Biggest load of rubbish going,Can anybody say super league has been improved by the addition of this?It needs to be 1 up and 1 down,A team like Leigh who are the best side in the division and have no chance of going up,Yet Widnes are treading water in midtable and couldnt give a hoot but will be playing in super league next year,Doesnt make no sense,The edge is totally lost by no promotion/relegation,Its not all about structures etc,Its about fairness and an exciting product,Teams like Crusaders,Harlequins,Wakey etc doing nothing in super league,they dont deserve that place,The team that wins the Competetion deserves to go up and the team that finishes bottom deserves to be relegated,It shouldnt be about how big your ground is,How many fans you get,How big your pies are and all the naff criteria,Its what happens on the pitch and whos has the best team,Franchises rubbish and should be abolished.

Can i also add while im on me soap box,that is the magic of football,Look at the promotion/relegation scrap in football that is the magic of the competetion,Teams like Blackpool fighting it out who dont have the ground etc but have earned there spot by whats happened on the pitch and through hard work,Theyve had some unbelievable days,Days that there fans would never have thought off,But the difference is,They had the chance,In rugby its down to criteria,its rubbish,imagine franchises in football,half the teams that are in the premier league now wouldnt be there,Wigan/Fulham/Blackburn/Bolton and even stoke,theyve earned there places by on the field activities,thers no magic in rugby its been took away by franchises,Widnes get promoted by a bloke saying they have on sky,Great,No last game win and the elation it would bring but by meeting a criteria,Its not all about how big your grounds are etc,ITS PERFORMANCE ON THE PITCH THAT SHOULD DECIDE WHETHER YOU GO UP OR GO DOWN,Franchises out,Again!!!!

Bang on.

Agreed

No. Franchises are a Good Thing.

You cant attract new fans with franchises. Has anyone tried explaining that Sheffield can win the Grand Final and still not go up? League is a farce at times.

My Barnsley supporting mate who has been to a couple of Leigh games this year can't get his head round that as well. Destroying the dream is destroying the semi pro game outside SL.

Exactly, when I talk to my non RL friends about watching rugby and explain that we're basically playing to tick a few boxes, I get laughed at, it's an absolute joke. What are Widnes playing for this season? What's the point? If Leigh win the grand final this season, what have they got to play for for the next two seasons? Nothing. It's absolutely rubbish and the more I think about it the more I start to lose patience with RL as a sport, it used to be by far and away my favourite sport but the pointlessness (if that's a word) of it all has led to me losing interest somewhat. Sad but true.

Not strictly true , I would suggest that any club [ that complied with criteria ] that managed to win most of the available silverware over a three year period would be guaranteed the promotion spot , the problem comes with retaining coaches,players and supporters over that period

As Fev found out last year , your best players will be taken away from you , although they did recieve a fairly hefty compensation if what we have been told is true , as for your support , with P and R it would normally rise as the season goes on [ although Leigh posted their worst attendance figures for many years in their promotion campaign of 2004 , we seem to buck most trends when it comes to supporters
So you might end up similar to Widnes , with a fairly crap squad , disoloutioned support and I'll not comment on the coaching situation there , when you actually do go up

2004 was a carp year at Leigh Bugsy, I blame then Directors of SCL - especially the coach they appointed and the policy of fan alienation.

When I have my Eagles cap on I think yes the RFL should scrap it tomorrow, it takes alot of the excitement out of games, especially to the back end of the season. How will we increase crowds & get people interested when we basically are playing for a cheque and a chance to tick a box so we can "apply"..? I come because I love RL and living in Sheffield for the past 3 years i'd love to see the game take off here and have a SL team but enticing other new fans to games won't be that easy!

On the other had Franchieses means teams can run their finances better and can develop homegrown players instead of throwing money, which clubs don't have at players. I know their are a lot of problems clubs have to overcome when setting up academy and scholarship teams but clubs have the chance to do it.

We have an Under 15's & Under 16's side which I think is a first for the club...? Battye and Hanson are showing that the hardwork put in by the club can pay off and in a few years time more Sheffield players will be playing for Sheffield! Battye for me, with hard work in a year or two could be playing for a SL club.

Hopefully we can retain this squad for some time to come as talent feeds through the ranks. Aston will stop around but hopefully it will be just as head coach so we someone can take over the reigns of Chief exec because I think he's a brilliant coach, Sheffield through & through & we would benefit from him focusing soley on the team.

Franchises mean teams can run there finances better - Yes folks Cru and Wakey both went pop in the SL close season.
Franchises mean nothing other than you dont need to bother for a couple of years until the next one comes along, then announce plans are passed for the ground you previously promised.

ESO has pretty much summed up my opinions. Ive tried to get friends to come to games after watching it on sky and this is how it goes;
"It looks fun, i might have a look, can you get promoted this season?"
"No, you have to apply to join the big league"
"Eh, so what are you playing for?"
"To win the grand final"
"So what do you get if you win that?"
"Money"
"Thats all? You dont get promoted if you win your division?"
"No"
"What kind of stupid game is this?"
Conversation and interest in rugby league ends there.

Theres pro's and cons to "licencing", the idea is good in theory, but the RFL didnt even stick to their own rules regarding it. In 2008 Leigh met much more criteria (criteria the RFL laid out themselves!) that the Crusaders did and look what happened, that whole episode was a total embarassment.

The truth is this, expansion is a good idea, but its got to work in practice. For me, the Crusaders have gone from one crisis to the next and have not worked as an expansion idea. Some clubs have (Catalans) but most havent. What we have to do is look after the heartlands and preserve what we have, because if the heartland clubs lose fans due to "licencing", our game is doomed.

The gap between $L and NL1/2 is massive, no denying. What the RFL need to do is to find a way to close that gap, not use "licencing" to make it bigger.

We won the Challenge Cup. There was little or no change in support.

The trouble with promotion and relegation is that supporters like promotion but aren't so keen on relegation. Hence the current campaign by, amongst many others, Ray French to increase $uper£eague to 15 clubs next year.

Keep going like that and, eventually, we'll be back to one league of 30 clubs.

I think (& hope) next time round in 2015, 2 clubs will be put into SL and no-one will be dropped down to make a 16 team SL. There would be no P&R then for 1 year to help these 2 clubs steady the ship..

What I hope would happen then is Promotion and relegation will then be brought back into the game.

My idea would be that a club who wins promotion can only be promoted if they meet certain criteria (ground, crowds etc) a bit like if say Oldham gain promotion to Super League but can't enter as their ground isn't up to the required standards. If the club can't go up they recieve a handsome cheque and the relegation doomed SL club can then live to fight another day.

A bit like the whole Yawnion Leeds/Cornish Pirates scenario..