My possible SL for 2021 expanded to 14 teams Jean :-

Leeds Rhinos
Bradford Bulls
Castleford Tigers
Manchester Reds
Hull Sharks
London Storm
Wigan Warriors
St Helens
Warrington
Cumbria Bravehearts

Catalans Dragons
Toulouse Olympique

Toronto Wolves
Montreal Canadiens

The Cumbrian franchise would go well in Carlisle. Manchester likewise in Salford. Newcastle doesn't have a supporter base.

Is franchising making a return then?

Wouldn't bet on a Carlisle-based side being any better supported than one in Newcastle tbh. Whitehaven and worky must be the neck end of 40 miles away and Barrow'd be nearer 80.

How can you say that there is no support base in Newcastle and suggest Carlisle and Newcastle as alternatives

Cumbria "deserves" to have a franchise (if we are going down that route) but, the 4 clubs in the county, Barrow, Carlisle, Workington & Whitehaven are spread too far apart to make it work.

Newcastle may be agood shout in the longer term but they and any Manchester would need a seriously wealthy backer and some top marketing to have any chance to succeed.

Koucash has got plenty of faults but he has done little to turn Salford into a "contender".

The guy in Toronto (Perez) does seem to know how to get the marketing side sorted and to generat the level of interest that Toronto have done from a stone cold start, shows what can be done but, there doesn't seem to be anyone of his calibre in RL on this side of the Atlantic.

RL needs to work out where it is going, although it does appear that a "super league" including 2 French clubs and 2 North American clubs could be a possibility. However, the logistics of flying teams to Canada on a regular basis does need some serious thought.

We have had a number of failed expansion clubs and if the sport was serious about having a more diverse top flight, we should have retained the "franchise" model and supported the likes of Sheffield, London and Crusaders and made sure that they were successful (in terms of being stable).

if franchising came in like this, no way would cas be a stand alone club




*waits patiently for cas fans abuse*

You are correct. It would be combined with woeful Wakefield to form Calder United.

The discussion here is digressing from the original theme of the thread. That is, Toulouse beat one of last year's top four Championship clubs, not narrowly but by a huge margin.

The implications are that Toulouse is a real chance to be in the Middle 8s and challenge for a Super League spot at year's end.

The only downside is the relatively disappointing crowd that attended, even though it was much bigger than the crowds at most of the other Championship games -- 3rd largest.

the aire runs through Castleford not the calder, the calder is subsidiary of the larger river Aire, so it should be Aire United. or wakefield. reality is some clubs would never merge and would rather struggle and die.

Wakefield Wildcats was a poor name, thankfully now restored to Wakefield Trinity but Calder United ???
It sounds like a crap football team from the Evo Stick league or something.

Most fans of Castleford or Wakefield would rather "paddle their own canoe" rather than merge with the enemy and ultimately, if Jean's hypothetical league ever came to fruition both clubs would likely end up in the second tier.

I'm loving how we have Cumbria, Newcastle and Manchester in there, none of whom have shown any real thirst for the game.
However, IF RL is to ever get to the next level, there would have to be a dramatic change to what we have now and if we ever had truly national appeal perhaps all of the current SL clubs would disappear, with the exception of Wigan, Leeds, Hull FC and maybe Warrington.
Surely any truly National / International League would want it's clubs to be spread evenly across the country and then add to those, the French/ North American clubs.
Of course, it would make more sense to have a strong and vibrant competition in each of these countries and the logistics of having a 12 team comp spread over 3 countries would be very difficult to work.

There are 3 pro RL teams in the Wakefield and 5 Towns District

If you're joining 3 things together it's generally known as a Trinity

So the only viable name for a merged Club is Wakefield Trinity

No the implication is that Toulouse like last time will win most if not all their home games , something they proved last year by beating Leigh in the cup , but if you want to work it that way , then the Rochdale result should have everybody quaking in their boots , they got a better result against Dewsbury than Leigh did a week earlier

But you like the rest of us non loonies knows it doesn't work like that , they might make the middle 8 s and they might not