I can see no obvious reasons.

I think they'll announce all 14 successful applicants for licenses around June/july 2011, just as they did in 2008, whether those clubs are in the Championship or SL at the time.

A club moving into SL for three years from the Championship needs time to prepare, true – but so will any club moving into the Championship for three years from SL.


riots? wtf??

Yeah, you've seen how Cas fans get after a few bad refereeing decisions so how do you think they'd act at games if they got kicked out of SL?

The difference being that they weren't removing any clubs from SL - just adding 2 new ones. The only controversy was Crusaders ahead of Widnes - whether you think it was a good reason or not, there was a logical argument for this. The Widnes club reacted with dignity, and there is a good chance their patience will be rewarded this time around. Depriving a club of their current status is going to be more controversial, and it is going to ruin the last 1/3 of somebody's season, throwing players' futures and that of the club into doubt. There is no way around it and riots is a bit ott, but there will certainly be anger.

The RFL have confirmed that at least one Championship club will get a licence.

They have never said that a current SL club would lose it's place in order to accommodate them.

However, the recent decision by the SL clubs to remain at a 14 club league kind of means that's now a certainty to happen.

I think so too.Both clubs,the one 'promoted' and the one 'relegated' need to know where they stand as early as possible.

Even under P&R clubs, players and fans knew they were going down half-way through the season (Halifax definitely, Leigh …). Yes some people will be upset. And every club has a few morons around it.
It won't make the situation any easier to leave 13 clubs in doubt for a full half a season and then drop it as a bombshell on one or more clubs that they're leaving the league on the last day.

Remember - no club has a licence for 2012-15, leaving them all in the dark (except for those successful applicants from outside the current SL) until the end of the 2011 season would be a recipe for disaster

I agree. Fans understood and accepted P&R a little better though. There are plenty of pros to licensing, but I think this is one clear con. Also a relegated club could hope for promotion, it was achieveable in a way that self-funding a new stadium in the championship is not. Been booted out will have a sense of finality about it, I fear. Doing best and doing right aren't always the same and no system is perfect.

There was definately some missive from the RFL stating that clubs can only move up or down the license grades by one step at a time. I read into that, that any club with an A license last time must get at least a B license this time. The implication being that there are already clubs which know they are in next time. If that is correct then presumably any club with an A or B license last time will be in and those clubs with a C license are the ones whose places are uncertain.

A sensible reply Rover.
SL has created a massive gap between it and the rest, that gap is sustained by income. Income is driven by gates, sponsorship and sky. All of these work against the best opposition/biggest names. If a club has spent all its life or so outside SL it will be, at the time of replacing the SL club, behind that club in all things. At the next franchise debacle that now SL club will be well beyond the club it replaced, if indeed that club still existed.
You cannot market a non promotion comp to all but the diehards, gates are showing that this year.
You cannot compete with a SL club for the best juniors, unless you know you are up.
You cannot market against a SL club, you dont have the product and cant afford the expertese.
You will rely on a benefactor to survive outside SL, even in SL for some.

Should a SL club lose a franchise they will struggle to stay alive, should a Champ club go for a licence and fail it will struggle to survive, that is the reality of franchising. Get rid before it kills the game for too many.

Too bad.Halifax,Leigh,,Cas and Salford have all lost SL status in recent years and are still around.I hope the RL rules with their head and not their heart and ignores any pleas for mercy because a club would struggle to survive in the championship.Perhaps if any particular club would struggle to survive in the lower league for 3 years then it doesn't deserve to be carried by SL clubs anyway.This is now the dog eat dog attitude of RL in the UK so clubs can't be just happy to go along with it when on the inner but complain when on the outer.

i cant help but think that the sport is about to make its self look stupid again by relegating a team half way up superleague and promoting a team halfway down the championship table.

how does this look to the outside world???

Maybe, but that would leave us with only a handful of Super League clubs.

That was before franchising. Also I don't think there is the luxury of some form of parachute payment as before which basically allowed the relegated club promotion back the following year. I am pretty sure back then when those clubs you mentioned went down, there was more funding to the lower divisions than there is now.