliant if the game outgrew leeds. If we get to a point where the major European cities are getting 40k a game and Leeds just can't compete I would be the first in line saying lets merge the West Yorkshire clubs and have at least one able to compete.

So that's a no then

I guess if you had some kind of learning difficulties or struggled with basic language and comprehension it could be read as a no.

There's always an ' if '