I might be wrong but I am sure I heard that a French tv channel would be willing to pay a significant sum if SL could guarantee them a derby match between Toulouse and Catalan, and if this is the case then I would be okay with Toulouse being artificially promoted. If not then they can just go through the normal route of either the middle 8s or 1 up 1 down or whatever.

As for superbowl awareness, I noticed that Match of the Day constantly promotes the NFL highlights show and mentioned the superbowl yesterday.
Don't know why SL couldnt have put in some clause in their tv contract with the BBC that on the first SL weekend of the year Lineker had to say 'oh by the way, SL started this weekend and you can catch all the highlights at X time'.

If they've been on the M6 southbound for a couple of hours they must have a lot of fans north of Carlisle.

Other than a few adverts on 5 live, I'd heard nothing about the opening of SL. You never hear anything promoting the SL show.
And it's very rare that you get commentary on radio on anything other than the extra channels on digital (unless like me you can get radio leeds), and even then there's very little promotion of what games they're doing (i work alot of nights so radio commentary is all I can get).

And this is what I mean.
It's the start of the SL & Championship season. Everybody should have been out banging the drum, promoting the season and sport. Getting on radio, TV etc getting RL on people's minds.
But we weren't, just relying on the people who follow the sport.

Yes new clubs in other countries may help, but until we promote it properly I don't think it would make any difference. And if we don't have p&r, then clubs just drift along with no incentives for them, or crowds to want to come.

Hi Wayne. Please tell me where I said they had been on the m6 southbound for a couple of hours. TIA

Regards

King James

The point your missing is the effect it has on the others who finish above them all who are relegated. How does that make the game stronger?

Beaumonts got it right. Two leagues of 10.

Widnes went down as a result of Catalans coming up and Castleford went down as a result of them being protected......both clubs seem pretty OK as of the time of typing!


No he hasn't. 14 is a stretch........20 sides would just be the same 5 or 6 winning and the others not getting any better.
The Top 20 sides in the comp would be SL + London, Toronto, Leigh, Toulouse, Featherstone, Halifax, Batley and Sheffield.......as it stands Catalans would beat 7 of those sides and they are the worst SL side at present......what's the point of having Leeds stick 60+ on Batley?

Yes and that was the effect of protecting one club,now you want three protecting!

He didn't say 20 teams in SL,he said 2 leagues.. Division 1/2. The two SL clubs relegated to the 2nd division funding along with central funding would be split between the 10 teams.

The only problem with that is some clubs would use the funding to pay off director loans etc,instead of investing in going fulltime.

'I'm sorry, but Jean can't come to the phone right now. He's currently sat in front of his PC looking at the top 3 positions in the Championship with a bottle of baby oil and a big box of Kleenex".

Would back a SL of 2 divisions with all teams receiving the same money (maybe with some bonus incentives for finishing higher), but you would have to say that only full-time teams were allowed, so that would be around 16 teams (2 divisions of 8 ) now.

Then any other teams wishing to join SL would have to meet certain requirements to be let into SL2 and could then get promoted to SL1. Could be a good compromise between licensing and promotion/relegation.

To make the 2 divisions more connected you could even say that everyone played everyone in their own division home and away, but played everyone in the other division once as well.

Hi Lebron, maybe jean has hacked into your account then, cos I'm sure with him living in Chorley near the m6 and you in Wakefield he'd have a better idea.

Regards

Wayne.

You only have to look at the track record of these expansion teams to see there very little but a holiday destination for talented yet troubled individuals and will continue to be, from a youth development point of view all Jean has had to bang on with about Catalan is a overweight, run of the mill (Probably not even SL standard) winger that he quite hilariously likens to Billy Boston. They have had every chance to build some great French players over the years, whilst even been given exemption from relegation, and yet sign the likes of Dave Taylor and Todd Carney and wonder were there going wrong? They have even been stupid enough to give McNamara a three and a half year holiday down in the south of France.

Jean hides behind his keyboard beating on real rugby league towns and city`s in the north of England, in a pathetic attempt to in some way defend an absolute mockery of a club, other teams will follow this line of action.. Wait and see. They bring absolutely nothing to our game and people will only realise that when it is too late and we no longer have the Leigh`s, Wakefields, Castleford etcs.

Again, please tell me where I said they were on the M6 south bound for 2 hours. In fact, I will help you out. I actually said "2 hours before a game" which I know is hard for you to comprehend and understand, but this actually means they could be on it for anywhere between 1 minute and 16 hours. No where did I say they were on it for 2 hours, im just making the point that a couple of hours before the game the motorway is awash with fans.

Regards

King James

I understand your concerns but the truth is that the likes of Wakey, Cas & Leigh have been more than strong enough to outlive the expansion sides that might have threatened them. I'd like the expansion sides to survive and thrive but think it very likely that I'll still be watching those 3 sides when Toulouse and Toronto are distant memories. Catalans too for that matter.

Pointless, they will be returning over the channel with there tail between there legs after there visit to Post Office Rd next week.