Kosh, dont misunderstand my drift here and I dont wish to kick a man when he is down, but the Bulls are clearly not one of the 14 strongest candidates as the current plight shows.
If the state of the game is that clubs wouldn't pass "a more stringent check", then we have all got a problem and as one or two have suggested, we may need to revert to a semi pro game and not the full time sport that we presently have.
FWIW, I really do hope that your team come out of the other side and that you can once again be a force within the sport that we all enjoy so much.

i think we should have a meeting organised every year in November.

In this meeting will be:

Ray French,
Stevo,
Gary Schofield,
Jonathan Edwards,
The pope,
Barrie McDermott,
Ronnie Laughton,
and Dido.

Chairing the meeting will be Claire Baldwin.

They all get to choose their 14 'best' teams from all RL clubs Championship 1 up and the following year it is these teams with the most votes that play in the elite division.

If any of these chosen teams go bust/enter admin, or run out of pies on a matchday they will be removed and placed on a 3 year ban from the elite division.

The league will be called - The A team.

and it will be sponsored by.....wait for it - You know them drumstick lollies - Them.

each team will only be allowed 2 'non-british' passport holding players and clubs can only spend 50% of their previous years revenue.

Sorted!

oh yeah!!! the meeting will be held at Frankie and Bennies Junc 32 Leeds (after normal serving hours to avoid disruption)

The current plight shows what they are now, not what they were when the licence was awarded. And, once again, they had one of the 14 best licence applications.


Clubs went bust in the semi-pro days - ironically enough, Bradford included. I'm not convinced that RL clubs are run any worse than pro clubs in a number of other sports TBH. There are fewer rich folk willing to prop them up though.

I remember the semi-pro days. The pro sport is a better product IMO. It would also hardly be a simple transition. For a start there's now a whole generation of pro RL players who have no other means of earning a living. What do we do - throw them all on the dole? Let the best and the brightest go to RU and be lost to the sport?


Erm - I'm not a Bulls fan.

I really don't wear rose-coloured glasses you know.

Each administration was distinct and unrelated to franchising. Crusaders couldn't sustain themselves on their crowds. Wakey was being chased by the taxman but would have been okay if the ground hadn't been called in, as they were due an advance payment once Planning Permission was granted. Bulls have made bizarre business decisions, like letting everyone go to games for a third of the price.

Isn't it human nature for clubs to overspend? The fans would expect clubs to spend every penny of available money on strengthening their squads rather than the directors pocketing a profit, which means that clubs will always be run on a financial knife edge. All this thread is people whinging that it is all the fault of franchising and the RFL. How is it? If the RBS hadn't called in the Bulls overdraft, would they be in the mess now? How do we know what the Bulls plans were beyond this year? But no, let's all slate the RFL for not knowing that a club was being run in a way that was financial mess. They wanted a business plan and reassurances, not an in-depth analysis of their money.

Sports clubs are run on a knife-edge. That was the whole point of the salary cap, because clubs would overspend more without it. So Halifax fans need to get off their high horse. You've made your feelings clear: you want to stay in the lower league. Good. Stay there, and leave the top flight clubs to run their own affairs.

Of course it's related to franchising. Franchising is unfair. It prevents teams qualifying to play in the top flight by their efforts on the field. This is clear. So why do we have it? The claim was that the absence of P&R would put a stop to teams over reaching themselves financially in order to gain admitance to or remain in the top division. What's happened at Wakey, Crusaders, London and now in spades at what was one of the Leagues' top clubs Bradford proves that this claim is what many of us thought it was in the first place - hogwash.

It's a far fairer system. It takes the whole club into account over a number of years rather than simply on-field performance in 1 year.
No it wasn't. It was claimed it would help clubs to stop over reaching themselves financially. It has. If, with licensing & a salary cap, clubs are still spending more than they bring in - who's fault is that?
Yes let's look at what happened. Wakey's owner went bust due to his investments outside RL, Crusaders owner buggered off, Bradford -we don't know the full picture yet. Please describe how licensing was to blame for these things.
London haven't gone into admin under licensing, that was under P&R, so well done for successfully sh|tting all over your own argument.

Which one ?

None of Bradford, Wakey, or Crusaders went bust trying to gain promotion or avoid relegation, so I'm not sure why you think their plight has any relevance at all to franchising. They could just as easily have made the same mistakes without franchising being in place.

London's problem is low crowds, and again has nothing whatsoever to do with franchising.

You may well feel that franchising is unfair, but using the recent crop of financial issues as some kind of proof of failure is way wide of the mark.

Both. Now that [iwas[/i a fiasco from start to finish.

I seem to remember myself and others stating as such at the time , but would you all listen ?

Are you Kosh in disguise.
How can a franchise system wich is open to interpretation be fairer than promoting the strongest "team" from the division below (ie the club that finishes top)
Remind me where Widnes fiinished in the championship prior to being promoted and compare this to where Featherstone have finished over the last few seasons !!!!
The current system may have been brought in for good reason, although IMHO, it was to allow Crusaders to queue jump. However, how can a club in administration be deemed stronger than a club which is not ?