Just to be clear, I am all for expansion. However, moving clubs will not work because of the reasons I stated. The club moved to Coventry would be in effect the same as just starting a new club in Coventry and relegating the old club to the lower echelons of the league structure.

Salford has few supporters in Salford, so moving the club to Newcastle, and renaming it Newcastle Red Devils would be good for the team.

Wakefield is in a similar situation and would be better off in Coventry where it would have a new fan support base. Coventry-Wakefield Trinity has a nice ring about it.

Only in rugby league could the governing body be obsessed with such a ludicrous idea.

Coventrinity?

Birmingham Devils might be doable although Manchester Devils is more likely and just stay where they are but claim the moving cash.

Move the Bulls to Scotland and rename them Aberdeen Angus?

It simply isn't going to happen, but the names are fun to play with.

It's a crap nicked idea from American sports.

The St Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers both relocated to Los Angeles and the Oakland Raiders want to move to Las Vegas...all that has happened in the last ~18 months. It's happened a number times in America in the past beyond that.

Oakland Raiders were LA Raiders, so they're really being pimped around the place!

Funny you should mention LA.....

Los Angeles, up until last year, was probably the most important city in the NFL. Every team that was in a deadlock with their local government over a new stadium, or stadium upgrade, could simply threaten to move to LA, and use it as a bargaining chip. We've since seen Oakland Raiders do it with Las Vegas, and I'm sure we'll get one soon enough threatening to move to London, Toronto or Mexico City.

I don't think that we'll see a Super League team suddenly become "Coventry Trinity", but I could certainly see a team making such suggestions in order to sharpen the mind an unhelpful councillor or two who really should have done a lot more to enforce a section 106 planning condition. Of course, that threat is pretty empty if the RFL were unlikely to ever approve such a move, but now it would seem that Red Hall would happily wave it through if it ever came to that.

The only question then is how much do those clubs bring to their local economy? If a club doesn't bring any sort of notable value to its town or city, then such a threat probably doesn't carry much weight. If they do, then it does potentially become an economic and political argument. There is currently a lot of pressure on Leeds City Council regarding the situation at Headingley, given the value that interational cricket has on the local economy.

It's a good point that you make about bringing in visitors etc.
Catalan did not have their local authority on board in the early days but, once they saw the opportunity of some decent tourist revenue, they quickly jumped on board.
500/1000 people coming across 11+ times a year will give their economy a boost.
That equates to 30,000 ish hotel beds + spend in the local bars and shops.
Of course, that wouldn't be the case in Barnsley or Sheffield but, if the local councils work with the clubs, there is a chance to boost the local economy with various add on's.

There's a political argument as well. Would any sitting councillor or MP want to stand for re-election having just seen the local rugby team (in some cases in RL land, the only thing that puts that town on the map) up sticks and move on?

I absolutely get that life isn't easy for local authorities at the moment and there's an ethical argument about sports clubs (which are ultimately private enterprises) making demands in the context of everything else councils are dealing with, but a rugby club with 7,000 supporters is a rugby club with 7,000 potential voters - all of whom have something in common.

It just doesn't make sense as an option in the context of our system or any system with P+R

What's the value in buying Wakefield and moving them lock stock and barrell to wherever if by the time you move them or shortly after Wakefield have been relegated?

And if you can buy your way in to super league why not just do that? Why as a sport would we be better off selling Wakefield or Salford or anyone else and moving them to some where else. Why not just sell a new SL spot

Re-locating or omitting new clubs into super league is the best way to expand the game along with franchising.

If Wakefield Wildcats or Salford Red Devil's were to relocate in Coventry or New York, and a new league 1 club formed in Wakefield this would be a positive not a negative.

It concerns me the RFL have absolutely no strategy. In the last two years they have omitted two clubs into league 1 and said they must work their way up through the leagues. They have now announced this isn't necessary and clubs can relocate. Perez could have taken over Bradford, relocated them to Toronto and by-passed league 1. Get a strategy RFL and stop making it up on the hoof.

Dont just pick on Wakefield and Salford.
I'd like Leeds to move as far away as possible

Seriously though, our game just doesn't have a high enough profile to move clubs around.
However, it may just be possible to "sell" a franchise to football club but, without some kind of guarantee of SL status for "x" years, who the hell would invest significant sums of cash on a possible, maybe.

You do wonder where all this emanated from and who is behind it.
Is it some kind of "leak" from HQ or just a speculative journalist.

There a team sat in London the most important city in the country that needs promoting without any rebranding.

I was converted to RL many years ago after growing disillusioned with the direction of top flight football under Sky.

After realising that pound for pound the entertainment was better, I actually started following Saints home and away trying to get to as many games as possible.

It was probably the most enjoyable time I've had for enjoying live sport (been to many football major events etc) and I thought the fact that there was little travelling to do only encouraged me to visit more away grounds.

The one thing I never understood was RFL's attitude towards it's traditional clubs and support. I'm an outsider to the RL family, but I always got the sense that for some reason Featherstone, Leigh, Hull KR etc were somehow seen as expendable in the pursuit of pots of gold at the end of rainbows in Paris, London and Wales.

Seems to be happening again and it's sad to see.

To me the RFL should be looking much closer to home and ensuring that there are no more Bradford style meltdowns.