You lot are fantastic. all pride in rugby league was lost when promotion and relegtion was scrapped. dont be blaming anything else for this. This is all down to the biggest teams in the land wanting to keep themselves in the top league. even if it means kicking the soul out of the competitio. dont blame anything else apart from the franchise system.

So, without franchising Swinton would be playing in a brand new stadium in front of thousands of fans with a team pushing for promotion? It's not just franchising or P&R; clubs are well managed or they are not. Look at Salford - same city as Swinton with a franchise and a new stadium but hardly any fans and went bust. Every situation is different and to blame Super League or the clubs or the economy or the fans or the media is just lazy. You need to look at the circumstances in each case. If you are looking for an overarching reason, then it is that Rugby League is a minority sport in this country with a low profile and a limited fan base which in turn means that there is not enough money (from sponsorship, gate receipts, merchandise and media rights) to make it sustainable at a fully professional level for more than 10-15 clubs. Sorry.

Whilst I might agree with the analysis in your 'State of the Nation' address i think that it is a little unfair, or rather the system is. A sport based on an elite, where as long as you can afford to pay the tally man, then all is well relatively speaking will inevitably become sterile.

I think P&R is an essential part of any competative sport, as the lower elite clubs try to scramble up the safety ladder and an aspiring second tier club have something tangeable to aim for, perhaps as long as there are qualification criteria?

Keep cracking your skull against a glass ceiling and you'll get a headache, what I do find a little unpalletable is the notion that the rule makers can seemngly adjust that qualification criteria at will, remove that glass ceiling, or be blinded by facts and figures that don't appear to stand up to too much scrutiny.

Crusaders well we need a club in Wales, Fulham/Quins/Bronco's well we need a club in London as it will help with media and sponsorship, Toulouse we could really get the comp going in the South of France, Bradford let's buy the ground and keep one of our 'names' in the comp' Salford, well we need a 'Manchester' team don't we?

As for Swinton, don't they reallise that because Salford got into trouble they should know their place? I find it odd that whilst Salford's town hall is in Swinton, the community stadium is really SCR's and presumably a vital part of their franchise bid? a case of taking Swinton's poll tax including the houses built on Station Road building your 'rivals' a stadium whilst you play in Leigh....

Yeah right

If I were a Swinton supporter I would be rather excited to see Briers and Morley turn out for my team...

Wonder why the crowds are dwindling?

The crowds appear to be down in SL as well as the Championship. We are down about 6pc, Wigan and Saints I think were down 6-10 pc. Leigh and Swinton are both down. I suspect the problem with the Championship clubs is the fact that there is no financial room for manoeuvre. The players that a club can afford are presumably signed on the basis of last years attendances ?

I would n`t disagree with you but the Yed does n`t appear to grasp that. We`d love to have a benefactor like Moran but a few businessmen are looking at a few alternatives, which hopefully will bear fruition.

One of the main problems these days is that the man in the street has developed so many more interests than trudging to watch his local team every week be it rugby or football & in our neck of the woods many people are struggling to make ends meet without paying out to go to the match.

Its alright banging on about the rights & wrongs of P&R but is it realistic ? You can't expect to take a player out of a job when his team get promoted to SL for what might be one season then next season the team get relegated & the team have to find jobs again which isn't very likely now or for many years to come. After all it only a means of earning a living for these players. To make P&R viable all the players would have to be paid the same way ,either all full time pros or all part time pros.

I forgot Swinton's huge crowds pre 96, i remember all the sell out games?
Another one blaming the system in its entirety, that's just lazy. Granted there are now obstacles in the way but don't use that as the get out clause for shoddy work behind the scenes.

For a lot of lower league clubs, even when there was still promotion and relegation a few years back, they struggled to get crowds of more than a few hundred every week. If the prospect of the Super League dream couldn't get the public out then there is no long term future being anything other than a small local semi pro club. Nothing wrong with that, but that is the level of interest in RL in that area. Don't kid yourselves that bringing back promotion and relegation would develop new interest in the town, if you couldn't get it in the years before P&R was scrapped.

You are obviously entitled to support a system that favours a 'chosen' few, rewards mediocrity and kills off ambition.

Would a rejuvenated Swinton attract more or less fans/interest than the recent or current set ups of London and their city neighbours Salford City Reds?

I'm not against London or Salford particularly, good luck to them both as we need competition, but, what I am against is unfairness, we are, or should be one sport in my opinion.