I think they had the wind knocked out of their sails when the RFL confirmed they had to hit the same criteria as everyone else. I've no doubts about their future credentials though. I think they'll really turn things around for 2015.

What will be interesting for 2015 will be whether the RFL will guarantee a Championship club going up like this time. I don't think they will.

Would having two teams in the south of France be a good thing though? It would be fantastic if a franchise in Paris was viable, but sadly that's not to be. Fans will most likely alternate their chosen destinations of Catalans and Toulouse each year, so I think that both club's gates would be severely affected. How far away is a credible stand-alone French Elite League?

so replace a established SLE team with one thats not and might never be,thats what your saying right?.
what a completly pointless excercise

Have I heard or is it just my imagination that Super league will stay at 14 teams, but if a new source of finance could be found(their own TV deal) one or two more French sides could be admitted 2012 or 2013,
On who would be admitted in the franchise bid I think the criteria will rise each time & we will have to except that if your side is not in a large city you will never have a big enough fan base to ever gain acceptance. That is a real shame for all the sides in Cumbria (who I would love to see in the top league). Even a combined side may struggle.

The game could always do with allowing the franchise to move location like grid iron does!

It wouldn't be any worse for certain holders and could be of benefit.

It should be like grid iron by adding more teams & not turning teams out, as long as they stay in the rules.(plus the NFL monies from merchandising, TV & ticket sales go into one pot & distributed equaly between all the teams)

Thats '"commie" talk

you really think that owners of clubs are going to be happy to continue investing in their clubs, only to see their only revenue streams given to other businesses?

Leeds were attracting 17k per week, the cut in capacity of the southstand has brought that down to about 15.5k, what would be the motivation for Paul Caddick to spend upwards of £10million building a new southstand at Headingley to take that attendance back to 17k if they were only going to receive a redistributed revenue from 'the pot' of about 8k (which is roughly the round average for an SL game throughout the season), rather than having revenue of an extra 1.5k per game minimum it would end up closer to 100 fans per game for the investment. And it would see Leeds ticket revenue pretty much cut in half?

there is comparatively little away support in Perpignan, they are a viable stand alone club and effect of Toulouse on attendances would be negligible. I would be surprised if in fact it didnt have a positive effect, if anything. Increasing the standing of the game and competition in the publics concious, you would expect a very well attended 'derby' at least once a year, and an increased profile for the games.


as for a credible stand alone French Elite, it depends what you mean as credible and stand alone. As a top tier domestic competition the Elite is already credible and stand alone, as an alternative to super league? well like every other league that isnt a european super league it will never be a European Super League, which is quite useful because we already have one. we called it Super League

i think the RFL did initially promise them entry into SL next time despite the condition on winning the championship final or NR cup. then the other clubs kicked up a stink

in hindsight maybe they shouldve stayed in the elite, won it and applied from there.

i think the RFL has to guarantee a championship side will always get in at each round of franchise applications to give those clubs an incentive

toulose has over 1 million people, airbus is located there

they will be a far stronger club than les cats and wont harm them at all.

theres no,i think,about it mate,it was another case of SLE/RFL doing deals behind closed doors and telling no one else about it till its to late.fortunately the owner of T,O was an honest man in this instance and this information came out.
this is why the supporters of CC clubs kicked up a stink [paticularly widnes who appear to have had more to lose than others if this decision stood].oh and the L,E and its reporters wernt very happy about it either.

Technically they said they would promote a team from NL1, a compettition that no longer exists. While it causes people to doubt the word of the RFLHQ, they have/do/will change their minds to make the best decision, not stick with a promise they made to be seen as fair. If in 2011 there is no club better than the SL clubs they will not promote.

Clubs have said they would not expand beyond 14 based on the current Sky deal, if French PPV increased it's bid for a SL with TO and Perpignan involved I could see TO promoted, independently of their Bid points or other Championship clubs' licence success. This would see a 15 club SL with a bye round, in no way impossible. The amount of increased TV revenue required by a French broadcaster would be significant from a SL club POV, but negligible compared with PPV budgets and what they pay for Union/Wendyball/Handball in France.

One or two of them might want to start turning up to matches then. Football barely even gets a look in in Toulouse because of rugby union there so I'm afraid any dreams of TO XIII becoming a Super League superpower are exactly that.