Interesting argument, but here's another dimension.

Never mind the clubs - what if the RFL themselves found themselves in administration? What would happen then?

An Aussie tour, pretty damn sharpish.

, whats up boys , the sport not as important as YOUR club , not forgetting that you are all RL fans before you're club fans

Yeah right

you should only comment about things which are true.

this would mean much less commentry.

the BBC were interested in the SL rights previously when the RFL was holding off from Sky but their offer was less.

pleased to help

Not the 2 FT divisions of 10 logic that was suggested a few years ago, 27 games and play offs, 1 up 1 down. 50% SL2 to SL1. Expand game without getting thrashed every week or having to buy a team of past it aussies/kiwis. Accomodating all clubs who had shown SL ambition, ie Fax , Widnes, Leigh and possibly Fev from last Franchise bids plus Toulouse and Cumbria. Drop overseas to 1 in SL2 and ringfence for 3 years to allow other ambitious clubs to plan and grow.

Link/evidence?

Could easily have happened in the past, pretty difficult nowadays.

Large proportion of RFL income comes from Sport England and has lots of strings attached in terms of what it gets spent on, as it all is monitored pretty closely. There have been other sports were this has happened (hockey) and Sport England works pretty hard to keep individual governing bodies on the right path financially.

Obviously, If the government reduces public spending on sport, then the RFL income will take a cut and development officer posts etc. will go.

Leeds and Bradford dont have a banner to unite under, but if they did, and it was needed, then i would support that a club under that banner, yes, i have consistantly said the game means more to me than my club,

and i dont doubt some Cas and Fev fans would never support a team with Wakefield in the name, i think the number is much lower than you imagine, when Cas and Wakefield are at a similar level, it is easy to say you will never support a 'Wakefield' side, when Cas are removed and the choice is a 'Wakefield' team or nothing its a much more difficult decision

If in the next few years one club doesnt move forward it will be swallowed by the other, If neither move forward then a merger is really the only option,

and your point re: the district etc. You have to remember, Kids dont care what happend 15 years before they were born. The only identity Cas has is the RL side, outside of that its no different to the numerous areas of Wakefield district, and you remove that, Kids arent going to ignore the game because they are angry at a decision regarding a Cas club they barely knew.

Besides, there are 35k people in Cas, in a district ten times that size, if the district is that parochial, there is only a small amount of people in Cas that a 'wakefield' club couldnt tap in to

Viewing figures would shoot up, whatever the level the game is played on, if you put a 2 hour video of Dally Messenger looking in the mirror talking to his 'friend' for two hours at 8pm on a friday night on ITV or the BBC at least 3m people would watch, likely much more for a saturday.

as such sponsorship would shoot up massively, as would crowds

Clubs would make up a fair amount of the money they lose in TV rights very quickly though not all of it,

BUT: The TV rights we get take this into account, Sky pay extra because we are missing out on these things, they have to, if ITV offered three quarters of what Sky do, the RFL would say bye-bye to Rupert very quickly

While you're on

i would think so,

There are apparently plans to put more corporate opportunities in the southstand without lowering the capacity,

though i dont think the design has been set in stone yet

The thing is, I don't buy the sponsorship rise argument. After all, the CC has been a guaranteed fixture on BBC for years, and despite audiences in the millions, we've really struggled to find a decent sponsor for it. I don't see why that would change. We also have an image problem - sponsors don't just hand over cash for exposure - they want to associate their brand with something they feel is appropriate to it. Big international companies sponsor RU because they see it - rightly - as a wealthy sport played and watched on the whole by above-average wealthy people. RL, like it or not, has a very different public image, and the sort of companies who want to market to that demographic don't have large sponsorship accounts.