"some stuff" could be a whole myriad of different things ?? not least the challenges of dealing with falling revenue both at KR and within his own business empire, managing any debt that KR have to service, an unhappy coach (let's face it, Smith rarely seems overjoyed about anything ).
Toronto being in SL are the least of his problems.
I'm pretty sure that most clubs will be concentrating on getting through this season and wondering how the hell they put a competitive squad together for next season with so many variables out of their control.
Most players have taken a cut in salary to get through this season so, what do you do when signing ne players and were any contract payments deferred, in the expectation that we would return to normal relatively quickly.
Just about every business faces some jeopardy here and KR (along with every other RL club) are certainly not exempt

The comment that you highlighted could refer to anything

That's the point. Don't worry about the silly trolling.

Something is going on and it's probably money.

Koucash left Salford, Hudgell has left HKR, people were worried Carter had left Wakefield, and with deep respect nobody is likely to take over from Ken Davey.

SKY money is ready to drop by a very significant amount, no money to Championship clubs if it drops below £150,000. The clubs who provide the cannon fodder for Leeds, Saints Wigan and Warrington who have hogged the trophies for 24 years now are no longer attractive to rich owners.

If TWP are prepared to lose millions for some years to come and Ottawa too they can be the new whipping boys.

Put yourself in Neil Hudgell's position, his task ended up being making up the numbers for other owners to enjoy. Crossland jumped ship on this so Hudgell has now gone as well.

That task meant spending £Millions to put a team on the pitch for Lenegan, Caddick, Moran and McManus's sides to slaughter on a regular basis.

I think Gausch gets it as he's put all his money into a big time side.

Take all this forward and what do we get?

Leeds
Wigan
Saints
Wire
Catalans

Toronto
New York
Ottawa
Etc

The latter clubs can be the new whipping boys and may in time provide an NATV deal of sorts, for without that the game here becomes more and more a nursery for NRL clubs as they raid Academies here.

You may have seen a few articles and suggestions about a "draft" system for clubs to put their SL squads together from, to make the competition more even. In the end - and this is speculation I agree, the top owners here probably just want to carry on winning most of their games and being involved in Wembley and Old Trafford. Top SL bosses need some new money and whipping boys. North America may be perfect......

Koucash left Salford, Hudgell has left HKR, people were worried Carter had left Wakefield, and with deep respect nobody is likely to take over from Ken Davey.

The only part of this paragraph that is true is Koucash HAS left Salford.
The rest is incorrect.

Hudgell has announced that he is LEAVING (not left)
Carter is very much STILL at Wakefield _ no longer Chairman but STILL CEO
Davey will carry on at Huddersfield while ever he's still breathing.

Please stop blurting out lies and half truths. I know its hard but, you CAN do it, go on, give it a go

Also, what are you on about Hudgell being tasked with investing millions just to make up the numbers ??

Surely he is trying to help turn KR into a top SL side ??
The fact that they haven't achieve this is down to KR themselves, not really down to anyone else preventing them from doing so.
Mind you, as their "more illustrious" neighbours have found, getting into the top 4/5 and stating there is a far from simple task. Even the mighty Leeds have struggled to get there in recent years.

Bottom line is that it takes huge and sustained investment to make it to the top (and to stay there) and a few poor decisions with players and coaching staff can soon see a fall from grace - again, you're just making stuff up.

I'm curious as to why you make it sound that the 'big' clubs are somehow at fault here?

Surely, it's upto the other clubs to find owners/money that will make them capable of competing and not just there to make up the numbers?

If Hull KR's, Huddersfield's, Wakefield's, etc, owners aren't able to compete and provide a competitive league, then surely it's up to those running SL to find clubs who believe they can, and to give them sufficient time to do it. If after that time they haven't, then they can have their licences removed and other interested parties can then get a go?

The only "fault" of the big clubs here, is wanting an ever increasing share of any TV contract to be kept in SL, with little regard for the rest of the game and wanting to shrink the league to allow themselves an bigger slice of the cake.
It is just possible that it would suit, Saints, Leeds Wire etc to jettison their poor SL relations and replace them with more N. American clubs, providing of course that the newbies, like Toronto originally said, dont want a slice of the TV revenue - allowing them to take an even larger share.
There is a potential problem here and that is the needs of Sky and whether they would be able to still show the number of games required to make RL a worthwhile investment.

Just for the record, there are no licenses to be revoked, we are still running (theoretically) a promotion/ relegation system

True. Though, as I've said before, it's a massively outdated system, which provides no stability or benefit to the competition.

Surely a system where we have 10, 11 or 12 clubs, who are all almost equal financially, is a better competition than one where many of the club's are just there to make up numbers or, in Donnyman's words, simply there for the big clubs to 'slaughter'?

Ultimately, what most RL fans want is a competition where ALL of the sides have a realistic chance of winning a trophy at the start of a season. Admittedly, you will always have at least a couple of sides who become whipping boys as the season goes on, but the same sides (usually the promoted side and it's why promotion/relegation is a folly) year on year, becomes very tedious, especially if the trophies are being kept among 3 or 4 of the same sides.

Where those 10, 11 or 12 clubs are based is mainly irrelevent. It's actually finding the backers to finance them. There is no point having a large potential fanbase if the club itself as no money to run itself and compete.

