I'm guessing you didn't read the FFR's report on how switching to summer would kill their league off before you started posting nonsense ideas.

A competition involving some championship clubs and French Elite clubs would be very popular (in France at least). May would be the obvious time to play it.

The Treize Tournoi (which didn't even feature Toulouse or XIII Catalan) got 10K+ for the final against Lancashire Lynx.

Ring them up and ask ?

You are quite correct , I don't remember seeing any report stating the French move to a summer season , could you provide a link suggesting they considering it ?

i didnt say anywhere there was a report. I simply stated it as part of the hypothetical situation you are currently discussing (which also doesnt have any report behind it but for some reason that part doesnt seem to bother you)

Ahh , if were talking ' hypothetically ' , then anything is possible , highly unlikely , but possible

I thought we were discussing scenarios actually within reasonable current structures , that didn't involve telling other countries to change their whole playing history

Anyway , what did Jet 2 say ?

So it wouldnt be reasonable to expect that two conferences within the same division would play at the same time? seems obvious it would be unworkable otherwise doesnt it.

they said sure why not.

I was replying to Wheels idea , not yours , he was suggesting a play off for a Euro Cup as an extra comp

An extra few (sustainable) clubs at the S.Wales/Skolars/Gateshead level would be brilliant - especially if some of them can then push on to say a Sheffield Eagles level of crowds & playing strength. They'd need to be about more than just getting 17 semi-pro players onto a bus every couple of weeks though.

which would obviously still need the seasons to run at the same time. You cant have the play-offs in the middle of the season can you. Which makes me wonder why you started asking such preposterous questions.

I wasn't the one making the preposterous suggestion , I was the one pointing out how preposterous it was

Aaawww you really believe that dont you?

Myself and Wheels were doing fine until you butted in , we knew exactly what we were discussing

interesting view on the point but I have to challenge you on a couple of points... Wests and Balmain merged in name only... in truth both of those clubs still exist playing in the lower feeder leagues and are still followed by the traditional fans of the clubs. Wests Tigers was in essence a new club... with a big geographical catchment area, the downside of that for me would be to try to answer the question "where is Wests Tigers home ground?"... If both clubs were averaging 6 -10 k haome gates.. should not a welcoming fan base have meant an immediate 12 - 20k average gate... what happened to all those missing people?

I work with older Magpies fans and know a some Balmain fans and very few of them give a monkeys about Wests Tigers... for the most part the new club built up a new fanbase in the growing western suburbs, hence the increase in gates... The Tigers now have a life of their own, and are successful... but it is not a successful merger... not by any description.

As for St George Illawarra.... little more thgan a takeover of the steelers catchment with an odd token game played in the [iGong[/i.... the Northern Eagles basically saw the end of the great North Sydney Dynasty, even the residual club are struggling now.

In the UK Hull/Gateshead and Huddersfield/Sheffield both sacrificed a failing development club to prop up an ailing giant of the game... and both Hudds and Hull have gone from strength to strength on the back of that central support, but the cities and fans of Gateshead and Sheffield gained nothing from the deal.

Structured development yes... mergers no not for me!!

Oh and one final point... I am sick of the franchise process causing vitriol between fans and I am sick of feeling ill of other clubs and wishing their financial ruin because of the underlying feeling that if they fail, my club stands a better change of surviving in the superleague... I am sick of watching games knowing that whatever we do on the pitch may (and probably will not) make any difference to our position in the league.. It takes away from the enjoyment of the game.