well, have fun playing for nothing for the next 3 years, after all, you will be winning "every" week..

dont know what kind of grudge you have against fax really, we have done nothing to you.,

we are just fighting back against a totally biased RFL, we have to defend ourselves dont we.

why should we be forced to stay in the championship for years to come whilst the RFL work on making the sport even more of a laughing stock than it already is. Franchise will never work.

have fun finishing outside the play offs in super league for the next 3 year when yuo get in though wont you

Well, i don't have a grudge against fax at all, please state where i have mentioned this?

I agree that the RFL have pretty much ruined the game for clubs outside the super league, After all their is a decline in the attendances/competition and i have enjoyed the rugby coming from this league..

As for you being forced in to stay in the championship.. i don't agree with it, Don't think anyone likes the franchising system really but it is how the RFL are doing it at the min.. It will soon be returned but maybe it will have damaged the game heavily. I would love for widnes / fax / leigh to all be promoted to the super league. Throughout the years i have enjoyed travelling to both stadiums and love the banter our fans have..

As for super league, Well only time can tell.. I hope we get in, But we are not in yet.. So who knows?

you seemed to take joy in the fact we may be punished for stating false attendances, we know there making rules up as they go along, the false attendance if thats what it was was just to see what they would do next to rule us out, now we have got the required average attendnace by hook or by crook.

this is how we are being forced to stay in the championship.

this franchise if 1 team goes up then that team will be - Widnes

next franchise- Toulouse will be promoted- that will happen whether we get 11,000 average and win the grand final in the next 3 years.

the next franchise after that assuming it is still going by then- there might be a scottish club by then you never know or a spanish team, if not then it will be. South Wales Scorpians or a Cumbrain team.

the franchsie system wont still be going by this point but the one after that if its still here, wont be fax either.

if thats not being forced to stay in a division then i dont know what is

Well, i do agree.. But when you say a scottish / spanish team / welsh again.. Can the RFL afford to keep funding these expansion teams? I dont think so,

With fans from the championship declining, They especially can't really keep funding..

Maybe a Cumbrian team will get promoted soon.. But cas / wakey / salford / quins / catalans are all holding on by a thread.. Who knows what will happen in another 3 years time? I know for a fact i would be supporting fax's bid (not that will mean anything), and again atleast they are trying to progress with licensing unlike cas / wakey / salford who are now panicing about their "plans for stadiums".... again..

well i dont think they can but you know they will do everything they can to help the expantion teams out.

Cas and Wakey are most at risk i think, Salford might just survive this time because of there location.

Quins, Catalans, Crusaders will never be kicked out of super league, the only way they will ever leave is if they go bust

wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did,

although salford may survive this time, They might not be so lucky next time..

IMO salford/wakey/cas have had their time in SL and Its unfair that they made false promises and they may get away with it.. i hope they are get kicked out, very much doubt it though

Something has been bugging me about all this and now I know what it is.

They have almost certainly cheated to achieve something we did honestly, and now in the franchise race they are on firmer footing than before. We've stuck by our club, we've worked hard and been loyal. They've cobbled togetger *something* on the last day of the season, perhaps a mere figure out of their heads to achieve the exact same.

There is absolutely no way they have achieved this with any sense of normalcy, and there is certainly something underhanded going on judging by the whispers we've been hearing. In spite of my previous support for these clubs, I can't help but think, they're not just pulling one over the RFL, they are pulling one over us, or trying to, because they are competition. And there is no way this has been done fairly.

The reaction of their fans so far has not been one of honesty either, to a man it has been rather obvious that they think they are in on one gigantic scam. They wont get away with it.

i appologise for peppering your board with posts.

the way i see it though.

all we are doing is playing the game the RFL started.

you have been supported all season very well and achieved that average with little difficulty.

you also have less competition from other rugby clubs than halifax for fans.

the support for fax has always been there if it has been needed,

we go back to the thrum hall days we were getting good attendances there, we are the 2nd best supported team in the league statistically,

we are a small market town the attendances we get is it 2,000 around that mark on a consistent basis, the crowds go up if we are in in super league, away followings as well, this would bring our attendances upto 5,000 or 6,000 which is more or the same as some super league clubs.

we are actually quite well supported for a place the size of Halifax.

the final word from me is.

we were told we had to have an average of 2,500, if we promoted the game and handed out a bundle of free tickets to kids then surely thats good business sence from the club knowing what they had to do today to reach that total.

if we just made the attendance up then dont worry we will be punished for it.

First off, no apology necessary. It's a Widnes flavoured board but anyone is welcome to post here as long as they behave, fans and none fans alike.



The game has been oft lamented around here, but its a hard thing to swallow seeing us abide by the rules and other clubs not really bothering and probably swerving the rules like this.



Now this part is nonsense. We not only have the top three clubs in the country on our doorstep (As in, first second and third of super league), we have two of the worlds best supported football teams and many others. We've got competitors in droves competing for fans, and we manage it without complaints.



Widnes actually manage bigger crowds with a significantly smaller population. You have 20,000 more people than we do. And we managed better in super league too, not that I would hold that against you if it were up to me. I'd kick out a few super league stragglers for lying last time and promote us both but Im frustrated that it looks like only one of us and the club which clearly has the best bid is being tested by paper thin last minute rushes like Barrow's new academy and Halifax's last minute crowd which was, to a man, the exact figure needed to break through. Think of that. One person short and the average would not have reached 2500. That is not a coincidence. It cannot be.



I hope so. Because frankly, you will deserve it if this is the case. If you've simply had a director buy empty seats, he is a fool.

Two years ago the RFL said a Championship club could apply if they appeared in a GF, won it or won the NRC - They lied.

Two years ago Castleford, Salford and Wakefield said they'd be playing out of new stadiums by 2010 - They lied.

What's one more lie . . . . . . ?

What will the consequences be for this cheeky little broadside at the RFL's lying game? Who gives a fook? Halifax's fate has been sealed by their financial standing - and rightly so. It has also been sealed by the rank amateur way that the RFL run this game. We haven't touched the tip of the iceberg yet - wait till next year when this latest circus show ends.

For the love of God - don't take it too seriously ya big tart

There's some massive "Whoooooshes" on this thread on that 5k figure.

See it for what it is - a pishtake. Either the club will simply announce a misprint or they'll leave it at that and deal with whatever crap the RFL come out with. It's not as though Messrs. Wood and Lewis have any integrity is it?

You seem oblivious to the past two years. You almost went bust, allowed a group of loan players to win you the NRC and now (despite the attendances) rely on a wealthy backer to keep you afloat. If anything, the injustice is that you guys are the front runners for a franchise.

Unlike a club that nearly goes bust every season overspending, relies on a bunch of over paid Aussies to win them nothing? Ok

Shame Fax didn't sort youth set up as you would be really pushing hard for 2012!

The attendance for Halifax v Batley was 4,795 - FACT!

They've all gone home now so I challenge you lot or the RFL to PROVE the attendance figure was incorrect.