Re: Franchise : Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:39 pm  

Do you think Celtic Crusaders (who won a franchise based on them playing in South Wales) have been a success in this 3 year franchise period ?

Do you think Salford have been a success in this franchise period ?

Did keeping Widnes out of SL on the last franchise help them grow and attract more finance into the club and game of RL ?

Have England started playing regular Internationals with France during this period for a good fixture pre Australia / New Zealand ?

Do you think SL has grown more intense in this franchise period ?

Do you think the Championships have grown as a stand alone league worth watching and do you think the sponsorship shows this during this franchise period ?

Do you think Toulouse have offered the Championship a new dimension and been a success in this franchise period ?

Has franchising helped all our non RL area Pro /Semi pro clubs prosper during this period ?

Has the amount of youngsters playing the game risen due to awareness of a better brand of RL during this franchise period ?

Is there a clear pathway for all clubs who attract a investor that has become crystal clear during this franchise ?

Are the worst RL team on & off the field about to be left out of SL (they are not being relegated just as Widnes didn't win promotion) ?

Do you think 3 years in the Championships will improve Wakefields capacity to attract support, Investment and players ?

Do you think that in any other industry or business that no questions would be asked about this supposed no realistic 'right of appeal' or a pre franchise signature of silence?

If you think the franchise process is clear , fair and transparent why is it Wakefield are favourites as they are not the worst club in SL on & off the field.

Is a alledged £750.000 'Loan' to one RL club involved in this franchise process a helping hand or a vested interest ?

Lots of questions, 3 years on has anyone really got the answers.
Whatever your thoughts on franchising (for or against) for me they are all questions that I feel are fairly fair and deserved a answer before we proceeded with the next set of Franchises, this is the most controversial one as it removes a Full Time RL club from SL and places it in a part time league.

However its very likely Wakefield are down (possibly not a cat in hells chance of anyone else unless News Corp say so or they pull out of the UK).
My concern is if they will survive being removed from SL.
IMO the only way to survive losing 3/4 of your support and sponsors is a parachute payment (I think they'll get in based on the £750.000 question above- the Wakefield boss is no mug) so we then end up what was a really competitive on field league turining into a boring 1 club wins all predictable league - then everyone suffers.

IMO After Widnes have had 1 year in the Franchise league we should be looking at at least 2 or 3 smaller leagues of SL (or P & R brought back), my fear is the league will continue to show clubs on minus points (is this year a record of clubs on minus points for financial oversights ?).

However back to the OP, I'd prefer a local club as it would give us a chance to see a decent away support at the LSV, I can't see them relegating Wigan or Saints though

Re: Franchise : Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:59 pm  

Good post.

Surely if wakefield did come down then they would still have to work within the salary cap?

Re: Franchise : Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:11 pm  

Leeeigh Leeeigh wrote:

Point I was making is ok RFL are bad and should be strung up, but the question actually was.......?

It gets very tedious when everything is "Knowing RFL......", "Changing goal posts...." etc about every subject. So ok we can accept Toulouse didn't work out as hoped - it was worth a go though (you might disagree like many more). 1.2million wherever that figure comes from didn't come out of the championship clubs coffers so no worries. 1.2million is not a lot of money either spread between the clubs as I know this is probably what you are thinking. I would say some kind of overall marketing may have helped us lot - but 1.2million still wouldn't do much.

1.2 million can be a small amount or a large amount depending on what you do with it , unfortunatly the RFL are clueless as to what to do with us , they seemed to think adding a French team , giving us the NR 9 s and getting clubs to employ a ' sugar daddy ' searcher would see the Championships go from strength to strength , they were wrong , so what will they do next ?

Re: Franchise : Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:12 pm  

SaBadSel wrote:

Good post.

Surely if wakefield did come down then they would still have to work within the salary cap?

We don't know yet , we are dealing with a completely new scenario for the RFL

[Wildthing]

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:24 am  

j.c wrote:

You can start by changing your sig mate

Not yet I don't!

Its all in hand!

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:11 am  

In answer to the original question:

Wakey, coz they're consistently crap.

Sorry, but it's true. Not just over the last three years, but fairly historically they've only ever been on our level, ie a bigger image of themselves than the rest of the world sees.

[Wildthing]

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:26 am  

Scooter Nik wrote:

In answer to the original question:

Wakey, coz they're consistently crap.

Sorry, but it's true. Not just over the last three years, but fairly historically they've only ever been on our level, ie a bigger image of themselves than the rest of the world sees.

To be fair we have had a 5th and a 8th place finish in SL over the last few years
We actually average higher than Salford on SL finishes over the last 10 years.

[Wildthing]

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:29 am  

Wildthing wrote:

To be fair we have had a 5th and a 8th place finish in SL over the last few years
We actually average higher than Salford on SL finishes over the last 10 years.

PLUS, we havent actually ever finished bottom of SL in 13 years.
Unlike Cas, Salford, Catalans, Huddersfield and Crusaders.

Not bad for a consistantly crap SL side

[Dick Jones]

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:34 am  

Wakey have only been in admin once, unlike a few others, and also havent changed the name and location several times and still been a failure!!!!!!

[Wildthing]

Re: Franchise : Thu Jul 21, 2011 11:18 am  

Dick Jones wrote:

Wakey have only been in admin once, unlike a few others, and also havent changed the name and location several times and still been a failure!!!!!!

Correct.
I like you.