well thats the difference between "profit" and cold hard cash. They generated 1 million profit this year by some means or other (in part writing off director loans?) - having the cash going forward is another matter altogether.

"No debt" does not equal "Has money"!

Ignoring ALL threads and posts where this has been explained I see.

FFS Haven't you lot got something more important to worry about? Lose tonight and you can just keep out of all franchise discussions and let the big boys talk!

if you actually bother to fully assimilate the information available on this topic you will see that Thacks has been offered contracts with superleague clubs we simply cannot match, given the **** poor excuse for a salary cap in the championship, the VIQI involvement is to raise money to fund his role as a community development officer, which does not count to the salary cap and would bring his wages overall into line with the offers made by super league clubs. and before anyone shats themselves over that, its nothing new and every club does it with a number of players.
also, why would you go splashing the cash if your almost certain to want that money in 12 months to sign some superleague smashing beasts?

I would welcome Widnes back into SL, but they only better the above mentioned teams on the stadium, if we are to throw anyone out purely based on the stadium they have, its a poor way to run a sport. The criteria must be broader than that.

Personally, I would opt for P&R, always have, always will, it's the fairest method to be judged on, being old school I don't have a problem watching my rugby in any ground as its not the bogs, bars and restaraunts I go for.

Widnes deserve a shot at it, as do other clubs and if they are not going to expand then its the poorest team over the franchise that should be thrown out, not the one whos baby changing facilities don't match Mothercares.

i believe youth is another major factor.. we have very very good youngsters..

Money, we have lots of.. so its not mainly due to the stadium now is it?

Has news of the "salary cap" not reached Leigh yet? They could have made £10m profit and not been able to keep their star players.

All we need to send is our name and address , that is enough for them to make a decision

Especially now that we don't qualify to apply

The question isn't whether Widnes have a very good youth system it's about whether that youth system is better than 14 other clubs.

Use the same measure on all the other assessable criteria such as community work etc

If you use the results of the Under 18s and Under 16s Academies this current season then yes, yes it is!

I'm with you on most of this, except the bit about franchising being good for SL. I haven't seen any improvements as a result of it.
I think franchising is killing the game below SL, without bringing any tangible benefit.

I predicted around 1,750 for our match against Sheffield , we had just over 1,500 on , and the reaction to us losing was more indifference than real disappointment , yes a day out in Warrington on the beer would have been nice , but it still would not have meant much really , in fact in some respects , to actually win the final and not be able to go up as we did last time would be incredibly frustrating

I expect Fax to win it this year , and I know they will feel ' cheated ' if they do

SL just gets better and better

And who can blame them

If only it did.

I am.


So I think it's done nothing to improve SL, you think it's done nothing to damage SL. That rather suggests that the effect of franchising on SL is largely neutral. Therefore I would argue whether it's "a good thing" or not is all about it's effect outside SL.


Falling crowds, clubs going bust, lacklustre Championship GF, I'd say there's plenty of evidence of damage being done outside SL.

It's all very well saying that the clubs need to market themselves etc, but it's very difficult to persuade people to watch a losing team or a team that is perceived as having "nothing to play for". You can argue that the perception is irrantional, but watching team sport is irrational. A lot of us turn up to watch teams who realistically only have the slimmest chance of winning a prize, but we still do it because there is a chance, however small.

Whether you like it or not, in the lower leagues the prize is promotion. Imagine if we turned up to watch Quins but were told at the start of the season that even if we topped the league and won the GF we wouldn't get the trophy, how many fans would keep turning up? (and by the way this isn't a cue for another of your rants about marketing, we all know that Quins couldn't market free booze to an alchoholic). I'm willing to bet that even the die hards who are turning up now would start to dwindle in number.

What franchising has done to the Championship is take away that slim little chance of the prize that every club starts the season with. That irrantional hope that fans hang on to. The denial of that hope is what's causing the damage.