In which context, it's worth noting that Stade Francais posted a 2.5million euro loss this season.

so even though SL crowds are up, and have grown since les catalans were admitted entry, you still say the game is in a mess!


and im guessing you are assuming this recession will continue for at least 2 - 3 more years when the RFL looks at the structure of SL!

with your idea for the future its waiting for godot.

RL is as healthy as its ever been in england

warrington are losing money because they are spending so much on players. this loss is covered by their rich shareholder, and hasnt much to do with the recession.

where is the recession in wigan. heck their crowds are growing by the day.

the next round if licenses is probably too soon for paris, but it certainly could happen if the club and the RFL want it

clearly both the FRL and RFL see the potential here

hey getting a succesful RL club in a city like paris might help just a little bit.

I never once disagreed with that.
You made a point that the RFL would pull a rabbit out of the hat and we could see Tou and SF in 2012, I said it was cobblers.

Again, you're thousands of miles away and i'm sat in an office, in Warrington town centre, with Warrington fans. I am telling you people cannot afford to go.
If there was no recession now Warrington would be getting about 14,000 every week.
Post 2012, SL will see a boom in this country, definately

Yeah and Saints new stadium should be well and truly up by then.

Not necessarily.

I’m thoroughly disillusioned with the sport as a whole. The adhoc and dishonest manner in which the sport is run imo, is a complete turn off. Lower SL clubs will be dismissed on a whim and clubs will be promoted to SL in a similar way. The systems in place are vague and fudgiable and the people administering them untrustworthy imo. I want to watch a sport and not some post code lottery.

Going up to SL is only good because it happens to be a bit better than being in the post-licence era Championship. I will be happy, and probably regard it as over due, but I won’t be Whooping and punching the air as I was when we were last promoted.

I’ll probably be lynched on here for this, but I’m beginning to find RL boring and formulaic in SL. The game has changed imo, and spontaneity and true guile have been replaced by over-coached muscle-bound drones whom, if they don’t follow the coaches game plan to the letter, are looking at being dropped and castigated.

Many of the games we see on TV are held in tumbleweed atmospheres amongst clubs which struggle to get 3,000/4,000 fans through the gate. But that doesn’t matter because, as long as you have a ‘Sugar Daddy’ to bail you out, you’ll be fine.

I used to see 8 out of 10 RL games as great to watch, but now it seems to be the other way round.

So, even if Widnes gets the nod, I may not be going along for the ride. I’m only sticking with the sport now out of pure loyalty to the club, and definitely not loyalty or admiration for the sport, which I now regard as utterly corrupted.

I'd wait until you see how Widnes go before coming to some premature conclusion. I'm sure it only seems disillusional to those people on the outside looking in. Most SL fans seem happy with their lot (save for when clubs go through long stretches of defeats). Now and again i pop on the Cas and Salford boards and it's not pretty. Then, they claim a scalp of one of the top 4 sides and it's all smiles again. Bradford fans went through a similar phase last year and early this year - now a poll on their board is favouring MacBanana and they seem happier. I think if you can hover around mid-table/upwards it's a good thing to be in; if you're getting pumped every week, then not so. So long as you're competitive i think you'll enjoy it. On the whole it's certainly better to be in than out.

Agree with everything you say. I want Widnes into super league not just because I think it would be good for the club, but also because I think permanent exposure to the championship will leave a lot of clubs decimated. Confine them to a weak second tier forever and they are finished, all because of the greed of a few already rich clubs.

But how do you account for Huddersfield in that regard? OK, it wasn't the SL era but i remember when they were down and out and dead and buried. With the right backing any club can rise from the doldrums - even in the modern era. Life has always been cack outside the top flight and yet your Oldhams, Swintons and even your Doncasters are still around - in spite of themselves and in spite of the dire predicament they keep finding themselves in. Stand back and take a look at the game as a whole? Is it better than it was 20 year ago? I think it is. It just needs that impetus to kick on and expand.

could not agree more. far better rugby played in the lower leagues. the only reason they dont beat SLteams when they meet is they are out muscled and rarely out played.

if my team do not receive another franchise i would not miss SL one bit.
an extra £30 in my pocket and not SKYs and i will happily support my team at dewsbury , batley or wherever.

SL is not the be all and end all.

Oh codswallop.
Your chp has been better with all our dual reg players this year but that game last night was like watching grass grow. Ive said it before, the only people who prefer watching chp games are chp clubs fans and thats because, like some pre pubescent teen in high school who bought the wrong games console for christmas, telling themselves over and over again might somehow make it true.
That game, the leigh game t'other week and so on was a SHAMBLES. if that's good rugby then im the pope.

SL has gone a little boring, like the NRL of 07ish, we need 2 referees: problem solved