14 replies to this topic

[Eagletarian]

Super League club to lose licence
Exclusive by George Riley

At least one Super League club is set to lose its place in the top flight when the Rugby Football League (RFL) awards its 14 licences next year.

The RFL has confirmed that, subject to fulfilling their minimum criteria, at least one Championship club will be awarded a Super League spot next March.

The RFL has also confirmed Super League will stay at 14 clubs - leaving the current teams facing an anxious wait.

The next set of licences will run from 2012 to 2014.

The current licensing system saw the abolition of promotion and relegation two seasons ago, with clubs instead applying for one of 14 licences for a three-year stay in Super League.

These licences have one more season to run after this year and the new batch will be awarded next summer.

The lucky Championship side will discover their fate next March, with a December deadline for application, subject to meeting five criteria laid down by the RFL.

The criteria are:

1 Commercial, marketing, media and community.

2 Facilities.

3 Finance.

4 Governance and business management.

5 Playing strength and player performance strategy.

Before that any Championship side wishing to apply for a place in Super League has to meet the following minimum criteria before being allowed to try to win a place.

They are:

1 Club has reached a Championship final or won the Northern Rail Cup in 2009 or 2010.

2 Club has a stadium with an operational capacity of 10,000.

3 No insolvency event has occurred during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.

4 Club has turnover of at least £1,000,000 in financial year ending 2009 or 2010 (turnover of charitable foundation can be included in this figure).

5 Club has an average attendance of at least 2,500 in 2009 or 2010.

At present only four clubs, Halifax, Widnes, Barrow and Batley, meet the criteria.

Current Super League sides Castleford and Wakefield were awarded licences in 2008 after agreeing to plans to move to new stadia, plans that have since stalled.

St Helens and Salford have also had to make plans to move to a bigger ground, to fulfil the licensing criteria for 2012.
Story from BBC SPORT:

[wings beneath my feet]

Just remind me again - how many clubs in the championship have an AVERAGE attendance of 2500 in 2009/2010???

and where does Batley fit in that list?

[wings beneath my feet]

Oh yes and what's happened to the " at least 20miles from the nearest superleague club"

[YOUNG UN]

Super League club to lose licence
Exclusive by George Riley

At least one Super League club is set to lose its place in the top flight when the Rugby Football League (RFL) awards its 14 licences next year.

The RFL has confirmed that, subject to fulfilling their minimum criteria, at least one Championship club will be awarded a Super League spot next March.

The RFL has also confirmed Super League will stay at 14 clubs - leaving the current teams facing an anxious wait.

The next set of licences will run from 2012 to 2014.

The current licensing system saw the abolition of promotion and relegation two seasons ago, with clubs instead applying for one of 14 licences for a three-year stay in Super League.

These licences have one more season to run after this year and the new batch will be awarded next summer.

The lucky Championship side will discover their fate next March, with a December deadline for application, subject to meeting five criteria laid down by the RFL.

The criteria are:

1 Commercial, marketing, media and community.

2 Facilities.

3 Finance.

4 Governance and business management.

5 Playing strength and player performance strategy.

Before that any Championship side wishing to apply for a place in Super League has to meet the following minimum criteria before being allowed to try to win a place.

They are:

1 Club has reached a Championship final or won the Northern Rail Cup in 2009 or 2010.

2 Club has a stadium with an operational capacity of 10,000.

3 No insolvency event has occurred during the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons.

4 Club has turnover of at least £1,000,000 in financial year ending 2009 or 2010 (turnover of charitable foundation can be included in this figure).

5 Club has an average attendance of at least 2,500 in 2009 or 2010.

At present only four clubs, Halifax, Widnes, Barrow and Batley, meet the criteria.

Current Super League sides Castleford and Wakefield were awarded licences in 2008 after agreeing to plans to move to new stadia, plans that have since stalled.

St Helens and Salford have also had to make plans to move to a bigger ground, to fulfil the licensing criteria for 2012.
Story from BBC SPORT:

Very interesting but the reality is no championship club other than maybe Leigh, if they can get to the Grand Final ( and I very much doubt it after watching my team beat them on Sunday) have much chance based on the criteria. I think any team going up out of the championship would have the potential to have an average gate of 2500 wth the visits of the large clubs but at the moment I don't think any fit the bill regarding average gate other than maybe Widnes and Leigh, but Widnes have had admin problems within the period specified so that should rule them out. Batley only fit the bill on points 1 & 3 criteria and that is being NR CUP Winners and had no financial problems. I would also find it hard to believe that Fax, Fev and Barrow have had an annual t/o exceeding £1,000,000. The teams only have an average of 14 home games per season and would have to have attracted very generous sponsorship or had excellent beverage sales during the season. This is RL though and as we all know the rules may be changed before th tme comes. I do believe a team will come down but a bit of thought will be going in to how the criteria can be changed to allow somebody to go up. My cast iron bet would be Widnes unless Leigh get to the Grand Final and then my money would be on them.

