There's no point in talking sense to these expansionists, they don't want to know.
They would rather throw money at places like Bristol, Northampton etc than support heartland RL.
Rochdale, Oldham, Donny etc are expendable but God forbid we let an expansion team go under.

I am certainly what some call a,"traditionalist". If by that they mean someone who thinks every club should be treated equally, and be allowed to aim as high as they want to go without being told " forget it your wasting your time" ,then yes i am. I havnt heard of virtual terrace, i'll have to have a look at that, thanks.

If you click on the board index the VT is at the top of the list. It's full of cranks.

I should slot right in then

You wont like it

might be fun though

dont mind fighting my corner for something i believe in.
Edit that, just been on, what a bunch of muppets.

The licensing criteria is not based on quality of stadia alone. Widnes are a bigger club than Featherstone in every respect. So are Castleford and Wakefield. Featherstone have also promised a better ground, and have made stadium improvements. That doesn't mean they are in any way suitable for Super League. I don't know who you think is 'squandering' money, or why fans like you seem to believe that the sport's governing body should be ploughing money into certain Championship sides because they cannot generate the money themselves, but thankfully views like this are roundly dismissed for the lunacy that they are. I think if certain fans had their way, RL would be an amateur sport played on park fields in a handful of Northern villages along the M62.

What on Earth are you talking about? You are aware that Catalans have over 70 years of history? What relevance do Sheffield and Gateshead have to anything? Or for that matter, any concept of 'history'? How do you think teams gain a 'history'? In the 1950's Doncaster were a 'created team with no history'. If you were around then, would you have been against the club being founded? I don't think you have any concept of reality. No teams are being 'forever excluded', the fact is that most of the heartland Championship clubs cannot ever possibly hope to become big enough to compete in a league such as Super League. What do you think would happen if the previous system had continued and somehow a team like Batley had been promoted? They would be beaten by 60 points every week with an average crowd of 2,000 or less, would be relegated at the end of the season, and in likelihood would probably end up going bust. The whole thing would be an absolute joke from start to finish and would be massively damaging to the club involved as well as the sport as a whole. The funny thing is that people at Batley and other such clubs are fully aware of this, I've spoken to their directors who have stated as much. If you want to cling to bizarre, outdated and fantastical ideas about teams such as Batley one day reaching Super League then you have every right to do so. Just don't be surprised when you are laughed at for being absolutely deluded.

Every respect?



No, sorry ... recent results / performance on the pitch would suggest that not to be the case. Remind me, isn't sport a results-based business.

Should be but other issues eg stadium/finances etc have come into play ! some say quite rightly others say no.

I prefer the top 4 going up from C1 , but there are certain criteria to be met eg capacity & secure tenure .

Huddersfield beat Wigan at the weekend. Does that mean they are a bigger club than Wigan? Wigan Athletic are currently in the Premiership and Leeds United are in the division below, does that mean Wigan Athletic are a bigger club? You could argue that on-field results don't really make too much of a difference in terms of which club is bigger, unless those results are sustained over a number of years. Either way, there are predetermined on-field criteria which must be met in order to apply to Super League, and Widnes met them. They achieved the neccessary results in order to be promoted. So did Featherstone, but they didn't even apply which probably tells you something.

You stated 'every' ... it was an overstatement ... HTH

wigan athletic ,hull city,burley and many more clubs are not bigger than leeds but at least theyve had the chance to live the dream and play in the top tier! which the chiefs of our game have taken away I can see both arguments as in we dont want to see clubs boom and bust but its still nice to see a success story little club come good and if they are by far the best team in the league then they deserve the chance to promotion or we could see in championship case fev win title for nxt 3 years and gain nothin but be a big fish in a little pond! which the fans and other clubs will think whats the point