Is the RFL, with its licensing criteria, helping both Super League and the Championship?

[shrek]

If a Cumbrian club could guarantee 7,000 in a decent stadium then I'd say have them in.

At the moment they can't so they aren't viable.

Neither can Quins or Crusaders or for that matter some of our heartland clubs!

Point is the grass roots/groundworks there, so should we not be looking for the easy wins when it comes to expansion?

[Lounge Room Lizard]

Toulouse are a joke of the highest order and are struggling in the Championship. They have never even got close to meeting the requirements that was originally set down by the idiots at the RFL. The whole Franchise is a farce with Sky/RFL choosing who they want and framing things to fit that. Sport is all about the best teams playing each other. Yet in Rugby League that is not the case. The rules are changed to those whos face fit. I have no interest in watching professional Rugby League anymore as itsd just a joke the way the game is run and how the way the championship clubs are treated. Its no wonder Rugby League is such a small sport when its run by people who do the best to upset the games most important thing-The Fans. RIP Pro Rugby League below SL.

[mick wilson]

If a Cumbrian club could guarantee 7,000 in a decent stadium then I'd say have them in.

At the moment they can't so they aren't viable.

Why can half the SL still to this day play in shitheaps after having yrs n yrs of chances to remodel but a new club coming in carnt ?

They have had the time 7 money to do this , most champs clubs havent ?

Why not let a new club in under very stricted rules of major ground developments using a solid timeframe for reconstruction, as the new club will now have much more money to invest into the stadium, after all isnt this the big plan by the RL ?

To get the clubs to slowly but surely re-vamp themselves while staying solvent & attractive on the pitch ?

Or is the agenda to squeeze them to death thus releasing places for more welsh, french, catalan, Scots, Irish, Midland & London new clubs.

[mick wilson]

They are righting a wrong from 2008, everyone knows it !

Toulouse wernt remotley ready then though

If the RL's agenda is what I fear it is they will be given a spot, if theres 2 places available you will get the other.

[thirteenthman]

Toulouse are a joke of the highest order and are struggling in the Championship. They have never even got close to meeting the requirements that was originally set down by the idiots at the RFL. The whole Franchise is a farce with Sky/RFL choosing who they want and framing things to fit that. Sport is all about the best teams playing each other. Yet in Rugby League that is not the case. The rules are changed to those whos face fit. I have no interest in watching professional Rugby League anymore as itsd just a joke the way the game is run and how the way the championship clubs are treated. Its no wonder Rugby League is such a small sport when its run by people who do the best to upset the games most important thing-The Fans. RIP Pro Rugby League below SL.

Who said Toulouse are going to get a franchise? At the moment it seems to be merely a rumour unless I've missed something.

[ArmchairRhino]

I found myself getting a bit wound up when that Blake Solly kept saying criteria when he meant criterion on Boots n

[ParisSurtout]

Who said Toulouse are going to get a franchise? At the moment it seems to be merely a rumour unless I've missed something.

You have missed a lot.

If two clubs go down, then two new clubs will get a license. Widnes will be one of them. Neither Halifax, nor Barrow, nor Featherstone nor Leigh willl be the other, because they have not fulfilled the criteria, and they add little to the television audience drawing power of the Super League competition.

The ridiculous situation of having five west Yorkshire clubs in Super League has to be brought to an end. England is too big and diverse a nation, not to mention the United Kingdom, for this parochialism to continue in an era of economic and cultural globalisation. Cleaning out the west Yorkshire club surplus is a way for rugby league to connect with the 21st century.

I suspect that Toulouse is going to be the second license winner. It has waited a long time. It's time has come. Paris will have to wait until 2015, when the number of clubs in SL may rise to sixteen.

Edited August 5, 2010 by ParisSurtout

[shrek]

I suspect that Toulouse is going to be the second license winner. It has waited a long time. It's time has come. Paris will have to wait until 2015, when the number of clubs in SL may rise to sixteen.

I can't see Toulouse adding much to the comp, we need to grow from the heartlands step by step, adding another club thats not going to bring any away fans won't be a popular move amongst existing clubs.

[Lounge Room Lizard]

You have missed a lot.

If two clubs go down, then two new clubs will get a license. Widnes will be one of them. Neither Halifax, nor Barrow, nor Featherstone nor Leigh willl be the other, because they have not fulfilled the criteria, and they add little to the television audience drawing power of the Super League competition.

You really are a prized idiot of France. Sorry but Toulouse cant even make the playoff in the Championship. They have crowds smaller than Fax, Fev, Barrow and Leigh. The City does not have an amateur base anywhere near that of Fax, Fev, Barrow or Leigh. Nobody in the UK is going to suddenly decide to start watching SL on Sky just because Toulouse are playing. So another of your stupid ideas is blown apart. Toulouse will bring literally one or two fans to SL games-just like in the championship. So in other words Toulouse have neither met the criteria nor are they better placed than Fax, Fev, Barrow or Leigh. The RFL is ruining the game with the way they are doing things. Tell me how much money do you think Crusaders or Quins make? There is not enough French talent to run 2 SL teams. So we have yet another team stuffed full of Aussies. Fantastic!

