Never mind that - where are you going to fit a 34 week regular season, playoffs, Challenge Cup and representative games into the calendar?

See: NRL

Widnes were treated very shoddily by the RL when they were relegated,as they did not finish bottom.

For "not enough players for 14 teams", please now read -"There'll be less money to go round so my club may go bust, cos it's all about my club, not the sport don't ya know"

for "There'll be less money to go round so my club may go bust, cos it's all about my club, not the sport don't ya know" please now read "for some reason I am ignoring basic economics. For some reason I think that having the same money shared between more clubs in a league which has to import a huge portion of its players wont mean that we need to import more players, wont mean that each club has less money to spend on these players, and on the players it is bringing through, which somehow, in my confused head anyway, wont mean that we will be having more players of a lower standard in the league which brings down the overall quality of the league and this definitely isnt a bad thing, in fact sod it, im wrong, these things will definitely happen but my club will never be strong enough to be one of the top 14 clubs again but it may be strong enough to be one of the top 18 clubs so I hope this happens because my club will benefit but if anyone asks its an altruistic act based on what I pretend is in the best interests of the game but clearly and obviously isnt"

yet you use the exact same argument to defend Hull Kingston Australia and their team of Australians.

The two league thing is never going to work. Firstly the TV money would not increase so clubs would get less money. This current league there are only two or three clubs making profit year on year so you have to ask how many clubs would go bust if this were to happen? Then you have the decision of which league teams were in, how do you make it different year on year? Do you have a draft? How do you then do the end of season games? Top 4 from each league have a mini league??

It would be so much change there would be too many teething problems for it to go smoothly and new supporters would not put up with it for long. The ones that have been around a long time would just accept it and carry on but those are a dying breed.

I won't mind if Widnes are given a green light but I do think it needs to be revised that the club coming up needs to be competative for the 3yrs and not just do well one year then relax. A deffinate learning curve for the RFL, just got to hope they are learning!!!

The simple answer to the problem of having a team qualify to bid in the first year and be strong enough to relax and wait is to not have an arbitrary and pointless timescale.

Clubs are admitted when they can contribute to the league. Sky will be happy to pay a little more to the league to admit another club in a position to contribute. Whether thats in 1/2/3/4/5 or 10 years time. That club is then given 2 years - 18 months notice of their acceptance before moving up.

They do this independently of any other club. Whether or not Wakefield or Castleford or HKA or Salford or whoever are struggling.

And Wakefield and Castleford and HKA and Salford and Quins and Crusaders place in SL is dependent solely on what they are doing. None of this Wakefield being slightly worse than Castleford so they go down rubbish. Wakefield go down if Wakefield stop being able to contribute to the league. If they arent able to show a realistic plan of action in a short-medium time frame to take them from where they are to where they need to be, and show the security to do it, we drop them. If they can, we keep them.

Smokey, my club is not good enough to be in super league yet. Not too bothered by that, especially when it is populated by people like your good self. You cant fault them for trying though - there would be even less point of supporting an unambitious championship club!

Had much respect for all you achieved in the game once upon a time, now you're coming across as a bit of a pompous hypocrite, just a little insult back, lets hope thats the end of it

Finally some sense. Good post

The RFL made a rod for their own back saying they would promote a championship club this time round. Are any of them really gonna be better than the club they replace?

They finished in a relegation spot. They knew going into the 2005 competition that two teams would be relegated. They agreed to that. They weren't treated shabbily.

Aside from the satdium do Widnes offer anything that Wakefield don't?

well, we wont know the answer to that for 3-6 years. if not longer. thats the point of franchising (if your not a conspiracy theorist that is) did wakefield or Cas really ad anything to the league in the first year or two when they were promoted? did catalans? crusaders? the answer to all is the same, NO. frankly its insane to expect a newly promoted team to 'offer' anything in terms of being competitive, not at first anyway.

that being so, widnes can offer what will without a doubt be huge away support at the likes of wigan, warrington and st helens and all the great rivalries that come with it. they can offer a chairman with drive and importantly, the means to get this club where he wants it to be.
they can offer the biggest support of any club in the championship and showed last time in superleague that many more will come to watch them play in superleague.
a sponsorship portfolio many chairmen would jizz over, a first class academy system.
so i believe the answer to your question is No, not initially on the pitch but that will come, and Yes in terms of everything else they can offer. its certainly no worse than many in superdooperleague.

Solvency?