leicester were once very close to bidding for a SL license 5 years or so ago.

going back over history :

soccer had a succesful FA cup and was national but weak in the north

however the success of the FA cup allowed 2 RL clubs to convert over

ie manningham > braford city
holbeck NU > Leeds

so unless something is 100% exactly the same as before, its not relevant huh?

i think whats happened in the past is very relevant

i also think whats happening at wrexham is also relevant

there are many clubs in other codes which are lagging in areas which the sport of RL wants to get too

as the game grows i expect these clubs to want a SL license

rather than setting up new clubs, this is a much easier option

The Wrexham situation is different to most though - bordering on the RL homelands, huge ground that is underused, and a largely disgruntled RU fanbase. I don't think there is an equivalent anywhere else in the country.

I think Dally's right. New entrants to SL will be either existing Championship/French clubs or new "expansion" clubs partnering Rugby Union or Football clubs. This is the lowest risk expansion option.

As we've seen with The Crusaders this can be achieved and the partnering entities can remain independent. Shared resources such as stadium, marketing, ticketing, administration, training facilities etc make this route the most financially and operationally viable.

Given the West Coast Eagles are bigger than any NRL club I wonder if Dally would welcome them making a bid for a Perth NRL franchise?

When you take away the inaccurate and irrelevant facts as well as the hypocrisy and contradictory opinions given by the OP, there isn't really much point in contributing to this thread, so I'll leave it at that!

Don't then, it's a fair point.
It's wrong, but it has been discussed before

in the times i mentioned "rugby" was the dominant sport of the north by a long way but it lost its hold largely because of the FA cup and the RFU

Dally - possibly your most inaccurate statement on here, ever.

First Southern club to win football league was Arsenal in 1931, 40+ years after the start of the league. After the formation of the football league in 1882, the only Southern team to win the FA Cup in the next 40 years was (non-league) Spurs.

Rugby was the dominant sport in Yorkshire for a while, it was certainly never the dominant sport in the wider North of England.

manchester and liverpool were once bastions of rugby too

up until the war or a bit before, all of yorky and park of lancs were still dominated by league too

I've often thought it makes business sense for Huge Union clubs such as Leicester and Gloucester to seek to utilise their facilities all year. Either would get 5k watching a league franchise I'm sure in much the same way as Leeds Carnegie, plonked in a town that frankly doesn't give much of a damn, still musters 5k to turn up.

What would that achieve though? 5k is nowhere near good enough for Super League, any youngsters would be signed to the Union club and League would always be the poor relation. It would be a pointless waste of time that would devalue Super League.