Between 1998 and 2008 we had, I think, four clubs that proved capable of winning silverware. In the subsequent decade we've had eight by my reckoning (Saints, Wire, Cas, Hull, Hudds, Wigan, Catalans & Leeds). I'm not too fussed whether the competition is strengthened in the next decade by traditional or expansion clubs adding to the list of challengers but whichever can do that will be those that evolve. In contrast, those that offer their fans zero hope of success will be those that struggle - whether they be in Canada or Calderdale.

Areas of the country with no top Premier League side or top RU side:
Southport
Grimsby
Lincoln
Stoke
Chester
Sunderland
Plymouth
Shrewsbury
Blackpool
York
Peterborough
Southend-on-sea
Portsmouth
Derby
Preston
Lancaster
Middlesbrough
Bradford
Aldershot and Farnborough
Barnsley
Luton
Milton Keynes
Crawley
Mansfield
Swindon
Peterborough

London, Sheffield, Cardiff, Gateshead, Kent, Mansfield...all tried and failed in varying degrees. The expansionists can dress this up in which ever way they see fit, add some cliched business speak and call the traditionalists "flat cappers". The truth of the matter is, it been tried before and failed. Invest the misappropriated funding in the grass roots and build from there.

Fair comment. There is a lot of clichéd business speak doing the rounds. Unfortunately "invest in the grass roots" sounds equally intangible. Care to expand a bit?

London- full of top football and has RU teams
Sheffield- a football city
Cardiff- Prem footy team and RU hotbed

And a club ready and waiting to get the run to SL if they could get the opportunity to, stadium_check, backers_check, potential fanbase_check...
Manchester Rangers!

Already getting 250 fans attending eighth/ninth division games in this stadiumhttp://www.rugby-league.com/_mediaimages/imagesource.php?image
The one in the foreground, on that huge sporting campus, where the RFL are moving to...

Yesterday has debunked the following myths:

1. Expansion into France has failed

2. French players are squad players and not key players for Catalans

3. McNamara is a rubbish coach who won't win anything and doesn't know what he's doing.

4. No one watches Catalans away from home

5. The BBC secretly hate RL and promote union as much as they can.

6. Catalan cant win away from home.

7. The French bottle it in the big games

8. Richard Lewis was wrong to put Catalans into a British SL and protect them with licensing.

9. Attendances matter and is what should be focused on

I'd love to see Rangers admitted into L1.

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Many of those places are football towns through and through. I was an advocate of Milton Keynes about 15 years ago but that opportunity has gone, with the MK Dons now established.

London may not have succeeded too well club wise but has produced quite a few SL players. It has expanded the player pool.

My concerns around expansion are that we're risking destroying clubs and their long standing fan base, community heritage and family tradition, and weakening UK RL overall, for expansion clubs which have mostly been proven to fail.

Once those clubs and that tradition is gone, it's gone. If a team goes to the wall, it's all lost forever. If we throw (for example) Widnes, Wakey, Salford and Hudds out for expansion sides, our already weakened UK RL community becomes weaker as fans and tradition drift away. That affects TV audiences, sponsorship revenues, amateur playing numbers, online engagement and revenue, and more.

The elephant in the room is that if we fill SL with expansion and international teams, RL in the UK will shrink, not grow, and that is a disaster.

So what exactly is the goal with 'expansion'? If we end up with Catalans, Toulouse, Toronto, New York, Barcelona and whoever else in SL...what is the goal? Because it seems to me you're replacing medium sized UK clubs for medium sized expansion clubs. You're simply displacing the fan base for a club that - as we've seen over and over - could vanish in a heartbeat.

Is the goal a disjointed and contrived 'international' Super League? Or is it to establish competitions in France, North America and wherever else and eventually those teams rejoin their national leagues? Because either way, RL in the UK will be smaller and weaker. And that's before even talking about what a decreasing audience and interest does to sponsorship, advertising and TV revenues.

Furthermore, half your home games with zero visiting fans and a quiet, dull atmosphere, and being unable to attend half your away games due to cost and distance is NOT driving the game forward from a fan's perspective - and we seem to be forgetting the game exists for the fans.

I'm all for expansion, but not at the cost of killing off existing clubs. A strong UK Super League with strong French and North American leagues should be the goal, with a Champions League-type competition to garner international interest.

Absolutely correct

Top post, absolutely correct