Super League Franchise

Widnes

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Decision on Tuesday who do you think will get the places?

I think it should be the 12 current clubs plus Widnes & Salford but I think the RFL really want a welsh team in there so they may go with Celtic Crusaders.
 
I'm sure the 12 current clubs will gain a franchise, Castleford and Wakefield for me being the only two with any kind of doubt.

I do also believe The people who run the game want a Welsh team in it and for that reason I can see the Crusaders getting a spot then its a tough call between Leigh, Salford and Widnes. If i'm honest i think it will go to Salford but they will be run close by Widnes.
 
I play for a team in the Irish Elite league and we honestly do not get a single spectator to any game. Could we submit a proposal?
 
WeWonItTwoTimes said:
12 current clubs plus Salford and Celtic Crusaders got licences.
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It was always going to be the case that these two teams were going to get a license. Nothing against the other National 1 teams, but Salford had the best bid out of the other teams, and with the RFL constantly trying to raise the profile of the game around the country it was a near on cert that Celtic were going to come in. If the league goes up to 16 next time, I wouldn't be surprised to see some encouragement for a Scots or Irish team to be honest, to give a more UK feel as opposed to a M62 corridor feel it has now.
 
Tribec said:
It was always going to be the case that these two teams were going to get a license. Nothing against the other National 1 teams, but Salford had the best bid out of the other teams, and with the RFL constantly trying to raise the profile of the game around the country it was a near on cert that Celtic were going to come in. If the league goes up to 16 next time, I wouldn't be surprised to see some encouragement for a Scots or Irish team to be honest, to give a more UK feel as opposed to a M62 corridor feel it has now.
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It'll be a long time before an Irish team are in it. I play with one of the top six teams in the country and even we are a joke, not a fraction of the equivalent union standard in Ireland,
 
I think it was a disgraceful decision by the RFL but as a Widnes fan I am not at all suprised by the decision as we have become use to it, when super league was set up about 14 years ago the RFL had said that teams needed to sort out the stadiums and teams like salford are still years away from doing so, widnes have a stronger fanbase, better stadium and better youth set up than many of the teams that have been allowed into super league. I will be supporting New Zealand in the World Cup as I don't want the RFL to profit just to invest in welsh rugby.
 
It seems as through financial problems under previous ownership may have hindered your application. I guess a club would need to show that they can perform both on the pitch and off it financially over 3 years to make chosing them worthwhile. With you going into administration within the last year you were always going to struggle, even though the new owners seem to have their heads screwed on.

Think supporting NZ is a bit of a shame.
 
There is no doubt that the previous owners fecked up but Widnes would be able to support themselves much better than celtic who are just the next London, they will be allowed as many overseas players as they like, they won't have to work off a salary cap as the RFL will fund them, what really winds widnes fans up is that this is not the first time this has happened when super league was first started we was kicked out in favour of Paris who failed, just a couple of seasons ago we was relegated even though we did not finish bottom to make way for the dragons and now we have been passed up for celtic and also lets not forget the RFL trying to expand with Gateshead which was another failure.

As for supporting New Zealand in the world cup it is a shame and this is coming from someone who has slagged off Man Utd fans for not supporting England in football but I am just disgusted.

I would also like to apologise if parts of this message doesn't make sense but a lot of us widnes fans have decided to try and get over by just getting smashed but it doesn't seem to help as the drunker we get the more we bitch about. To be fair though i don't actually believe in the franchise system
 
Widnes said:
I think it was a disgraceful decision by the RFL but as a Widnes fan I am not at all suprised by the decision as we have become use to it, when super league was set up about 14 years ago the RFL had said that teams needed to sort out the stadiums and teams like salford are still years away from doing so, widnes have a stronger fanbase, better stadium and better youth set up than many of the teams that have been allowed into super league. I will be supporting New Zealand in the World Cup as I don't want the RFL to profit just to invest in welsh rugby.
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With respect to the stadium situation in Salford, it wasn't the clubs fault that they had to endure an enquiry by the government before they could go ahead with building the project. Work has started and should be finished for the start of the 2010 season.

As someone else pointed out Widnes probably failed mainly due to the financial problems that they hit last year. That's certainly one of the area's which made Salford a strong candidate, in that respect. The fan base part is something to debate, as right now I don't know where Salford think they'll get an average crowd of 10,000 from. Which is what they are suggesting in the new stadia.

I said before that the RFL are trying to expand the sport, but have over the years made a mess of it all. Wales has been tried before, but so had London before the Bronco's came along, and even they with the backing of one of the larger Aussie clubs didn't last and so merged with Harlequins, before being taken over by them. There is an interesting article over on the Superleague pages going over each bid and why they failed or succeeded, and it does suggest that London need to start producing more local talent.
 
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