Ian... They seem to manage it in every other sport? and the last 18 months have seen administrations a plenty, a poor national team and more free tickets being given away than ever. Lets not let marketing gurus paper over the cracks.

As for the ealier poll for and against P&R, try asking a broad spectrum and not just a forum dominated by those who benefit directly from one option. This is about the game as a whole, SL fans seem to think they are the game.

I don't hate the RFL. I have immense disdain for, and distrust of, Messrs Wood and Lewis but have no intention of tarring the whole organization with the same brush.

I am afraid the Halifax campaign just isn't nuanced and subtle enough to make the right impact. It just comes across as reactionary and without a willingness to engage in an intelligent debate as to what is best for the future of our club.

It's not about P&R per se, it's about the lack of transparency in the whole process, and the way that clubs below SL have been cast adrift. There are much broader issues here than the easy headline.

Clubs below SL need to band together to present a united front and some concrete suggestions as to how things can be done better...

Clubs below Super League need to get their act together and learn how to behave professionally.

Clubs below the 1st division were cut adrift in 1971.
Clubs below SL were cut adrift in 1996

No one outside a handful of affected clubs gave a monkeys then either.

Surely the same argument should be applied to the franchising evaluation then? A Championship club cannot be expected to have the same standard of youth development and community work as a Super League team. The RFL even admitted this in the run up to the announcements. With that in mind how is one supposed to compete for a license? The RFL have said that the best team will get promoted in three years but they have not and will not define the term "best team". They will twist the process however they want to get the team they want.

Yes, we ran out of money and had to put out a weakened team. The result of this was that we got relegated. Went back to the drawing board and built a strong club in a poor division with little income.

Wakey ran out of money and currently have a weakened team. The result of this? Another three years in the top division.

And what, we should put an ill prepared, ill financed Halifax team into SL and listen to them bitch each week about how Bradford are stealing all their fans?

Im not sure what Leigh or Halifax did to 'bust a gut' or where the millions they spent went?

I would have a lot more sympathy with 'Fax had they actually bust a gut, tried something ambitious and really gone for it, but they didnt really did they. They would have only just scraped the minimum standards.

Fax had the opportunity to take a franchise from Wakefield, instead they are moaning because Wakefield didnt give it away.

Unlike the women of Wakefield, who do lol


nail on head there, simple answer is that will everything taken into account, Fax werent better than Wakefield, they might be as good as, but they arent better and thats what they need to do.

In three years, if they stick to their guns, they will be in without a doubt.

The higher you build your barriers...the taller I become!

A return to P+R would be great, I can't see any advantage to franchising to the game as a whole
plenty of myths about what franchising prevents that have been shown to be wrong already and most of the problems that P+R was blamed for can be solved without losing P+R

I'd love to see P&R back (with sensible caveats). However, I would probably settle for a transparent franchise system where the RFL are held accountable for their decisions and are made to explain exactly why they have come to the conclusions they have.

Right now, the question is why where Halifax worse than the other 13 franchise applications? The answer from the RFL, "Because we said so".

There is no transparency and their is far too much relying on the unmeasurable.

Why has this decended into another Trin vs Fax fight. Unless Im mistaken Trin were in good company receiving a grade C licence and no facts are in the public domain suggesting that Wakefield had the 14th best bid. Am I wrong?