you bring so much, but offer so little, your just very dull on a wide range of subjects.

You remind me of an accountant, who knows the cost of everything but the "VALUE of NOTHING."

Thats a great line

On the subject of Franchising many RL fans think its a new thing, but its been going on since RL was founded.
All thats changed is the words used. In the past teams were Elected into the professional ranks. Franchise is very much an Americanism. We in Britain would usually use words like Association or League to denote a collection of different companies working together under a common umbrella organisation. Hence Rugby League, or Football Asssociation.

In order to get elected to these associations or leagues you would need to satisfy certain criteria from the existing clubs.
This is essentially the same as the franchising process.

As a guide. These are the founder clubs of the RFL

: Batley FC, Bradford FC, Brighouse Rangers FC, Broughton Rangers FC, Halifax FC, Huddersfield FC, Hull F.C., Hunslet FC, Leeds FC , Leigh FC , Liversedge FC , Manningham F.C., Oldham FC , Rochdale Hornets FC , Runcorn , Stockport , St Helens FC , Tyldesley FC , Wakefield Trinity FC , Warrington FC , Widnes FC , Wigan FC .

you will note that there is no Dewsbury, Salford, Castleford, Whitehaven, Workington, Barrow, Hull KR, Featherstone, Swinton etc.
All these are actually franchise teams brought in to expand the League.
None of these Franchise teams were promoted into a Professional league at the expense of a team being relegated. No instead they were elected.

The current franchise process that is going on, has been going on since the birth of RL.

Bet they weren't worried about the number of seats in the ground, the state of the bogs, whether there was any baby changing facilities, if the club did any community work etc. They were 'elected' on the basis of their playing strength, ie. what happened on the pitch, a bit like promotion and relegation.

Post of the day; as my 11 year old son can often be heard to say - "owned!"

You might well be right, the difference being they all came into the "same" league.

were they?

Castleford RLFC were founded in 1926, we were elected to the RFL in 1926, taking over the ground of Castleford Town FC after their third (iirc) unsuccessful bid to be elected to the Football League. We didn't exist to prove our strength on the field before joining the league. It was nothing like promotion and relegation between the divisions of a league.

Maybe we were unique.

so you merged

no

very informative whos on your doorstep