But its not all about the grounds is it, it is about the whole package they offer.

After the first round of franchising it is to soon to judge the success of franchising either way, but there are signs it is working. Look at the young players now being brought through at clubs like Castleford as they can now plan for the 3 years rather than having to look for quick fixes to stop them being relegated that season.

At the end of the new round of franchises I would hope we would be very much seeing the benefits at all levels, if not then perhaps it will need to be reconsidered.

Makes me laugh as one team has been brought in and yet they havent even looked at the other applicants. What if Wakey have a better application than Widnes? Will they still be kicked out? What if every club has a better application than Widnes?

Great news. Another local derby to look foward to, in addition I'm sure they will bring more fans to the DW than the team leaving SL ever did...(prob Wakey) - this can only be good for Wigan.

Welcome back Widnes.

Its not not practical to have P&R every season. Whoever goes down loses all their players (they become free agents) and this has to occur because of the much smaller salary cap in NL1. So if that is the case what 's the point of spending years developing your own players just for other clubs to pick up your team for free if you get relegated? Given the disparity between SL and NL1 in terms of money its just not like the old days where a side might lose a few star players it could keep its team and try to get back up the season after. The relegated team is literally gutted of its players.

Even in the old days it was certainly true if the relegated team came back up the next season they were favourites for the drop again so what was the point in that?

Then they would have eventually been found out if playing at the top level and relying on buying in talent - it would have been their loss if they hadn't brought through talent and I don't think it's necessarily up to the RFL to decide that.


The plans for the LSV were first announced in 2002 Geoff so that would have happened without franchising, although I do agree on the others.


Young players will always be brought through regardless of promotion and relegation - even we managed it on our last two excursions to the top flight.

Moreover it makes no sense to boot them out for poor facilities given their support.

That is a problem and one of the RFL's own making when they said an NL team would definitely come up regardless.

It defeats the object of franchising IMO so although I am in favour of it over P&R I think they should do it properly and judge each case on its merits which they clearly are not going to be doing if all current SL clubs put a better package together than Widnes.

They other thing they did recently was say they were not going to judge soley on the prevous criteria and were not going to give grades like they did last time.

They will also introduce a [usubjective[/u criteria of what a side brings to SL and that I think, gets round the problem you highlight. The RFL could say "Yes Wakey's application is better than Widnes but Widnes will bring more to SL than Wakey staying there because Widnes are famous" or whatever.

It ought to mean Wigan can never lose the franchise because we are the most famous RL club in the world

I'm chuffed to see Widnes back in the top flight, they'll bring some big crowds with them which our sport is crying out for.

Congratulations to the Chemics.

But without being forced into it clubs didn't used to do it at all levels of the game. And that's a fact.

Wigan always have and always have done but for a long time we were the only side with any real youth program. Leeds realised it was a good idea. They used to build sides off other clubs more or less completely if you look at the sides they had when Schofield was there. Wane from here went, Crooks, Schofield and so on all bought in and many others. When SL came about they went for youth development and it worked but for a time it was only really us and Leeds.



I don't think that is true. Young players will never be risked in sides in the lower end of the table. It's win at all costs to avoid the drop. At least with the franchise system if you are out of contention for the play-offs you can plan for next season and blood some younger players. If you are out of contention for the play-offs in a P&R system then you are in a relegation fight and so that is not an option.

I do agree with that point. They made a mistake, IMO, in promising that one club would come up regardless of the state of the current SL clubs. The basic concept is still valid, though, and we're already seeing the benefits, even after such a short time.