The criteria are as follows:

1. A stadium capacity of at least 12,000.
2. An average crowd of 10,000 or more
3. An average crowd that fills more than 40 percent of a club's stadium capacity.
4. A turnover of at least £4 million per annum.
5. Solvency, in accordance with accounting definitions of solvency, although this criterion can be satisfied if there is a written owner's guarantee of the club's debts.
6. A reasonable playing strength, which is likely to be satisfied if the club has finished the season in the top eight in each of the last three years.
7. A reasonable playing contribution to junior development, judged by the number of scholarships and performances of the club's under-21 and under-18 Academy teams in the last 3 years.
8. The stadium meeting the standard of a premier sporting competition, which is judged on the quality and quantity of it's facilities in accordance with detailed criteria.
9. Geographical position: clubs that are more than 20 miles away from any other likely Super League club will be allocated one point for this criterion.
10. Compliance with salary cap regulations. Specifically, clubs must not have incurred any breach in the last 3 years.

Work starts soon apparently on the East Stand extension, so we will be over 12k capacity. =#FF00001 point

Plus we also get a point for contribution to the competition, thats for finishing an average of 8th I believe. =#FF00001 point

So that would be 2 points added to our already C grade license, if it goes on the same criteria(which there is no guarantee it will), we could easily get a B grade license.

Personally I dont think we have anything at all to worry about!

What if you finish 12th or below this year?

We both know that aint going to happen

Not this early in the campaign we don't we won five on the bounce last season, then crash, bang, wallop



Injuries can for instance can cripple teams, I reckon after about round 12 things become clearer, I am not suggesting you will not but I am pointing out we have only played 7 games so far.

Yes thats fair enough and I realise that but we have a squad that is not going to finish so low in the table. We have started pretty slow and played some poor rugby so far, we have yet to hit some good form, hopefully this will come. If it wasn't for our no show against Wakefield in the second half, we would be sitting pretty on the same points as you guys and its been pretty poor start for us.

Does belle vue really hold 12k?

And does the solvency criteria discount recent winding up orders?

Surprisingly it does hold 12k although that's never really been tested barring the Cas relegation decider. Without fully knowing the in's and out's and how exactely they determine being 'Solvent' i couldn't say with certainty.

Im not too bothered about Widnes coming up. Would love to see a Cumbrian side in the super league. I dont think the rfl would have the bottle to throw out Harelequins because they have poor attendances. Crusaders with them moving up north will help them but is that too close to Widnes. I hope Toulouse dont get a franchise this time, because they seemed to hurry the Celtic Crusaders through and look what happened, maybe next time around. If Wakefield dont get one will Halifax replace them. With the teams under threat surely that must have an effect on the length of contracts they can offer players. Could be some bargins out there next year

Confirmation of criteria is expected late May, there could be changes There is rumoured to be some discussion about the under writing bit, which could change, because it is felt that the future of a clubs survival should not be just in the hands of one person as that frustrates developing the business.

Bookmarked just in case