[Eagletarian]

Just remind me again - how many clubs in the championship have an AVERAGE attendance of 2500 in 2009/2010???

and where does Batley fit in that list?

Can they include the Trains Cup Final Crowd figures? If so 8,517 but the other crowds this season are not anywhere near, see a sample below........

Batley v Keighley 952

" v Barrow 803

v Eagles 747

v Toulouse 689

v Leigh 938

v Catalan (cup) 2132

v Whitehaven 666

v Widnes 1046

v Dewsbury 1484

v Halifax 1837

[Grey Beard]

Knowing how the RFL works it wouldn't suprise me if South Wales Scorpions were offered a licence. The whole thing is just a farce.

[Chairman LMAO]

Can they include the Trains Cup Final Crowd figures? If so 8,517 but the other crowds this season are not anywhere near, see a sample below........

Batley v Keighley 952

" v Barrow 803

v Eagles 747

v Toulouse 689

v Leigh 938

v Catalan (cup) 2132

v Whitehaven 666

v Widnes 1046

v Dewsbury 1484

v Halifax 1837

Thing is, Batley have no intention of applying for a SL licence. Which makes this post pretty redundant!

The club are happy to carry on building towards winning trophies at Championship level.

[wings beneath my feet]

Knowing how the RFL works it wouldn't suprise me if South Wales Scorpions were offered a licence. The whole thing is just a farce.

You could be right - they don't meet any of the criteria now they have taken out the 20 mile rule so they could coast it - oh no they won't though - they haven't had any illegal players this year(or maybe they have) and I don't think their chairman has threaten to pull out if they don't get in

[FaxMachine]

Very interesting but the reality is no championship club other than maybe Leigh, if they can get to the Grand Final ( and I very much doubt it after watching my team beat them on Sunday) have much chance based on the criteria. I think any team going up out of the championship would have the potential to have an average gate of 2500 wth the visits of the large clubs but at the moment I don't think any fit the bill regarding average gate other than maybe Widnes and Leigh, but Widnes have had admin problems within the period specified so that should rule them out. Batley only fit the bill on points 1 & 3 criteria and that is being NR CUP Winners and had no financial problems. I would also find it hard to believe that Fax, Fev and Barrow have had an annual t/o exceeding £1,000,000. The teams only have an average of 14 home games per season and would have to have attracted very generous sponsorship or had excellent beverage sales during the season. This is RL though and as we all know the rules may be changed before th tme comes. I do believe a team will come down but a bit of thought will be going in to how the criteria can be changed to allow somebody to go up. My cast iron bet would be Widnes unless Leigh get to the Grand Final and then my money would be on them.

If you check I think that you will find that, in terms of attendances, Fax had higher averages than Leigh in both the 2009 ( ave. 2,325 ) and 2010 ( ave. 2,255 so far ) seasons.

Just correcting your error.

[Griff]

Perhaps George Riley meant that only the four clubs he named currently meet criterion 1.

I can't see that he could confidently speak for all five criteria.

[coolie]

well my money would be on widnes getting in....but

there is toulouse...and we all know the RFL dont ever do what is the best move for rugby league

wakefield to bite the dust,and the lie of 1998 will finally catch up with them.

[Johnny Rocco]

Very interesting but the reality is no championship club other than maybe Leigh, if they can get to the Grand Final ( and I very much doubt it after watching my team beat them on Sunday) have much chance based on the criteria. I think any team going up out of the championship would have the potential to have an average gate of 2500 wth the visits of the large clubs but at the moment I don't think any fit the bill regarding average gate other than maybe Widnes and Leigh, but Widnes have had admin problems within the period specified so that should rule them out. Batley only fit the bill on points 1 & 3 criteria and that is being NR CUP Winners and had no financial problems. I would also find it hard to believe that Fax, Fev and Barrow have had an annual t/o exceeding £1,000,000. The teams only have an average of 14 home games per season and would have to have attracted very generous sponsorship or had excellent beverage sales during the season. This is RL though and as we all know the rules may be changed before th tme comes. I do believe a team will come down but a bit of thought will be going in to how the criteria can be changed to allow somebody to go up. My cast iron bet would be Widnes unless Leigh get to the Grand Final and then my money would be on them.

Wrong Widnes have in fact been in a very healthy state in the period specified. They were in administration in Oct 07.

[Griff]

Wrong Widnes have in fact been in a very healthy state in the period specified. They were in administration in Oct 07.

Trouble is, Johnny, that you can tick as many boxes as you like but the end of the process is a subjective decision by a small group of people. If they don't like your application, you don't get in.

[wings beneath my feet]

Trouble is, Johnny, that you can tick as many boxes as you like but the end of the process is a subjective decision by a small group of people. If they don't like your application, you don't get in.

I don't think it has anything to do with the "application"

[Griff]

I wouldn't have voted for Widnes - at that particular time.