Compared to the Championship-different planet as the vast majority of results in the CC show.

Investing in mediocrity is not the. Best way to spend the cash in the sport

How would you know ?

Full of Bull mate

The Oracle speaks....

They can work if mamaged correctly. Catalans, St Merge-Illawarra and Wests Tigers (although now Balmain have gone belly up)

Indeed they can, but not if forced on the clubs, at least not in the UK. Putting aside the "fake" mergers we've seen in the UK, the only way they could work is if the merged clubs played out of a brand new stadium nicely located between their original grounds.

Let's assume, for example, that Fax, Bradford and Huddersfield merged but chose the John Smith's Stadium where they'd play their games (or Odsal or the Shay, it doesn't matter). Within a single season Bradford and Fax would have disappeared, and we'd just have the same old Giants club (with a slightly different name) with maybe a hundred or so extra supporters.

The game doesn't have the cash to build new stadiums and (true) mergers won't work and won't happen.

There were two levels in the Championship this season, but the entertainment value of clashes between the top 6 clubs surpassed a lot of SL encounters. Sky would do well to consider showing some Championship games next year.

Not unless the original heritage clubs existed in a league below and run by supporters or a board?

Indeed..... And Wakefield are about as much of an attractive drawcard as a re-run of crossroads.
A Calder club, ayimg in a new shiny stadium and fed by multiple Clubs inclining Cas, Fev and wakey would be a great superleage club, whilst those feeder clubs would continue to play in a secondary comp that runs after the SL season..... 22 games a season for the SL sides and say 11 for the feeder clubs..... With all the income filtering down to the feeder clubs.... The grass roots of the game would continue with kids progress g to. Academy level..... Then maybe to the 2nd tier...... Then maybe to The SL level...... SL Licences would enable the cash to be spent on development and not survival...........lets face it, wakey are never going to win SL on their current fiscal model, so why should we keep giving them 1.8 million?..... If you're not able to compete you shouldn't be in the game...

Again, more utter rubbish.

If you venture up to this part of the world, you will find that there is no appetite whatsoever for the "Calder" merger that you keep banging on about and the secondary competition that you suggest is a total non starter as it would have about as much interest from fans as going to an "A" team game.
Also, if we shrink the semi professional model and the number of SL sides, the chances of progress for youngsters necessarily reduces and more critically, there would be no more interest from media and sponsors in a reduced top flight.
We already have too many repeat fixtures. Trinity themselves will Huddersfield 5 times this season and although you will probably point to the 3 losses (probably 4 after Friday night), I'd rather watch them play Toulouse or Batley for 2 of them.

There was an argument for reducing SL to 10 clubs to "improve quality" but, the fixtures, especially when factoring in cup games and play offs would, even for the most passionate fans, just become boring repeats

So...
1) Why do you think Cas, Fev and Wakefield fans will all turn up to watch a combined team? There is no evidence that this mythical team will be any more supported than any of the current ones.
2) If you only want teams in Super League who can win the Grand Final, the evidence would suggest you have a league of two...............of the four teams that have won, Bradford are in League one so it's going to be quite hard for them and Leeds are struggling in the Middle 8. You could include Hull, Warrington and Cas as they have made the final before but each were beaten pretty well so I'm not sure that fits your point.

Right now Wakefield don't look like winning the Grand Final but I think most people would agree we are competitive.

A Calder merger is a non starter.
Firstly there is no area or region called Calder, nobody identifies with an area called calder. (there is Calderdale, Halifax) the Calder runs through Wakefield but it runs into the Aire just before Castleford. People in Castleford Knottingley etr refer to the river Aire, Featherstone as no river whatsoever and is no where near either river. any merged team would have to use the district name i.e. Wakefield, and that will not go down well. It's not like hull and hull kr merging into one "Hull" Club, or one Manchester club.

Secondly people will simply not support it on any level.

A shared stadium is viable and us an ideal solution for Wakefield and castleford, but a stadium in either town is a no go'er as Wakefield fans would boycott playing in Castleford and vice versa, Featherstone stadium is pretty small but superior to both BV and Weldon road, so they do not need to be involved unless by pure choice, POR is partially redeveloped a new main stand if around 4K will take the capacity over 10k and all 3 could use that as its central. Or Castleford Wakefield should look at a new site smack in the middle at say Normanton, altofts. Normanton as a Fev wakefield Castleford split fan base so like cal support guaranteed for all clubs, and is closer for some fans fans than the current grounds.

This is the same old drivel that’s brought up every couple of years there’s a daft merger thread that appears. “On our own we can never hope to win anything or be a top 4 club”. I’m so glad Darryl Powell and all
Concerned with the club has proven that to be to total BS. As much as the thought horrified me, if we can Reach a GF and win the league by a record amount of points, be a regular in the top 4 and reach a CC final all in 4 years then so can Wakey.

I think I can manage to agree with all that. Makes perfect sense. Now to sell it to Yorkshire....