Any evidence of this or is it just paranoid nonsense

Except of course I'm a Fev supporter

there's an argument that they are the biggest Rugby club (of either code) in the country. It was certainly true a few years ago, before Stupor League went in for licencing and wrecked the sport.

How did licencing wreck the sport?

Any news on McDermott's successor, even for the interim? A bit daft to sack him and not have someone lined up either temporarily or for the long term.

Ask yourself this, is the sport bigger or smaller than it was before licencing? Have Union not stolen a march on our game? Doesn't Sky treat us appallingly compared to the way they used to treat us?

Barry Eaton is temporarily in charge.

Long term the favourites for the job are Dave Furner and Daryl Powell.

I eat more avocados post licencing. There must be a correlation.

don't get me started on correlation/causation, I did my degree a while ago!

Shame they didn't go for Matt Diskin, a fans favourite & looks like he's got Batley playing a similar style to Leeds.

the co-relation is that there were too many meaningless games, fans lost interest. As a Cas fan I wouldn't have thought you'd be pro licencing. If it hadn't been for Crusaders dropping out, Cas could have been dropped.

The sport is smaller, but that has nowt to do with Licensing and a whole load to do with bad management and clubs spending to stay up rather than grow....the best examples of this would be Widnes who were competitive both on and off the field during licencing, but who have reverted to spending to stay up and sod the rest of it.
As for Union, they are well managed at all levels and still hemorrhage cash at an eye watering rate......but they have adapted to open professionalism and have allowed "nature' to take its course seeing Quins, Northampton and Newcastle all be relegated and have to fend for themselves without tweaking the format...the RFU/IRB are the dog and the club game is the tail and the god wags its tail, whilst in League, the tail wags the dog and the elite few will protect their status no matter what......it's why AFL dwarfs NRL in aussie.....it's why soccer is growing fast over there 10,700 average...only 4k behind the NRL now....36k for a Sydney Derby....more than the Bunnes v the Dogs drew this year......the sport is badly managed across the board and that's why it's smaller in the UK.....nothing to do with Licensing!