My apologies for that Jacques, No offence but Wakefield must really punch below their weight.
I thought
London
Birmingham
Leeds
Sheffield
Bradford
Liverpool
Manchester
Leicester
Bristol
Coventry
And half a dozen other places were bigger than Wakey but I guess it all depends on where you draw the boundaries, you have included Castleford which goes against my point of separating the Clubs.

Maybe Wakeys population reflects poorly on their ability to draw a larger crowd and compete at a far higher level than they have in recent times.

I didnt draw up the boundaries and invent the figures.
Look it up on net.
Eg . Population of cities England.
For what its worth the actual urban area of Wakefield is comparable to that of the urban area of Wigan.
Wakefield 77000 Wigan 81000 both rounded to nearest thousand.

I'm assuming you meant Wakey is the 5th largest city in the county ....

The 300k total population is misleading - there's more like 60,000 bods actually in Wakefield itself ....

www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/ 11th by this source

www.ukcities.co.uk/populations/ 11th by this source

Oh goody, another population argument...

Yeah my mistake.
11th it is.
But the point being made stands re.potential regards population.

Think alot of people are surprised it is that high and with no professional football club in the area the potential as you say is there.

Wakefield 80k
Castleford 40k
Pontefract 40k
Normanton 15k
fev 15k
Knottingley & Ferrybridge 20k

All fall into Wakefield council but are not, never have been, never will be Wakefiled.
i live in Knottingley and apart from work never go to Wakefield for anything. rather go shopping and socializing in Leeds, York, And Even Doncaster before going to wakey.
wdc is a joke council and would much prefer Castleford Pontefract and Knottingley on its own or even throw are lot in with Selby council.

What Rugby League has lost throughout the Super League era is most definitely a sense of authenticity. The americanised vision the era attributed towards this in the most part: the changing of team names, the inclusion of foam fingers and "try or "no try" cards has left the sport's strong following by deviating away from the similarities which has kept football's crowds mainly unaffected by austerity. There's no connection with the sport's great history, or tradition and people feel alienated because of it and the crowds suffer.

This present gap between Australia's salary cap and ours is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of teams being forced into this position of having to play their own home-grown talent and to focus on improving the quality of the national side and international stage of Rugby League.

What we should do is reduce the Super League down to 10 teams, play each other twice, top four are included in a play-off where 1 v 4, 2 v 3 and the winners face each other in the final.

A completely new level of competitiveness will be introduced, teams will no longer go easy at any point in the season and every game will have meaning. Consistency will be rewarded to the extent of being in the playoffs come the end of the season. In a 10 team league with all of them above average in quality, this competitive edge with last throughout the full season and can only help develop these young players which we will see on the scene more at present.

Let's erase these animals off the end of our clubs names, bring back traditional colours and team names and encourage fans to enjoy the authenticity and tradition of this sport once again in the improved competitive 10 team league that mainly develops our own young players. It's the perfect opportunity to also bring back Great Britain. An international team which people actually recognise from the past when we were somewhat competitive with the Aussies, and a name which has increased relevance because of the recent London Olympics and its success.

If we could introduce this league and develop our own players, we could beat Australia and New Zealand, improve the international side of the game, introduce the sport into the Olympics and the whole thing will thrive.

I can wish.

Good post - but your suggested top division is just the top of the RL pyramid structure. What would you suggest for the leagues below this elite level? We need a strong pyramid structure to facilitate and motivate more people to play the game and thereby create a strong foundation for the elite level.

Next years NRL salary cap is expected to be about 3.5mill pounds
5 years ago it was around 1.4mill pounds

The Aussie and Kiwi player train is running out of steam. I expect plenty of scouting to be going on with the PI and PNG teams at the next world cup.

If we can get the salary cap in this country scrapped and the structure of the game right, we can catch up to Australia over the next 5 to 10 years and then, ultimately, dominate again. Our population is 4 times theirs and there should be no reason for us not to be able to achieve this - so long as we stop tinkering with the structure and let all our clubs get on with making themselves successful.

That sounds great, but unfortunately our clubs have a habit of making themselves poor, instead of successful.
The income is what makes a team big, not the performance.
If crowds come in, and pay the money, and sponsorship is big enough, then the team will be big.
There is more money in the Aussie game. That is why they can spend more.

Getting rid of our salary cap will not suddenly create money for clubs to pay their big players.

My mate has just finished working for me on £40K per year and is moving to Perth Aus on £178K per year for a similar job working for the same company.

Cost of living down there is very expensive. There is no apple against apple comparison.

Off the topic a bit but interesting to look at that list- neither rugby code seems to have any real traction in about 40% of those places (if some of the periphery), and limited in two of them I'd argue.