rlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/19991897rl

Not exactly unexpected but lets see what help the RFL give here !!

How strange? The RFL is telling us how strong SL is becoming and how licensing works really well, yet things like this happen!

Remove four teams from SL - Salford, Castleford, Bradford and London. Place them in the league below and make them go semi pro.

Looking at this, I'm not convinced they're not victims of a bunch of carpet-baggers. Something fishy afoot methinks.

Missed their attendance target, so finances not where they should be, but this winding up nonsense doesn't sit right.

Exactly what a club who has just moved in to a brand new stadium needs, less income, less visibility and playing at a lower level.

Perhaps the RFL will buy the stadium!!!!!

Drop 2 teams out of the league, bring back promotion and relegation, make the play offs a top 5 system and move the challenge cup final to late May.

Easy steps to making the game stronger. There will be a couple of clubs noses put out of joint but they bring little to the table as things currently stand(and 'they' could be 2 of about 4 or 5 clubs).

It's the bit in brackets thats the issue....

OK, So we do that.

How does dropping two of our pro clubs to the semi-pro level increase the amount of clubs we need at the necessary pro level?

How does P+R help the 4 or 5 clubs you are talking about not being at the requisite level get to the level of the other 9 or 10?

How do any of the things you have suggested help us toward the aim of more clubs being at the level we need them to be?

Why don't you tell us how we stop clubs have financial issues... Those are the facts, rather than a pipe dream...

I sort of guess that was tongue in cheek as we all know Salford Reds are tenants like ourselves.

Well you don't start by throwing them to the wolves. I do think London is a lost cause & they have no right to be in SL, but Salford should be able to draw on a reasonably large fan-base for those who don't (or won't) identify with Cheshire, or out west or just don't like pies.
The lamentable marketing of the game generally is a major problem and the RFL appear to be simply scared of banging heads with Twickenham and balk at the preponderance of wendyball clubs around Manchester.

I work in the of Manchester and I have never seen any advertising other than for the two main soccer clubs (except for the play-off advertising which was poorly thought out & didn't make any sense to anyone outside the game). The Magic weekend could have been a convention of wizards for anyone knew about it and if you edit the Red's logo to blank out their name then ask people who's logo it is you will almost always get something along the lines of "it's a red devil, so it must be M.United". I've tried it - depressing.

The complete lack of market presence is the main problem. Clubs need to get off their ar...s & shout about the game to anyone who'll listen and not let the RFU bully them off the park.

You have hit the nail on the head... Its advertising, and although we can blame the RFL for that in part, to a large part actually, we also need to look at what the clubs do on their own behalf.

I had forgotten...

We dont. Because we cant.

The RFL's job isnt to legislate against the idiocy of chairmen. It is to create an environment where clubs have the space and time, and opportunity to thrive.

Our aim should be to get the 14 clubs we have now in SL, up to the level they need to be. Some, i accept, wont ever make it, but they can be replaced by others.

Some may say that London isnt working, and in part (the getting people through the doors part mostly) i agree. But i dont think that means London wont work. Rather than giving up on London, we should be looking at why it hasnt work, and what we need to do to change that.

Similarly with Salford, we need to look at why Salford havent attracted the attendances they should and what we can do to fix it.