why dont you want a modern stadium? they benefit everyone.
and who cares what the FA say? Wigan have a longterm lease so if the FA made some rule as you say wigan football club would either have to build themselves or Wigan RL a new stadium. I imagine the same is true at Hull and Huddersfield

Oh dear....61 posts in and you've shown you have no grasp of what is going on outside the M62 Corridor
Yes,,,,,,FulhamCrusaderBroncoQuins have terrible crowds......thank you for stating the obvious, but in every other aspect of the game, League is getting stronger every year. As for your quip about Australians........check out which team has still got "quota" spots spare....oh, and 3 current England internationals on their books, 2 of them Cockney.
The development of young players does not happen overnight and for Tony Clubb and LMS to have broken into the international set up is a sure sign that RL in London is working.
On the subject of crowds....before you decide to use that as your only yard stick.......there are some fans of traditional Heartland clubs that could do with looking at their own clubs average before lambasting Harlequins RL. Sometimes I think some flat cappers are glad that Catalan, Celtic and Quins are in SL......it distracts people from their own clubs short comings.

going back to 12 teams would be a massive backwards step IMO. Apart from Celtic the other 13 teams last season were 'competitive' and that can only improve as the 14 team league develops.

I used to hate the 12 team, play some teams 3 times, others twice, format as it was boring seeing the same teams over and over again.

if they want to cut pointless games they can start with axing the magic weekend

Let's give the system a chance to work before we change it. For it to work, I hope the franchise guidelines are followed which could see some 'big' clubs lose their licence before Quins or Crusaders.

That doesn't save 2.4 million to be divvied up to reduce debts

What bothers me is this quote from Nigel Wood "We are close to finalising the criteria that will determine which clubs will be awarded a Super League licence from the 2012 season onwards,".

Now, I thought that for 2012 we were using the already published 10 point criteria, which has not yet been used.

What is the point of publishing a list of criteria, which the clubs will presumeably use as the basis for their operations (in order to meet with the RFL's requirements) only for the RFL to say (with 12 months to go until the new round of bids) all that's going to change! WTF!

How can any club plan on that basis? How on earth can targets be met if, as the deadlines are rapidly approaching, the RFL change the targets? These are not things which can be changed much in five minutes, it takes planning and organisation and time and money.

The move to cut clubs from 14 to 12 would be disasterous. The game just isn't strong enough to be losing top level clubs and isolating more of it's supporters from top flight rugby.

Anything devised by Nigel 'Blue Sox' Wood is likely to flounder at the firts, but the RFL have been market leaders in making their brand look ridiculous to the average sports fan, whilst alienating core support.

To lose the likes of Cas to any pipe dream would be a crime, particularly if it is to sustain the cowbouy outfit in Wales which has been a painful lesson in poor planning, decision making and politics.

Cutting the league would be stupid, going back to having 4 or more derbies just ruins them. If nothing major changes come fanchise renewal time, i would drop Salford for Widnes. There are probably too many West yorks clubs, but they are performing on the pitch so it would be unfair to drop them, IMO

I agree with it, get rid of them.

Cut Salford and Wakefield now without even thining about it, they offer nothing. Crusaders have to prove their viability of they should go to.

I suspect any new criteria will support the package that Sky wants to show.

Which is very worrying

But that counts for very little in RL these days.

I think that SL should be cut back to 12 teams or the reduction on import numbers be reversed, simply because I do not believe that there is enough quality players in the league to support 14 top flight teams. We've cut back on overseas players (our first mistake) which has ment our talent pool has decreased, not increased. I know lots of the "it's the overseas player's fault we never beat the aussies" crowd were convinced that a drop in overseas players would see 3,000,000 young british superstars suddenly burst into the game, no longer held back by the overseas player glass celing. but suprise, suprise, that has not happend. Super League, IMO, is a less competitive competition than it was a few years ago. Leeds' dominance in the GF is evidence of that. That's not to knock the Rhinos, they've been the best team in the competition. However the rest of the league has been a bad bunch.

The increase in teams and decrease in availible players was always going to be a mistake. How can you have more teams with less players? Basic maths would tell you that was going to be stupid.

The move to 12 appears to be gathering support. With 9/10 clubs confident of being in the 12. The prospect of an extra £150 - 200K per year is far too tempting.

Given at least one team will be elevated that means 3 current teams to go. Crusaders are bound to be favourite to drop. That leaves 2 slots!