Perhaps we should just have a league of the top six clubs and just show them on TV. Oh! but wait a minute! someone would still finish in last place. Someone would still be the worst club.

If you can't understand why a relegation battle might be interesting and make for some excellent and exciting games, more so than say a game where absolutely nothing at stake, then you suffer from a distinct lack of imagination.

I can understand Headhunter's lack of understanding. He doesn't attend matches. He doesn't support a club. Can't really get the proper feel for the issues at stake. Conversely maybe this makes him the best person to judge? Someone on the "outside" looking in?

Im not going to read the 8 pages already posted on here, my take as a Widnes fan is Franchising is killing the game.

I have been a home and away supporter for 20 years watching Widnes, ups and downs and good and bad days. My family have always been the same, tomorrow we are at home to Catalan Dragons and of the 5 of us that usually attend, only 2 of us are going. At the end of the day our season is over, it was over before it began, this following hot on the heels of 2 previous seasons in the Championship where we had nothing to play for, Where ticking boxes was more important than playing well. Now we keep getting told not to worry we have three years, i dont want three years of this junk. When Widnes were Relegated last time i lived and breathed Widnes, every game meant something, even when it looked like mission impossible we travelled in our numbers because it meant something.

Now it means nothing, if the Dragons put a hundred on Widnes tomorrow then i will probably laugh it off and forget about the game, seriously it wont mean a thing.

If i dont watch Widnes i dont watch Rugby league, and if i dont watch Rugby League my kids dont, and then you lose 2 Generations of supporters because we lost sight of the most important thing in sport, Winning.

In my eyes the Sports Dying a death, and i have played, Coached and Watched Rugby league for more than 25 years. I would rather we were relegated this season due to our poor managment than sit in this league with the mighty few while better teams are locked out, and we never earned the right to be here in the first place.

This is what every "sports" fan should be thinking.

Headhunter and smokeyta will be along shortly to tell you, you know absolutely nothing about sport and to tell you, you are sooo so wrong in having these strange feelings about your club

Yes, of course they would

Just realised that this is in fact more relevant to Smokey actually, but fear not rich the ' Empire ' crumbles in the end, well it usually does in movies

Just doing a straw poll from this thread I would suggest the support for a licensing/franchise system is waning. A large thread usually attracts many different posters. Almost a third of our recent elite clubs have gone bust, with, if you believe the reports/rumours another half of them very close. Game is really healthy......not

Someone needs to explain the definition of a closed shop to Andy Burnham, if he thinks SL is one.