Maybe in an ideal world, all clubs would be roughly "equal" but, life isn't like that.
If you go back through the history books, there are plenty of different clubs who have been champions or won the cup(s).

The problem with things now is, even with a salary cap in place, it's more and more about which club has the deepest pockets and there is a fair amount of disparity in this.
Mind you, in fairly recent times, we've had Cas, Catalan and Huddersfield winning stuff so, there is hope for all clubs.

As a sport, I think that the consensus is that there should be a pathway between the different leagues, which was lost for a while under the previous franchise/licensing model.

Despite Donnys (very) regular threads, the game has to find a way to broaden it's appeal, either in the UK or overseas and preferably both. However, to do this successfully could change the very game that we all love, which is probably the very reason that we remain so strongly rooted to the M62 corridor.

There is a pathway in the franchise model. And it's probably a much more stable and positive one for the sport.

If you make the licensing every 3, 5 or 10 years, then it gives a potential new side that specified amount of time to actually prepare themselves in order to hit the ground running, with regards to squad preparation and getting finances in order.

Presently, a side gets promoted in October and has 3 months to try to put together a competitive team. It's almost impossible seeing as most of the decent quality players are already tied up elsewhere by then. All that happens is the promoted side gets everyone else's cast offs and maybe the 2 or 3 good(ish) players from the relegated side they are replacing.

Like I've said before, relegation/promotion just encourages an environment of mediocrity, as most club's first instinct is to simply survive, rather than aspire. Allow clubs to create a base without the shadow of a relegation axe hanging over them and you are far more likely to see stability financially.

In a sense, I agree with you.
However, every club that had aspirations to be in SL, would be totally unproven in the top flight.
The disparate needs of being in The Championship and being successful in SL, means that ANY application for the top flight would be based on conjecture.
How many S/T could they sell, how many fans will turn up to games.
The only constants would be the stadia and previous financial record.

If you look at the current wanabe's, Leigh, Widnes, London, Fev, Toulouse.
You could make a case for each one but, would any (or all) of them be stronger than what we have and in the case of any N. American clubs, you really are talking crystal ball stuff.
As we've seen with Toronto, they've had decent crowds at home and they appeared to be backed by a (very) wealthy individual and yet, look what has happened in only their first SL season - talk about the wheels coming off.

Questions were raised about their long term viability and yet they breezed into the comp.
Also, how would they fare on "player development" when there just isn't any and wont be in the short term, there is no mechanism for ANY meaningful player development over there. Period.

Just like making staff redundant, a score chart can be contrived to benefit any club and it would be the importance attached to certain criteria that would get a particular club the nod.

Also, talking about stability, what would happen to any club that was effectively kicked out of the top flight ?
Very likely they would go to the wall.
At least with P/R there is a chance to regain a spot in the top flight.
Under some kind of "assessment", just how would you rank say, Leigh v Ottawa or London v New York ?

How can you progressively sign Superleague players in the Championship? How come Wakefield, Hull.KR, Hull and Huddersfield didn't find it "almost impossible" staying up.

Leigh avoided traditional relegation as well, as they did not come bottom in SL.....

So there are FIVE clubs who found it very much "possible"

Having said that Lenegan has proposed P&R every other year to give promoted clubs a fairer chance to stay up and probably a club outstripping it's championship rivals more time to prepare and build.

So what you are saying is North American clubs just won't develop players and their financial support is very much in doubt? You ask if five current European clubs could have a case made for them???.......

And you leave out Newcastle who have.....

1.....A long term multi-Millionaire owner
2......A decent ground and a growing fan base
3.....Have hosted magic weekends that are to assist development
4...... Have a full player development system
5...... Would take superleague into a new area and boost the game there
6....... Have openly applied to join

No need to reply to this one if it just the usual "I don't think they are ready yet" stuff......

They are more ready than the five you named.......

1....How can you predict any owner is 'long term'? Koukash wasn't.O'Connor wasn't...
2... Toronto had the same.a ground suitable to host Super League games.
3....How,exactly,did Magic Weekends,held at Manchester and Liverpool,'assist development'?
4...Newcastle developed any players currently playing in Super League?
5....They have already had a Super League club in the area.....They were sacrificed for a M62 club that had paid their players too much and then had dwindling attendances.
6.....They claim to WANT to be in Super League in the year 2030.

Maybe the Toronto owner has more ambition?

The idea that selecting people for redundancy "fairly" through a score chart mad me laugh sorry ....... I've seen that done many a time, you pick who you don't like and work out the criteria to support the dismissal!!

I wouldn't rank any club who cannot even join in the assessment process. You may remember when Ottawa were launched and not a wealthy director in sight? Same for New York, no sign of any rich owner actually standing there saying I will put the $$$Millions in............

At least Beaumont and Hughes would openly account for them backing them....How can you promote smoke and mirrors to Superleague?

Members of the media were introduced to Toronto’s prospective new owner Carlo LiVolsi on Wednesday. These are the main points he made, no need for the usual suspects to troll it into an "expansion" thread......TWP already exist, and fans are keen to know what's gone down....No need to hide it 2.9736328125:5