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What absolute rubbish.

But you say that this would put investors off as they have to wait 3-5 years, most investors in sports clubs aren't looking for a return on their money. But with Leigh as an example, how many years did DB spend big in the Championship to keep failing at getting to SL? You said yourself it would take 3 years to get Halifax to perhaps be in a place for promotion. What is the big difference between what it was compared to what it is now?

You keep bringing up Beaumont and his 5 year plan. How much money do you think he spent before Leigh actually achieved SL? And what did they achieve during those years other than eventually making it to SL? Leigh's model of promotion isn't the best way to do it, it is far from perfect, and Leigh lost lots of money before eventually succeeding. You say that DH may have said "what's the point" etc if IMG came earlier, but that is just you putting your thoughts onto him, he has mentioned that he is working to improve IMG grades, and didn't seem all that critical. If IMG was so bad, nothing is stopping him from withdrawing his money right now.

At some point the club/team needs to start investing in areas that aren't just on the pitch. People bemoan how small time out sport is, but we have all just accepted that if some clubs had invested their money better 20 years ago, they would be in a much better position at this stage, rather than playing out of dilapidated stadiums, etc. If you want more people to come to your stadium, then sure you need an exciting team to watch, but you also need the facilities to accommodate people, and the reach to target them in the first place.

Yes, I would be much more willing to put money into a Championship Club under IMG rules than before. @The Blues OxI don't really understand a fan wanting a boom and bust situation, surely it would be better to invest in the longevity of the team, rather than just investing in players. At the moment, I would suggest that (god forbid) something happened to DH at London, I am pretty sure the club would fold within weeks as no one else is going to run it. You want to build a club that someone would be interested in taking over, that has a long term future to build towards and keep improving. I would have thought the idea of investing money and actually seeing the fruits of that money in 5/10/20 years would be a lot more satisfying than scrapping into SL by buying a team of mercenaries.

Personally I don't understand this viewpoint whatsoever. Under P&R you could buy a team for a year and hope they get promoted, or 2 years and hope they get promoted. Under this current system, you can know that you need to do X, X and X to improve the club, team, backroom staff, Social Media, etc. There are so many factors that are key to building a strong RL club, and the team on the field is one of the last parts of that. Look at London Broncos - 25m of DH money over the last 30 years, and for what? No stadium, no offices, no training facilities, etc everything is rented, 25m just spent poorly on players and renting buildings with nothing to show for it. For 50m you could potentially turn Halifax into a super club, but if you were only looking to invest in a team, then I imagine it would only last as long as you do at the club.

So all 11 were the favourites, not just the expansion clubs then.

Just on two points - I think many people on here think they recall those days very well, whether they do or not, I have no idea. I have heard so many different stories of who was left out of SL and why that it can't all be what actually happened. I know the bitterness doesn't necessarily erode with time, but it should, it was 30 years ago and some people talk about it like it happened last year. I just find it annoying when people hint that "expansion" clubs are the favourites, when they were just put into SL, with the message of "good luck".

Ok, so in other words - you have no facts either. Just what you recall from it all, that is fine. Everyone's saying clubs that were excluded, etc. But it was a brand new league, and no teams had a ingrained right to be included in it.

How am I supposed to know what is misinformation? Every fan seems to have a rose-tinted view of what happened at the formation of SL. I have no fact based evidence whatsoever about what happened, it is all second hand information, usually from fans of the clubs that were "left out".

That honestly sounds like a better way of investing in a club/the sport then the current mess that it is. We are talking about a potential 5 year plan to build a club up to a level where they can be competitive with other top clubs not just in regards to what is on the field, but their backroom staff, etc. We don't need more money men that come in for a year, blow a little bit of money and then run off without any sustainability. That is very much just your opinion. I believe that clubs should have a way of understanding exactly what they need to do in order to improve and then get actually managing to achieve that. Featherstone have been spending money for years and they have found it virtually impossible to win promotion. People seem to think that the bottom clubs in SL are suddenly really strong that other clubs wouldn't be able to do what they're doing. Half of our RL clubs, inside and outside of SL are a mess, I can't imagine it would take much money, or effort to be able to improve a lot of them.

Well, that is your opinion. I honestly see a potential top 14 teams in SL, and then perhaps we get one or more that build enough to reach SL. Rugby League in this country isn't blessed with many more than 14 clubs that can be professional anyway.

Catalans were given a 3 year exemption and Widnes knew that, as did the other teams in the league that year. Widnes should have played better to not be relegated. I can't even remember what happened with Celtic Crusaders to be honest. So we perhaps have 3 instances of expansion clubs being "favourites" in the last 30 years.

So the only evidence for them favouring expansion clubs is 1 team being let into the new SL 30 years ago?

Yeah, I hate seeing replays of the best bits of matches as well, really takes me out of the moment ...