My passion maybe, but not the statistics.
The game losing its History, it's heart and Soul and its reason for existing.......remind me why the game exists? Ah, that's it......so players could be recompensed for their time playing. Currently the players are paid only because the TV deal with Sky allows it. Remove or reduce the Sky money and see what happens (have a gander at the Leigh and Featherstone Rovers boards)......as for the games History and Heart and Soul, Leigh averaged 6,521 last year in the regular SL season.......3,538 this year.....where's the 2982 missing fans gone........top flight competition is what they want......not History, Heart & Soul.
Those that hark for the days of winter rugby, local derbies, bus trips 20 minutes up to road to away games......those people are dying in their droves and as our average age of supporter goes up, the number in attendance go down. I care little if Toronto implode or not......they have introduced the game (and beer festivals) to a new audience and good on them. Wakey got 7,020 for the visit of local rivals Castleford, Toronto "declared" 8,000+ for the visit of Featherstone......a town slightly more than a bus trip around the corner. I suspect they are adding 25% to their gates based on corporates given but not using tickets, so they are still averaging 5,250 at games.....they look to have a business plan that none of the failed expansion clubs ever had. Expansion done the PSG/Crusaders/London way involved sticking posts in the ground, announcing KO times and expecting curious locals to come and watch, get hooked and buy season tickets......the disputes I have had with London over their failure in this department are well recorded.......but Toronto look like a different animal. YES.....I still am skeptical, but for a chance to crack a new market with new sponsors and new revenue streams, I'd bury those clubs that treat survival as a victory.....

What exactly have clubs like Wakefield, Halifax, Batley, Keighley, Oldham, Rochdale etc actually done over the past 30 years with regards to the expansion or enhancement of the sport overall? Pray tell me??
TWP and other potential NA clubs open up new markets which bring EXPANSION to the sport; money, exposure, people, connections. Have any of the above clubs been able to support or maintain such factors??

Failed from the outset because their owners did not market or make their clubs a bold awareness to the wider world. They expected pople to simply rock up. Build it and they will come mentality. Often the owners of such clubs (including the Israeli born Marwan Koukash) who may have been successful in their own business portfolios yet have been absolutely clueless of how to run a sports clubs. Time and time again we have seen this over and over in RL, soccer, RU, Cricket....

It's quite strange how RL treats it's smaller clubs, compared with say, football.

When a club like Burnley, with relatively limited resources, gains promotion to the top flight, they are embraced and recognised for their "over achievement" but in our sport, "fans" of other clubs besmirch the audacity of the smaller clubs for daring to breathe.
Non of this existed pre SL, when the only criteria for being in the top flight was finishing in the top 2 places in the league below and some of the bigger clubs licked their lips at the "2 easy points" that they would gain.
Super League created a more acrimonious environment where clubs were "measured" on various criteria, some of it quite laughable, and clubs were instantly set against one another and still, fans of certain clubs, seem to have difficulty in watching the sport,without first using some measuring stick of whether their own club is "better".
Sport should always be about what happens on the field of play and not based on numbers of plastic seats.
Yes, there should be minimum standards but, RL and many of its fans seems to have lost sight of the SPORT that we all used to enjoy.

there is a big difference. association football is the biggest sport in the country and the world, RL is not, they can afford to have a 20 team league with practically unlimited resources and still only have 4-5 clubs as serious contenders the rest are cannon fodder just happy to be there. we cannot do that in RL.

Doesn't mean we give up though. Soccer could be bankrupt any day now. TV deals could fall through, sponsors pull out. Nothing is in concrete.

Armchair spectators who want expansion everywhere will be the death of the game.

Do you realise just how contradictory and ridiculous your statement is ?