[1976PMJwires]

You really are a prized idiot of France. Sorry but Toulouse cant even make the playoff in the Championship. They have crowds smaller than Fax, Fev, Barrow and Leigh. The City does not have an amateur base anywhere near that of Fax, Fev, Barrow or Leigh. Nobody in the UK is going to suddenly decide to start watching SL on Sky just because Toulouse are playing. So another of your stupid ideas is blown apart. Toulouse will bring literally one or two fans to SL games-just like in the championship. So in other words Toulouse have neither met the criteria nor are they better placed than Fax, Fev, Barrow or Leigh. The RFL is ruining the game with the way they are doing things. Tell me how much money do you think Crusaders or Quins make? There is not enough French talent to run 2 SL teams. So we have yet another team stuffed full of Aussies. Fantastic!

Paris is not the prized idiot of france, he is a ######ing idot full stop.

another french team is not good for Catalan......... Why??? how many english fans are going to go once never mind twice........fact.

until the french are good at international level will i EVER think it may be good for super league.

toulouse have done ok in the ENGLISH game but OK is not good enough.... They need to be competitive.

this will go on and on until the frogs have a stronger National league.

INFACT

i can't wait for the Young Welsh lads to ###### them in the European Championship..... i hope ( and think) they will put the french back even further..................

Edited August 5, 2010 by 1976PMJwires

[ParisSurtout]

I can't see Toulouse adding much to the comp, we need to grow from the heartlands step by step, adding another club thats not going to bring any away fans won't be a popular move amongst existing clubs.

It won't be a popular move among existing clubs, especially the two clubs that are dropped from Super League. But the demoted clubs will be weak businesses led by a sorry bunch of incompetents who can't even get a stadium built after six years of warnings and let offs.

We already have Harlequins in Super League and Les Catalans Dragons in Super League. Neither bring away supporters to the M-62 corridor grounds , but they do offer some important advantages to the game, including the glamour of being situated in the cosmopolitan locations of London and southern France. And in these locations they have produced new playing talent for England and improved the exisiting playing talent of France. Think of Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Tony Clubb, Thomas Bosc, David Ferriol, Jean Phillippe Baile and Jamal Fakir.

Harlequins has been very important in promoting the game in the south, such that London and the Southeast is now the fourth biggest area of junior recruitment in the United Kingdom.

Toulouse joining Super League will have several advantages: it will spread the game further in a major European metropolitan area that is twice as big as Leeds - spread in terms of spectators and junior recruitment. That spread of the game will have an add on effect on the performance and French public support for the French national team. A stronger French national team means a stronger international competition, which means more sponsorship of the game and more money for the clubs at all levels.

It will also help the Sky and BBC TV ratings. Let us look at the relevant evidence of rugby union competitions. How many people watch TV telecasts of the Heineken Cup, where Toulouse compete, compared with telecasts of the England only Guinness Premiership, where Toulouse do not compete?

There is another answer as to the value of Toulouse in Super League.

Edited August 5, 2010 by ParisSurtout

[PJT]

We already have Harlequins in Super League and Les Catalans Dragons in Super League. Neither bring away supporters to the M-62 corridor grounds , but they do offer some important advantages to the game, including the glamour of being situated in the cosmopolitan locations of London and southern France.

Haha!!!!!!!!!!!

How do you measure glamour?

Who gives a t*ss whether RL is played in Southern France or a "cosmopolitan" area of London? How is this an advantage to the sport? Does this mean that playing in less affluent areas is a disadvantage to the sport?

Does this mean you think a team located in Dubai would be good for the sport? Florida?

[ParisSurtout]

Haha!!!!!!!!!!!

How do you measure glamour?

Who gives a t*ss whether RL is played in Southern France or a "cosmopolitan" area of London? How is this an advantage to the sport? Does this mean that playing in less affluent areas is a disadvantage to the sport?

The TV viewers in London and the south of England give a toss. The soft core league fans from the south and casual viewers are more likely to watch a game that is not played only by parochial clubs from the M62 corridor.

Does this mean you think a team located in Dubai would be good for the sport? Florida?

Yes.

Dubai would be good for a Middle Eastern Super League, which, if development is intensified there, one day could exist with the participation of several clubs from Lebanon and Morocco...and I would hope, eventually the big prize of Egypt. The new head of the RLEF is a man who has helped build rugby league into a significant sport in Lebanon.

Florida would be good for a future American Super League. Jacksonville, led by the legendary entrepreneur Spinner Howland, is already building for that eventuality.

Edited August 5, 2010 by ParisSurtout

[mick wilson]

Barrow now take an away following of anywhere from 200/600 in the championship, id imagine we would take anywhere from 500/1200 in the SL

So would Fev,Fax, or Leigh.

Quins, Saders,Le Cats & Toulouse dont & would'nt.

Spot the blinding obvious in this post Paris ?

[ParisSurtout]

Barrow now take an away following of anywhere from 200/600 in the championship, id imagine we would take anywhere from 500/1200 in the SL

So would Fev,Fax, or Leigh.

Quins, Saders,Le Cats & Toulouse dont & would'nt.

Spot the blinding obvious in this post Paris ?

Mick, I spot it.

But I also spot the more important missing point: that away following is not the only issue in favour of or in opposition to licensing a new club.

[mick wilson]

Mick, I spot it.

But I also spot the more important missing point: that away following is not the only issue in favour of or in opposition to licensing a new club.

Silly me sorry, I thought sporting events with higher attendances add a bit of glamour to the proceedings, lol

Plus the higher the attendances to higher the appeal to the consumers/advertizers/TV companies etc