I do plenty to "spread the game" and for you to suggest that i drag it down at every oppurtunity because just like you i have an opinion on an important topic is both insulting and ridiculous.
Just out of interest how long does it take for our sport to grow and would it not grow quicker and better if all the teams had more finances available to them and if you are hearing SL mentioned in the media more often than you ever have, then why has this not translated into real Major Sponsorship and commercial oppurtunities.
The culture as you call it of British Sport is very often viewed around the world as a load of drunken yobs beating the crap out of each other in the name of sporting rivalry so dont use that as a reason why Franchising wont work in this country.A point well illustrated at Wakefield recently.Hey,but it got SL in the media though.How does that work for the image you say is so important.

And the rest of us have got dodgy prostates

It would be great if we had more money in the game, reducing the number of clubs and games can only reduce the money out clubs have. We can't get sponsorship unless companies have money and want to spend it. What's Barwick supposed to do? Get the CEO of Barclays in a head lock until he agrees to give us some money?

British fans may well be seen as drunken yobs in other countries, but if we want to grow the Superleague it's the British fans that need convincing, not overseas ones. Last time I checked we don't have any Superleague teams in America and maybe we should start looking at how sports have become successful in this country rather than in other countries.

I can't see how having spent a number of years competing in a full-time competition prepares you for assembling a squad of part-time players from scratch, restructuring the club and carrying out a preseason in about half the time the clubs already in the lower division have had to assemble their squads, but that's not really the point. Having the Championship season end early to accommodate the needs of the promoted club handicaps the relegated club, whether that club is better equipped to handle the transition or not. Most of the better part-time players will already have been snapped up when they come to start recruiting, for example.

In addition, by the way, finishing the Championship season in July means the promoted club goes six months without any income.

So, if finishing the Championship season early, as the other poster suggested, is the best way to handle P&R, the other ways must be dreadful. This suggests to me that automatic P&R between a part-time division and the sports's full-time top flight just isn't viable.

Previous evidence suggests that teams relegated from SL have not had much of a problem putting a competitive team together for Championship rugby.




That's only a problem if we want it to be. It would be easy to give the promoted team a payment to cover an extended period without games.




But it can be, if we want it to be, it's not really that difficult.

What's happened in the past isn't relevant here because, as far as I can recall, there's never been a situation where the Championship season started and finished months before the SL season. We're talking about whether the relegated club is handicapped in putting a team together when they are given half the time the existing clubs in the Championship are given, and start much later. They are, surely.


Where does this money come from? If the RFL is so awash with money, it can afford to fund a club for half a year, I can think of better things they could put that money to.


It [iis[/i that difficult. There's a huge gap between the part-time and the full-time game, and wishing that gap away won't make it happen. We should be looking to narrow that gap considerably before bringing P&R back in [iany[/i form, but that involves increasing income and spreading that income more evenly. The first part of this seems to be beyond the RFL, so it's jumped straight to the money shot.

Interestingly, there was a posting on TotalRL a few weeks ago by Martyn Sadler, the editor of League Express, concerning a conference he'd been to about sports marketing. He asked about Rugby League and they said the sport has a good profile and is popular, but massively undersells itself. Surely, the RFL should be addressing this first before it even thinks about P&R.

You mean like back in 2001 , when Widnes were promoted in July and finished 7 th in SL the following year ?

Licensing in RL is fine... if your team has a licence.

Imagine trying to keep your 10,000+ crowds if your team had it's SL licence revoked?

Get real, most folk like to follow successful teams... apart from the real hard-core who'll follow their team through thick and thin come what may.

I've followed Fax for nearly 40 years and would never contemplate supporting another team... ever.

The same could be said for pretty much any system. Why specifically are we trying to shoe-horn P+R in and force that to be viable

P&R between a pt league and a ft league will never work. Why do we insist on repeating mistakes of the past?

It worked for Hull KR, and no one says it has to be a part time league, Cas stayed full time to get out and that worked too.

Oh. OK. Not sure how this is relevant to the plight of the relegated club, but well done Widnes 2001. Go Vikings!

The current salary cap in the Championship pretty much precludes any club operating a full-time squad. Are you saying that cap is to be abolished? If so, I think we'll all need some anti-whinging ear protectors, particularly if some form of parachute payment is brought into the equation.

Aren't you a Hull KR fan ??? I'd wager this wasn't your opinion when HKR were in NL1.

This is the Hull KR that have lost millions, came up through a business model they themselves has said is unsustainable and have spent the last few years complaining that they can’t afford it, and only this year had their chairmen ask why he should bother to fund the losses they were making when they couldn’t compete at the top?

And the Cas that have lost millions, have a boardroom shifting from crisis to disaster, a stadium which isn’t fit for the 20th century never mind the 21st, and are propped up by Jack Fulton?