I don't get how the standards are primary in my suggestion and secondary in, say, football. If a football club ever got denied promotion on standards (I'm sure it's happened between Conference and the Football League) would people still say it's secondary?

You've got to have it on the field as well as off it. To me, they're equal. The team with the best off-the-field stuff don't get promoted in the system I suggested, which means it is not primary.

Professional sport people. On and off the field. Not just one or the other.

Quote: Hedgehog King "And I don't see any French candidates either (unless Paris gets off the ground).'" FC Lézignan - French champions for past two seasons, say they want to join the championship. www.lindependant.com/articles/20 ... -80583.php Doesn't seem like it's a good idea - the town is about the size of Featherstone and it would further weaken the French Elite.

Quote: Hedgehog King "And I don't see any French candidates either (unless Paris gets off the ground).'" FC Lézignan - French champions for past two seasons, say they want to join the championship. www.lindependant.com/articles/20 ... -80583.php Doesn't seem like it's a good idea - the town is about the size of Featherstone and it would further weaken the French Elite.

Carcassonne, Lezignan and Limoux are three of the top 4 French Elite teams (the other is Pia from near Perpignan) and they are all close to each other in the Aude department so between them they could sustain a Championship side. May be difficult for them to go up to SL though and could be the death knell of the French Elite unless they all run separate sides there. Likewise Vaucluse (Avignon and Carpentras) could possibly get a side out, but this is less suitable. If I'm honest I'd rather see once Toulouse go up to SL (hopefully when they're ready) them have the Championship and French Elite as parallel leagues but it may be too difficult and a 14 team franchise Championship with 12 English and 2 French teams may be an alternative (automatic promotion and relegation between Championship and C1 is very destructive)

Promotion has only ever been denied on safety grounds (I think Stevenage were the last, and they've since gone on to redevelop their ground) rather than how many fans they attract, what their business plan, whether they have any famous fans etc etc

Which is why Hunslet and Dewsbury were denied, no? Their grounds weren't up to SL standard and so safety issues arose.

Nowhere did I mention anything about number of fans, business plans or famous fans. We're talking about P&R, not licensing. It's a totally different issue.

The top 3 divisions are national. While the third tier could do with being nationalised, to regionalise the top tier would kill it off as the standard gaps would just see teams folding all the time until there's not enough to even run one division. Likewise with some of the 2nd tier teams.

If they were to look towards merged/regional sides in the Championship for a couple of heartland regions (which I'm not convinced is the way forward, but if we're going to go with French teams in the Championship it shouldn't just be for Toulouse and it does need more teams and some kind of licensing) then the start of the Elite 1 would fall low enough for it to merge with the top half of Elite 2, and allow the bottom half of Elite 2 to join National 1 in two regionalised divisions.

I wanted to see a strong Elite 1 but that chance has gone so this may be the only way forward, but only if we can get funding for the travelling (and I guess only 2 French teams at a time to stop the travelling being too much for Championship sides)

The standards gap would be the major issue, but if you promoted another side, then like you said, the top players would gravitate towards the higher level. If you set a lower salary cap then maybe the players would spread out also (mind you, at semi-pro level the salary cap is pretty hard to police).

Regional sides could be a way to go, but would they be supported? Catalans are an example of a successful merged side. What other clubs/regions could even be considered to have that sort of potential? Aude seems to have gone quiet now,

Interesting that on a pro-expansion thread neither Smokey TA nor Dally are anywhere to be seen despite claiming to care about expansion

Capéur le flatté

what would you like me to say?

there are no current amateur clubs in a position to make the step up

any other club would simply be picked from thin air, and whilst its nice to think about clubs in these places, if no one wants to fund them they dont exist