In fairness, I was only using your statement "If a club wants to guarantee its place in SL, be an A grade club".

But if the criteria are not made public, then to pinch an old quote we have a process "...for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is"?

And that provides very fertile ground for the conspiracy theorists to sow their theories in, does it not?

For example, I heard a rumour that criterion #1 is "any existing club not located in Bradford is deemed to meet the requirements of a A-Grade in respect of this criterion". And Criteria 2-50 are all dead easy ones that any club could attain, such as "A-Grade clubs shall have a grass playing surface" and "A-Grade clubs shall own their own balls" and "A-Grade clubs shall have at least one toilet in their ground..."

See what I mean? The RFL have clearly conspired to eject Bradford - its a scandal!

If all clubs were anywhere near then maybe.

But when there are some so obviously far away from the 'model club' the RFL have no need to fudge the criteria.

But when you have to phrase your conspiracy as 'out of all the clubs who didnt meet the grade, the RFL concluded club A to be the worst bid' it sounds much less conspiratorial.

Except...we still do not know what constitutes the "model club"! So if we do not know the standard against which all applications are judged, how can we have confidence that the process is as near to "fair" as you could expect in the circumstances?

Quote Adeybull="Adeybull"Except...we still do not know what constitutes the "model club"! So if we do not know the standard against which all applications are judged, how can we have confidence that the process is as near to "fair" as you could expect in the circumstances?'" It is at the very least, going to be the same as the 'best' club in SL. If your Commercial, marketing, media and community, facilities, finance, governance and business management along with playing strength and player performance strategy are comparable to the top club in SL (in those areas) then you will be comfortable. If you dont, then you havent met the grade, and your licence is under threat. What you will need to do is put together a bid on what you can offer to SL, and the RFL will judge these bids and pick the best 13. examples of criteria are 5,000 season ticket holders, audited turnover of at least 4m, home crowd averages of more than 10,000 in any of the previous three years – likewise, a minimum top eight finish – and facilities such as a 12,000 capacity all under-cover stadia. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/lic ... _1_2583516

Quote Adeybull="Adeybull"Except...we still do not know what constitutes the "model club"! So if we do not know the standard against which all applications are judged, how can we have confidence that the process is as near to "fair" as you could expect in the circumstances?'" It is at the very least, going to be the same as the 'best' club in SL. If your Commercial, marketing, media and community, facilities, finance, governance and business management along with playing strength and player performance strategy are comparable to the top club in SL (in those areas) then you will be comfortable. If you dont, then you havent met the grade, and your licence is under threat. What you will need to do is put together a bid on what you can offer to SL, and the RFL will judge these bids and pick the best 13. examples of criteria are 5,000 season ticket holders, audited turnover of at least 4m, home crowd averages of more than 10,000 in any of the previous three years – likewise, a minimum top eight finish – and facilities such as a 12,000 capacity all under-cover stadia. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/lic ... _1_2583516

You should have said hello then and joined in with the singing

Must admit, it becomes somewhat harder to assign due credibility to someone's postings when you learn that they go around with a tea cosy on their head...

Quote SmokeyTA="SmokeyTA"It is at the very least, going to be the same as the 'best' club in SL. If your Commercial, marketing, media and community, facilities, finance, governance and business management along with playing strength and player performance strategy are comparable to the top club in SL (in those areas) then you will be comfortable. If you dont, then you havent met the grade, and your licence is under threat. What you will need to do is put together a bid on what you can offer to SL, and the RFL will judge these bids and pick the best 13. examples of criteria are 5,000 season ticket holders, audited turnover of at least 4m, home crowd averages of more than 10,000 in any of the previous three years – likewise, a minimum top eight finish – and facilities such as a 12,000 capacity all under-cover stadia. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/lic ... _1_2583516'" OK that is useful as it gives pointers - thanks. Without the full spec. of the "model club" though, and perhaps more importantly the weighting given to failure to achieve each criterion, the conspiracy theorists will still be able to have a field day, I submit?

Quote SmokeyTA="SmokeyTA"It is at the very least, going to be the same as the 'best' club in SL. If your Commercial, marketing, media and community, facilities, finance, governance and business management along with playing strength and player performance strategy are comparable to the top club in SL (in those areas) then you will be comfortable. If you dont, then you havent met the grade, and your licence is under threat. What you will need to do is put together a bid on what you can offer to SL, and the RFL will judge these bids and pick the best 13. examples of criteria are 5,000 season ticket holders, audited turnover of at least 4m, home crowd averages of more than 10,000 in any of the previous three years – likewise, a minimum top eight finish – and facilities such as a 12,000 capacity all under-cover stadia. www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/lic ... _1_2583516'" OK that is useful as it gives pointers - thanks. Without the full spec. of the "model club" though, and perhaps more importantly the weighting given to failure to achieve each criterion, the conspiracy theorists will still be able to have a field day, I submit?

He wears it well though

Not as credible as my tin foil hat

Is there pictorial evidence of said headgear...?

I met Nigel Wood once and he told me his model club was Warrington. Granted, he said it after being encouraged to do so by Andy Gatliffe, Warrington's Chief Exec but his exact words were:- 'Warrington are our model club. If we had 12 Warringtons, we'd never have any problems'. He knew I was a Warrington supporter so he was clearly blowing smoke up my Peter Fox but I think he just meant that Warrington are:-

- Solvent
- Have decent facilities
- Have a decent youth structure
- Are competititive on the field
- Attract crowds of circa 10k

Most SL clubs should be capable of most of that with decent stadia I expect. As for a 1,600 page submission - I think I read that Salford's was something similar in terms of length. Got to be either a lot of waffle, a lot of pictures or a lot of draft documents to get that large.