Widnes have an extremely wealthy owner and the vikings posted a profit of over £1m last year. The Vikings have made it clear that they will be at or close to full salary cap in 2012. Whereas:

Wakefield have an owner in an IVA and the club has faced 2 winding up orders with the HMRC in less than 12 months. The club are unlikely to be at full cap in 2011.

The RFL do not need to know that the championship bid is 'better'. The championship bid needs to be above set standards. If there are more than one club above the standards (unlikely) then the highest placed club gets a licence. Any remaining championship clubs above the standards + the SL clubs that submit an application are considered for the remaining 13 places.

I still find it absurd that what actually happens on the field is seen as a total irrelevance, and even moreso by some of the posters on these forums.

Isn't the ACTUAL GAME the key selling point of Rugby League?

The 2nd batch are all assessed against each other and the best clubs out of those make up the other 13, so criteria would just be a guideline I guess. On the SL Criteria does that also answer the question on why should one team drop out? As not all side meet all of them and I guess the idea is if you do your safe if you don't your not (I bet it's a similar ratio to clubs meeting Championship criteria too).

I know, I'm afraid that a lot of people who use this board can readily accept limitations which would seem absurd if taken into another sport.

Just imagine.......

[iBlackpool FC were informed that they have been cruelly removed from the Premier League today after it was decided that the North West had too many clubs in the league. Their place will be given to Bristol City as part of their South West expansion plans.

Meanwhile Bolton FC have been given a stay of execution after relocating to West Yorkshire. Their place in the top flight had also been under threat but after relocating to Bradford this means that top flight Premier League action returns once more to West Yorkshire.[/i

You are an old man flipping retard.
Where's Leighs fantastic shiny application.. oh wait.. ... ... ... ...

So would the final 13 be assessed against the SL or Champ criteria?

(Hypothetical Warning)
You could end up with 4 or 5 Champ 'A' grades against Championship criteria replacing 4 or 5 SL lower grades and thus have a revolving SL where teams change every 3 years...I would hazard a guess Cas/Wakey/Salford/Quins/Celtic/Catalans/Bulls could easily manage to reach the top grade against Champ criteria

Erm Dico....not sure how to put this but are you confusing Leighfan with Leaguefan?

Regardless of the team that Leaguefan supports (which I assume to be Keighley Cougars) the point remains. Shouldn't performance on the pitch be the deciding factor. You after all only have to go back a few years when you were struggling at the bottom of the league in a stadium viewed to be out of date (but so much more atmospheric than your new ground).

What happened at Warrington to change things?

If you have to have won something to be eligible to apply for a licence.....
Would it be sensible (drag me out and shoot me now!!) that you should have been in the bottom 2 in SL or have had financial problems to be considered for the drop?

Good stuff Walton Tiger. Yes it would be very sensible to be considered for the drop if you have finished in the bottom two. Perhaps a two up, two down system might work.

Those goal posts seem quite clear. Do well, get rewarded. Don't do well, get relegated. Get into financial difficulties - get points deducted.

Again, we tried P&R...IT DIDNT WORK.

Clubs ended up in all sorts of bother financially, many clubs didnt have a hope of ever seeing Super League, ever, but would bankrupt themselves to try, fans were leaving the game at lower levels and the game was being dominated by two or three clubs...and thats after 30 years of trying this farcical system.

Licencing should at least be given a couple of rounds to see if it is better, surely.

IMO their should be a points system involved in both leagues yes... say Championship..

1 point NRC
2 points top of league
3 points Win Grand Final

Amd you need what 3 points to apply over 3 years (or something like that).

Then for SL...

League leaders 5 points
Playoff's 3 points
Playoff semi 5 points
Title win - 10 points
Cup Quaters 2 points
Cup semi 4 points
Cup win 7 points
Bottom 3 minus 3 points

And you need say 5 to avoid going down. Again very poorly done but something along those lines...

problem of course is what if no SL sides eligibel to go down but one Champ clubs dominates 3 years in league below?

Again just used as a guidline, i.e. you could say we have Fax with crowds of 2,500 playing at the Shay against SL Salford with 3,500 at the Willows, so you COULD say Fax would do better in SL based on that? If comapred to Cas with what 7,000 crowds and youth yo would say they would do no better based on those initial basic facts. That sort of thing, lol.

I can't see them putting up any British side who don't meet the Champ criteria anyway, it is eveb said once they submit these 'application forms' if they don't meet them the process stops there? Who knows?

Noooo.... .......
Put it how you like and this time lets allow people to think.

1) re-read the point
2) What didn't Leigh do
3) What do Leigh have

It doesn't need an apology as you weren't rude or anything. However I didn't think everything had to be explained in baby steps on this board

Plain and simply put Simon Moran going from a back seat investor to the clubs owner changed the fortunes at Wire

You only have to explain things in baby steps if you fail to make yourself clear Dico. Again, no need to apologise for failing to make yourself clear.

The point Leaguefan was making was performance on the field should count for something. Leigh didn't perform on the field when they needed to so despite having a new stadium they will have to wait until 2015 before having that Super League dream again.

If I've walked into a disagreement you have with Leaguefan then I'll back out now as I'm not here to argue, just to put my case forward for a return to P & R.