As long as they can afford it.

have a sneaky feeling sky tv had a big say too!

lottery numbers please?

seems the powers that be can pick and choose who plays in games based on how much money they have or how much they like em

seriously though i am disappointed from a giants pov, we might have got hammered, we wouldn't have filled the stadium , would have been nice to have earned the right though.

As far as I'm concerned, they did earn the right.

People complain about fans shooting the sport down, but you can't blame them when we have a joke of an organisation in the RFL. You don't see this "make it up as we go along approach" in other sports. And if SL clubs have to foot the bill well that's just another farce right there.

Huddersfield turned down the chance to play. Disappointing but I suppose if nobody here is willing to put in £180k to play the game you can't really be too critical of Ken.

Should the RFL pay to host the game? I think there are better ways for them to spend £180k such as development officers

£180k is surely better spent on 1 or 2 overseas crocks. It's an easy option.

Tell me how you know that ?

What is your source?
Link ?

That's one side of it.

The other side of it is that, as a sport, fans recognise that the sport is massively undersold and desperately needs to generate revenue.

The WCS is one of the few opportunities that we have to sell the "best in the world" of our sport. It's a massive marketing, media and commercial opportunity.

And people want to give that opportunity to a club that probably undersells the sport more than any other? They want to take this opportunity and plonk it in a stadium that is half full, watched by people on massively discounted tickets?

The RFL has been backed into a corner on this one because we only have a tiny handful of clubs that can actually market themselves effectively. It cannot afford to pass up this opportunity in the name of "sporting fairness".

There should be set criteria as above.

That would have lead to Huddersfield being the third club. Huddersfield should then have been required to take the game.

Clubs like Huddersfield should have the ambition to be in the World Club Series every year. OK in 2016 they might not have got as big a crowd as the other two matches. But things build with familiarity over time:

When the Old Trafford Grand Final first started in the 1990s the ground wasn't full and people wondered if the concept would take hold. Jump ahead to 2015 and it's regarded by many as the biggest annual event in the game and Old Trafford is sold out.

The problem with your scheme is it leaves no room for last minute wheeling and dealing and shady goings-on in smokey rooms. That just wouldn't suit the motley collection of second hand car salesmen and carpet showroom owners who run the game.

Sacrificing sporting fairness so that the RFL can appear to be competent in attracting large crowds is IMO a very weak mentality. So what if JSS doesn't fill up? It never does on any other televised game whether it be a SL semi final or a Challenge Cup match. It is a football ground for football crowds.