The current situation reminds me of the old one....
A Wakey fan and a Cas fan are on safari when they suddenly get confronted by a lion. They both freeze and look at each other. Then the cas fan slowly reaches down and takes off his boots. He reaches into his bag and puts on a brand new pair of Nikes. The Wakey fan says, "you'll never out-run a lion, even in those", to which he replies, "but I only have to out-run you!"

The RFL stated its intention to get serious on stadia when one club from the championship would be promoted without comparison or competition with the club it will ultimately replace. In a way this is fair enough as clubs such as Widnes have had a raw deal and Wakefield and others have been taking the michael for long enough with stadiium plans and promises.

I can understand the RFL's view that to survive in the 21st century the sport must be played in top class facilities and expand geographically, but at what cost?

Local rivalry is the very essence of RL, it creates the atmosphere that Oz clubs are envious of, despite relatively small crowds. You only have to go to home games against Quins, Catalans and Crusaders to see the future. The RFL want clubs to rely on home support, but reduced away support and increased segregation of fans is killing the atmosphere and killing the sport as a live spectacle. How can modernisation take place without throwing the baby out with the bath water?

In the end it all, inevitably, comes down to money and we don't have any. Widnes and/or halifax deserve their chance. Can anyone honestly say that we haven't been given ours already, and failed?
I would love us to continue in the top flight next year, but can anyone say we have done enough to deserve another chance?

That pretty much sums it up for me, although I think we have been unlucky with decisions made by others (eg, don't build your own, come to Thornes Park).

We have had some bad luck with timing and decisions made over the last 40 years, particularly with stadium development (south stand, clubhouse,'wooden' west stand, floodlights...), but that would smack of self-pity.

In the end good businesses make their own luck through careful planning and contingency and reacting well to circumstances and seizing opportunities.

We're at the mercy and whim of the RFL's decision-making now, so I don't hold much hope, but maybe we should have done better. Too little, too late?

We're at the mercy and whim of the RFL's decision-making now, so I don't hold much hope, but maybe we should have done better. Too little, too late?
Absolute 110% right, we are pretty much to blame for our own demise if this is to be the case.
But without doubt the end of Promotion & Relegation was the death tollfor clubs like ours, we fought the authorities sucessfully season after season by avoiding Relegation, we knew they never wanted us, but they couldn't touch us.
One franchise later and we're staring down the barrel of a gun, not because we are bottom of the pile, but because it suits.
The franchise system is a mandate by the RFL to preside over our game as it suits, expansion cannot be stopped no matter how unpopular or unsuccesful it is to supporters, but if it ticks all sky's boxes (bad pun!!) they will continue their proffesional Super League.
Two teams in a district not needed, what next, a limit on how many teams in a county? To bring in teams from other areas, before long you end up with something like crickets county championship.
Not a doom and gloomer, just a realist. I think this is the begining of the end for our generation of traditional fans of RL as we know it, but maybe that's the future of the game and what the fans of the future will want, but it's not for me.

The way I see it for Wakey is that your best option is to take on the RFL head-on.

The running away from the Lion analogy is a good one, unfortunately for you guys it appears that we have got our trainers on and made a big head start. Your best option is to turn around and shove a stick down the Lions throat.

I think the RFL are on very dodgy ground the way they play fast and loose with the rules, this winter has seen yet more shady dealings going on in London and a flagrant disregard for any form of their own rules in Wales.

Ted should stop wasting time taking cheap shots at Cas, both clubs and both sets of fans have spent far too much time taking lumps out of each other this year and as already alluded to in another post have taken their eyes of what should have been the target and that is the corrupt and morally bankrupt RFL.

There is no point in playing nice with the RFL any more hoping they will give you a break - they wont, and rest assured I know the time will come when Cas are back in the cross-hairs again.
I'm no lawyer but I think the best use of any money you have in the next few months would be spent on the best legal advice you can get.

Again, rather you than us, but I would much rather someone put the Lion back in its cage before it trashes what is left of the games credibility and equity.

Merry Christmas to all you Wakey fans, and good luck for 2011.

would rather shove its up is a£se,

many a true word said there, we are going to have to meet them head on if there's any chance, no good pleading for a fair deal it just will fall on deaf ears

it would of been better if all clubs that are in the same situation had got together and fought them off as a unit rather like you said back bite at each other

I think you would find support in the most unlikely of places if you were to take on the RFL over their biased selective processes and expansionist unequalities...
I believe there would be more unity than division, when it is one clubs existence instead of anothers you will always back your own, whereas if it is fans versus injustice then it is a different ball game.

Why would we need to bring a test case? AFAIK nobody has yet been ejected....

I would think the comment by Shameless re money towards legal action is because of us having a perceived jump on you, BUT who knows what the RFL will do.

p.s. Speedy is well worth £3 of anyones money!

And a borrowed pound in yours?

This talk of legal action against the RFL is pure fantasy - WTW literally don't have a pot to pee in, let alone sufficient funds to engage a barrister with the requisite specialist knowledge to take on the sports governing body. Neither, I suspect, is there any appetite to do so, given that it would effectively signal the end of the relationship between the two organisations and therefore, snuff out what faint hope we have of getting back into SL after we're booted out in 2012.

Don't be under any illusion that we'll get our day in court; we won't.