Franchising, but done properly, like the NRL & American sports where once you're in, you're in unless you go bust or relocate, then add more teams when appropriate.

always promotion/relegation for me...the main reason i stopped going two years ago was the franchising..

Fev 17 wins 2 losses 1 match to go, championship shield winners yet at the moment we ]can't] apply for SL because we've not reached a grand final or won the northern rail cup, pure madness.

Batley can because they've won the northern rail cup yet are 7 wins 12 losses with 1 game to go, pure madness.

Toulouse have won squat and haven't even qualified for the play offs yet can go up if the RFL decide to let them in as a 'special case' because they are in a development area, pure madness.

Fans ]are] staying away because there is no chance of us going up and when teams do get close to the requirements the goalposts are moved.

The top teams in SL are safe but there are about half a dozen who aren't and if any do go down to get back in you won't be competing against clubs like Fev or Halifax but Toulouse and any other development club who decide they want a piece of the action.

Promotion and relegation is vital if the sport is to grow because then new clubs can start at the bottom and work up the pyramid and have a business plan to reach SL by their on the field exploits and not at the whim of a bunch of people who clearly don't understand the basics of fair competition..
To me it's a no brainer and I would say 99% of Championship/1 fans would agree.

if we was bottom of the super league and it meant being relegated and being replaced by fev then fair dos let them take a crack at it

Totally agree with you, and I've said this all along. SL will take care of itself. The RFL have to make the Championship a competition that clubs want to play in for franchising to work. They have to raise its profile and pump some brass into it. Kill off the game at the roots, and it's only a matter of time before the SL flower withers and dies.

Re. franchising itself. 2 years is nowhere near enough time to be able to pass judgement or reap the rewards, IMO. If the main aim is to improve the game by bringing in homegown talent, how on earth does anyone expect to see a massive improvement in 2 seasons? We won the Academy GF last season, but a lot of the lads who may be good enough in the future will certainly not figure at this stage, at least, not on a permanent basis.

I'm tempted to say bin it, because of what we're witnessing now, but I think it should be given another 3 years, with massive effort to support and market the championship clubs at the same time. If the result is still the same at the end of it, ditch it and go back to where we were. At least then, most of us might enjoy our sport again.

Promotion and relegation is what we need

franchising is the worstything that this sport could come up with

Groundhog Day anyone? I could have sworn we did this thread last week, and the week before come to that.

I agree, and I started the thread because of JK's comments on the radio.

JK said that he was initially in favour of franchising, but now he has seen it in action, he is not so sure. He referred the nailbite of a relegation scrap and the inability of at-risk clubs to recruit due to uncertainty. That will always be the case for a couple of clubs every franchise round, unless the RFL close the door for ever to all the rest.

You are entitled to try something and decide that it isn't working. There is no interest at all in the Super League from 10th place downwards. That's 5 clubs playing out dead rubbers. How many fans are not going to bother with the final couple of games when they don't mean anything?

My main gripe with promotion and relegation as it stood before was that whether you came up depended on who was due to come down, rather than whether you were the best team in the league below, with things like Huddersfield "mergers" to keep the Galpharm in the Super League. I have no problem with being relegated if it is because of on-field merit (or lack of it), and whoever shows on-field merit in the league below should come up. Our concern in 2006 was that even if we won the championship grand final every year, the RFL wouldn't let us back up again.

I accept that they will give it one more round, but has the reality of franchising created a better sport? Too early to tell maybe, and I suppose we don't have any whipping boys anymore, but it's pretty dull below 9th spot.

Thread cleaned up.

Does anyone know whether the crowds have gone down in the lower leagues? Or even in the Super League?

The way to assess it, I suppose, would be to see how crowds have been affected at the bottom, rather than the top. How do the average crowds for the final ten games for the bottom five clubs compare to the average crowds for the bottom five clubs for the pre-franchise years?

I was going to put a similar post to this...the fact is i maybe misguided but i feel and so do many other fans that if Newmarket is not in place whether in principle or actually groundwork is commencing the RFL/SL will have great pleasure in kicking this once great club out. That to me will be the death of this club, reality is now hitting home of how Championships side fans must feel. If we get kicked out i believe, new ground or not we will ever get back into SL as the system stands. The club will have about 1500 hardcore supporters with a team made up of journeymen aussies, local youngsters who if any good will be snapped up by a SL team an extremely average other players.

I know the RFL/SL have a point scoring system for the franchise system but are you telling me Leigh, Widnes, Halifax are in any better position than us ? I personally do not think so and i believe they would take a few seasons to be at SL level. What the RFL like is a nice shiny new ground irrelevant if it is three quaters empty.

We as a club do not help ourselves, it has been said on numerous other threads, the ground, marketing,promotion busines and other off field activities are a joke.

What the RFL/SL need to understand is yes BV is a joke, yes this year we have been terrible, but we have a SL team and with the right chairmen and backing off the field and the right coach on the field we could easily be top 6 year in year out.

The RFL/SL will not kick the likes of Salford out due to their shiny new ground, Crusaders (who i hope will continue to grow) because of their location and the fact they are backing them financially and Hull KR despite their ground being terrible and they are in massive financial debt.

Maybe I am being negative but I just feel this club is on its knees and gives the RFL/SL every opportunity to kill the once best and most famous club in Rugby League.

Fantastic post your 100% right.

You are all saying this now that it might be u for the chop i do feel for u,But at the end of the day your club said it would have a stadia ready and done nothing while us widnes have been shafted and shafted time and time again,Well if thats the way the rugby league want to play it i say share the shafting and it might just be ur turn but only because u have given the the go ahead to do so.Half every 1 on here is crying now for promotion and relegation but most wernt when u got in was u why now lol?.It also makes me chuckle the way u keep saying on other threads like we have hope for the stadia lets rewind 18months ago exactly the same story what are u gona promise to do it yet again and try and stay in over widnes rlfc vikings.Not this time fingers crossed our time is now i just hope they dont throw u out and maybe add 2 teams making 16 give all the clubs 2 years and those that still havent got it done throw them out for good.Ps i dont mean to sound bad on you cause i aint.But widnes in the championship have been working so hard under 21s and 18s/16s as good as any super league reserve in the country and steve occoner who has delivered on all his promises deserve reward and i for 1 think we just might get it