Every pro sport in the world, with the possible exception of American Football, has bigger clubs and "minnows" and some of the great sporting moments are made up of "David v Goliath", with the small guy/team prevailing.
Thankfully every club is different, which is just how it should be.
Whether we like it or not, in RL there are 4/5 "big clubs" and the rest, like it or not, make up the numbers.
In recent seasons, we have seen Caslteford, in spite of their "traditional" ground, break into the top 4 and in some style as well.
Should we jettison them from the top flight because of their facilities or, sit back and enjoy the "product" they are serving up on the field of play ?
We have a salary cap in RL to try and level the playing field, which, rather ironically, came about due to the massive overspending by Wigan (and one or two others) and without Maurice. Lindsay brokering the plan for summer rugby, with investment from Sky TV, the game could have disappeared as a pro sport and whilst "we" have tried to pretend RL is a mainstream sport, the reality is somewhat different.
The sport blighted by the play station generation (just as many other sports are at junior level), is struggling like hell to encourage youngsters to want to get off their backsides and participate and yet, rather than invest more heavily in the grassroots of the game, those at the helm believe that we are better placed, chasing rainbows in a non RL playing nation.
IF we were doing this from a position of strength, maybe, it would make sense but, what we are actually doing is spreading what little resource and energy we have ever more thinly
The domestic game is dying on it's backside and yet it seems that may "fans" of the sport would be happy to see Salford, Leigh, Widnes or Wakefield go to the wall, as long as we have Toronto, a club without any RL roots whatsoever, playing in SL.
If JK Rowling had scripted this, we would say she was bonkers.

If any business is failing, usually the first course of action is to consolidate your asserts, control spending and work out the best way forward.
Has anyone noticed this happening within our sport, not on your life

Quite possibly. The problem is our minnows are swimming in the same pond as the bigger clubs! Leeds, Wigan, Saints, Hull FC, Warrington and to a lesser extent Catalans and Castleford are being held back by the likes of Wakey, Salford and Widnes who between them have fewer fans than Leeds on their own.......the romance of the cup is fine, but the top tier is no place for sides limping along surviving hand to mouth.

You must explain how clubs "like Wakefield" are holding the others back.
Apart from taking a slice of the Sky cake, I would suggest that "clubs like Wakefield" actually help the bigger clubs.

Cant compete for the bigger names, easy points every season , the bigger clubs plundering their best talent (both at junior and senior level), I really wish we could hold them back.

One of the many reasons why the smaller clubs cant grow, is because they cant compete monetarily and the likes of Leeds and Wigan mop up all the young talent

Perhaps you are advocating a 6 club SL where the sky cash is shared between just a few clubs and they can play with themselves every other week, now, that would make great TV.

Do Man City, Man United etc ever suggest that Burnley or Huddersfield are holding them back.

Wakey v Huddersfield version 5.0 is soon to be upon us......the 2 regular season games and the cup tie averaged 4,127 in attendance per game.
By Contrast, Wigan Wire averaged 11,824......just 557 fewer than 3 games in their entirety.

Wakey, Widnes, Salford.......they treat survival as a victory and I'd rather take a punt on some dodgy mancanadians getting the sky cash than carry on feeding the needy and pointless clubs.

As I say. I have no idea of Toronto or any other pipe-dream club is the answer, but I'd prefer not to die wondering.

Do you know what I wish us "needy and pointless clubs" would fu*k off then we can have the other 5/6 clubs play each other 10 times a season, and the other positive is we wouldn't have to listen to your constant drivel.

Bless.....did I hit a nerve?

I know discussing "fans" is a sore point given your team's lack of any supporters, but it is the point of this thread. 30,236 paying customers at 11 games the AJB this year,. That's only 7k more than Leeds got for 1 game v Castleford....are you London in disguise?
There is an irony in a London supporter being able to call into question the existence of clubs based purely on their lack of support......I mean it's not like we were ever subjected to 2 decades of "what do you bring" or "did you come in a taxi". London had averages better than those posted by Wakey, Salford and Widnes in their time in SL......and we're now at the right level playing with local players and with a youth set-up delivering the goods. The whining from certain quarters in this thread reminds me of a drug addict explaining why they take drugs.........and why they need to keep taking them. The reality is that London "kicked the SKY cash" habit in 2014 and we're better for it........sooner the week and needy clubs do the same the competition will be better....

Yes statto you did your constant drivel is beyond boring, wtf did New Zealand do to deserve you. BTW your not an RL fan your constant misery is unbearable all you want to do is knock the sport.