Well I take your points entirely Ste, However the fact is SL appeared to guarantee there "will be P & R next year" so I just don't see them stepping in in such a crass and damaging way. Sure the Wigan scenario was sneaky but just removing the promotion promised I can't see it at all.

I don't see Mr. Beaumont jumping up and down either, he seems calm enough to go with the flow of competing for an SL place 2022, and his track record is that he's not worried about going mad with the RFL/SL - he hammered them over the unfair lower salary cap for top Championship clubs who had to play Superleague clubs in the MPG.

It smells of Bradford up this coming season 2021 and Leigh up the following year for 2022.. But I suppose Mr. B has to make sure his 2022 side can see off Fev and York. Do you think Mr. B would go mad if they did choose Bulls??

I agree that's what will happen. Mr. B did say if Leigh wasn't the chosen club,then he thinks it should be Toulouse. Would he go mad if it was the Bulls? probably not,just disappointed that it wasn't Leigh.

Thanks. By [i "disappointed it wasn't Leigh" [/i do you mean it (probably won't be) Leigh chosen for a free ride into Superleague?

I'm used to fans saying that they want their club to win promotion not be given it?

Surely a blast through the Championship 2021 will be fun before the hard work begins 2022??

Here are your applications in full with the Public Relations and aren't we blooming wonderful stuff taken out

BRADFORD Proven big achievements in Superleague and one of the best academies going. Ownership group with good personal track records, plan to also bring the "iconic" ground up to scratch.

FEATHERSTONE Excellent ground and facilities built up over the recent years, and if Superleague needs big well attended derbies then Fev.v.Cas and Fev.v. Wakefield will put four of them into the Superleague calendar. Best management of finances in the championship.

LEIGH - We will have a Visible cash investment waiting (not promises), will provide an SL quality squad, and will play at our World Cup facility P.S. If Bradford get in I (Derek) will accept they had a better proposition (even if they didn't!!)

LONDON - Academy expanding the player base in numbers and geography, only just lost their SL status by points difference, London open the game to the national media the club has several partnerships with commercial brands in the pipeline.

YORK - Easy rail access and a great day out in an iconic city that can take in the Rugby and the history. 366 pubs!!!!! £50M stadium complex.

As you can see Derek just about conceded the Bulls are in first......

My take is these are great clubs and it's a shame we can't go to 14 to get several of them in. But if the game slims down to two divisions under the new SKY deal 2020 then the second tier will have some great clubs, and a great competition if they salary cap it......

Your take may see some of this as very good points and some of this as flim-flam. You choose which club it should be.............

(source

You conveniently left out Toulouse.

As someone who claims to be subjective and moral compass of the forum, why the obvious bias.

Read my post again, I said.............

with the Public Relations and aren't we blooming wonderful stuff taken out

Once I took the guff out about "Strong player development" "A beautiful stadium", "A major city" "A trip to be remembered in the pink city"......

I came to the "High quality stadium 18,784 capacity" and I thought what's the capacity do with anything when TO's two play off games only attracted a paltry 1,000 fans apiece?

Nothing in the application was of any possible real value to SL. Not just that stuff above, they don't have a TV deal, but they indicated would get on once in Superleague. I've heard that every year for years from them... Where is it?


.

In fairness, that is the extent of York’s bid too.

They’ve got a train station and a nice city for a day out. New fancy stadium of course but I don’t think that will be enough.

Yes of course.....York claimed to have 366 pubs, and I failed to see how that was at all relevant. I have this idea that even clubs like Workington have some wonderful local pubs. I know I'd love a train ride to York but have done that many times. A train ride up to the Cumbrian coast and some Cumbrian ale though would be fantastic. Town for Superleague

He did......

Richard Lewis felt International RL was the way forward for the game hence Catalans were lifted into the Superleague in 2006 when they tried out a total of 21 French players in readiness for the return of the Great Britain.v.France test matches.

2007 saw that return at Headingley, that was a one sided affair with France eventually overwhelmed. Of course this was given time to build, a lot of time to build, and when Toulouse asked to come in to join Catalans Lenegan certainly told them they had to develop "capable" professional SL level French players. This was obviously in the hope two French clubs may have just underpinned at least a competetive French International test team.

But as we see now, both Les Catalans and Toulouse build their teams around a strong core of Antipodean and English players. 2006 is 14 years ago and in that 14 years the number of quality of French players has actually gone down Few are first picks for Superleague clubs.

So sadly these two iconic French clubs could only go forward in Superleague by fielding Anglo Aussie teams. But the second real problem is that neither provide any TV revenue let alone top players, yet quite a number of people keep blurting out "Toulouse" for the 2021 12th. place.

This phenomenon of people supporting clubs for inclusion in SL that have no value at all to Superlague (see Elstone's report) , has been evident since they felt Toronto Wolfpack was the future of the game back in 2016. Romanticism is fine by me, but we do need hard headed business decisions on these matters........

You say hard headed business decisions are needed, but you continue to champion Bradford as team 12.

A bit of a contradiction.

Here are some crowds

Bradford.v.Leeds 24,020...............Touluse.v.York 650
Leeds,v,Bradford 21,666..............Touluse.v. Featherstone 1068
Saints.v.Bradford 15,042..............Toulouse.v. Hunslet 645
Bradford.v.Wigan 17,267.............. Touluse.v.Batley 868
Hull.v. Bradford 14,124.............. Toulose.v.Barrow 602........................................Bit of a difference

That's easy. The answer to those two questions are 476 times and None.