yipyee

It doesn't help England gell as a team though. I get it that Yorkshire is still a thing and fans chant yorkshire etc.. but when us the last time any clubs fans chanted lancashire? They don't as lancashire is a dead duck now. Cumbria on the other hand is still a bona fida county with RL heritage and county pride. Instead of some hybrid france Wales and county's could have a proper county championship. Cumbria, Yorkshire GM Merseyside Cheshire London district? Wouldn't include Lancashire as they don't have clubs that play tier 1 or 2

Yes we keep trying to come up with a different solution than the one posed 30 years ago... MERGERS

Hull KR was in 3rd division, went all the way upto SL up, down, up and now are flying. Also Oldham are a SL club that has gone down....

True, if IMG gradings were applied last year both teams would have been in SL. From the way wakey were talking they are already guaranteed SL status. The big one will be if Toulouse displace Cas, will be hard to justify the big flip in IMG points

To be fair a soccer team was omitted from the play offs this year due to off field criteria falling short for promotion. Union have had similar rulings. It's not just our sport. Luton couldn't even play home games at first last year until they spent millions on stadia improvements. All clubs have known for years off field is just as important as on field in terms of full time status. The ones who have put the effort in are now reaping the rewards.

Big screen in the corner plus space for the band?

League leaders?

Not really, the club needs to be ready to compete at the top. Steady growth over the next few years will see a SL ready club rather than a SL ready team

Would say Leighs last year in the championship was SL ready...

Yep so Catalan at home would mean no away support and an almost certain defeat. Catalan having to play away at their expense in what would be a dead rubber. No one wins

and here we go again re arraging the deck chairs instwad of remebering why they were positioned a certain way in thexfirst place The only way the CC could have improved would have been with a group stage 4 teams of 4, so same format to last 16 then with a group stage with one qualifier in each group. replace the loop games and use magic as the quarter final venue, lets face it we have had double headers as it is.

Well why pick those teams, seems very closed shop and anti growth when all people,say is they want growth

I am sure Oldham, Keighley Rochdale Hunslet etc would love this suggestion of having to fold after over 100 years as you want to collapse the league they are in

You can leave it as I think i have proved my point

And there's the problem, a closed shop. Also players wouldn't want to be paid by the current amateur clubs? So a lad drops from a SL academy and your saying they don't deserve a match fee and should play for free? NCL N stands for national but they don't want to play nationally, you are sounding a bit daft and I am sure you are not speaking for every club and player!

Why do you expect central funding to fund a club. Whats wrong with sponsorship, bums on seats, food and drink in peoples hands, merchandise being sold etc.. The clubs had years of central funding where they could have grown commercially but some clubs chose not to.

I disagree, it should be. Theres a myth that you can't mix amateur (not getting paid) and semi pro(getting a match fee) in the same league, so you end up with the crazy situation between league 1 and NCL. Theres no reason a team can't go upto league1 and remain amateur or there shouldn't be an issue with a team dropping from league 1 and paying a match fee to players.

I agree in principle, however you grow the central pot by having a lot of value adding smaller pots so to speak. The wider spread the game, with the number of good clubs that don't rely on centralised funds helps grow the centralised funds pot.

Is it fans gained or that the stadium had a reduced capacity last year due to the build. I remember wakey getting 6-8k averages not that long ago , that plus a better match day experience with the new stand AND some good signings like Jerry etc

Learning lessons you would say Hemel failed because they imported players from the North and even played games in the North? So they moved away from being the club that initially applied. Gloucester didn't seem a sustainable model based around students ? Bristol never in league1? Or Kent? Oxford were successful to a point, not sure why they failed. Midlands struggled when the funding for development officers were cut. Funny then when sports England pulled the funding which was supposed to go to fund the Midlands development officers and there was uproar..

Or as another poster put it they are not welcome and should set something up themselves

Well if you add a team in this will bring in extra revenue that wasn't there before. Extra sponsorship that wasn't there before, so new money into the game. New players from a new area etc..

So your saying you can't pay a match fee to the amateur players because it will overwhelm the admin team ?! And you are saying if volunteers who can make this happen are knocking around the club they are not welcome and should go and set up a new club on the doorstep? Your post is everything that is wrong with RL

Saints wigan stats are interesting seeing as the Good Friday game was at saints this year. London and catalan already played at home for saints this year , Hull and Leeds away support a fraction of the usual following.

Whats wrong with being semi pro AND a community club, why either or..