Will we see the first ever all Championship 11,000 + attendance for Leigh v Batley.

Mr Beaumont has invited Batley fans & fans of any other Clubs to enjoy Rugby League for free on Saturday, already looking like a total capacity sell out.

Are you coming Headhunter ?

Wouldn't count on it. There'd be some on here who think free tickets are still too expensive.

Er yeah, they did. They spent more than the other teams, bought a bunch of players that were too good for the competition they were in and won promotion on the back of that. The club was a total shambles but as far as on-field goes they did the same thing as Leigh. They had a wealthy owner who bankrolled them to success. I don't begrudge Leigh or anyone else for doing that BTW, that's the way modern sport works but the fact is that if the owner pulled out they would go the same way as Celtic Crusaders, as would every club in the bottom half of Super League. Leigh were having bucket collections before Beaumont stepped in. Trying to claim that the success any more noble or 'deserved' than anyone else is a childish fallacy. To be fair at least Beaumont has put his money in and achieved what he set out to do, which is more than can be said for the likes of Koukash.
Halifax, Keighley, Wigan, St Helens, Warrington and Hull FC all ran reserves this year. Dewsbury started the season but withdrew.

Ah I see our phony frenchman is still coming up with all kinds of rubbish.
I have him on ignore so only see when people quote him.
When people start saying words like deserve to be in the top flight about a sporting team you know they have lost any notion of having sound reasoning.
The league table does not lie, those who deserve to be where they are , are where they are.

I liked having Bradford in SL, but they went bust twice under the closed shop that was licencing. If you can't make it when there is the protection of a Cartel, then it's sad but that's life. Survival of the fittest!

They didn't just let Leigh spend more money than anyone else though did they?

The playing field just wasn't level & now it is. If a club (or should I say, rich individual) wants to plough a shed load of cash into trying to get into S.L. then fair play to them.

If for instance, Huddersfield were to be in the Championship next season & their Chairman bankrolled the club up to the cap, would you have a problem with that?

You brought up the comparison , I or nobody else has suggested Leigh promotion is more ' Noble ' than any other

Just for the record Leighton Samuel wasn't the primary financier of the CC s , that was RFL development money via Wales RL through their offices located conveniently at Mr Samuels Dekor company

They ran full time on 150K ?

I don't have any problem with what Leigh did at all, the cap should be the same across all divisions and it will be from next season so there isn't a problem. I was just replying to the guy who was talking about on-field success being a sign of good things happening off the field, which isn't true. Leigh were on their way to being relegated from the Championship before Beaumont got involved.

Yes we were , so what actually changed ?

What happened that gave Dereck Beaumont the desire and will to put large amounts of his hard earned into the club ?

Probably the same thing that led to Sheffield Eagles trying to run a full-time squad when they couldn't afford it and now looking like they're about to go bust.

Nope , the structure changed , Dereck would not have been willing to put the investment in unless the outcome was decided but what happens on the pitch

You really are slow, what do you think my last post was about?

You mean like Toronto then ?

Toulouse perhaps ?

Neither Toronto or Toulouse are funded at the whim of one wealthy backer, they're running full time squads because they can afford to do it and they would probably be in Super League already if the structure hadn't changed.

So how are Toronto funding next season ?

Similarily Toulouse , how are they funded ?

Toronto are funded by "a consortium of 10 businessmen" apparently. I don't know how Toulouse are funded and I don't care. The point is that neither of them were struggling clubs that only exist in the way they do because they happened to be bought by a millionaire owner who they are totally dependent on. Not singling out Leigh for this BTW, as I said, there are probably 6-7 current SL teams that you could say the same for, that's the nature of the sport in the UK but the whole thing is massively exacerbated by the current structure. Great for Leigh and the others as long as their owners are involved, not so great for Sheffield or Bradford who don't happen to have millionaire owners, tried to artificially compete and spend above their means and now are in turmoil.