I'm not so sure, would 2 extra teams and a 10% increase in cap really make such a difference? How many teams fail to spend to the cap level already? Not withstanding the extra cap space is there to pay for the additional games which bring revenue and to allow the development of more younger players.



Last year we had teams like Bradford outside of the top 8 which wasn't expected or are you expecting that we are going to have a league without underdogs and no dominant team?

Drop Quins and Celtic for me, is RL any bigger in London these days and do they offer anything significant to the league? averaging less than 3500 last season, if teams like St Helens, Wigan, Hull KR and Bradford are losing money how are Quins finances? Havnt they been bailed out once already?

I still think the best option for SL would be to drop down to 12 teams and then have a good go at making those 12 teams as strong as possible.



Ask yourself if adding Salford and Celtic improved or weakened last years comp? Imo it weakened it significantly as although both clubs had one or two high points for the rest of the time they were simply a guaranteed two points.



Now I can’t see the point in keeping these two and then adding a further two from the championship. If two teams significantly weakened the comp what will four poor teams do to it? At least if you keep 12 of the current teams you’ve got SL standard clubs, add some top notch stadia over the next 3 years and then imo SL will be in a much better shape.



Of course it would be beneficial to move to say 16 teams in the league in the not to distant future but trying to add extensions to your house before your foundations are 100% set is a stupid idea.



As a side note if we did drop 2 teams into the championship we would be looking at a strong league there as well- Salford, Widnes, Fax, Leigh, Barrow etc. The RFL should look at getting better TV coverage for the championship and that will in turn raise it’s profile.

How long do we need to get the foundations 100%? It's been over 100 years already.

I don't care if we'd been going 400 years there would still be no point trying 2 expand the game when 'established' clubs in the heart land can't even sort themselves out.



It's time we looked inwards for a while and made the product as strong as poss before we look at taking it 2 RU strong holds like Wales.

Surely that is the very reason to expand? Les Cats have shown how it can be done. How long have they existed compared to Salford, Cas and Wakey?



In other words isn't about time to admit some of the so called heart land clubs never are going to make the grade and that they need to be moved aside to allow clubs that can take their place? I thought that is what franchising was about. Prove you are worthy of a franchise or leave.



Lets not forget we were in the doldrums of the 2nd division once and got out of it in a relatively short space of time yet some clubs such as Wakey seem to have lived charmed lives to keep their SL status yet still can't seemingly progress.







And what makes you think if we did that the current basket cases in the heart lands would be any better a few years down the track than they are now? If anything giving them what would be in effect protected status would be just another excuse to carry on as they are.



Dave

Agree with you on this, but just wanted to make the point that Catalans are a heartland club, albeit the heartland in this case is in France.



A big part of the reason (there is also the excellent council support and some decent management and marketing of the club) the Dragons have been such a success (and probably the one good thing to have come out of 15 years of SL failure on and off the field) is that they are a heartland club, in a region desperate for quality RL. To me any workable proposal from a traditional RL area in France has massive attractions over keeping failing traditional Yorkshire or Lancashire clubs in.



Toulouse played Catalans the other week and got over 4 thousand for a friendly. Just imagine a Toulouse team playing Catalans in SL, if we bring a viable Toulouse club into SL the rivalry in Southern France between those clubs would be immense. Toulouse and Catalans could be massive clubs in RL, just like the French clubs are in Union, they could be as big or bigger than the likes of Wigan and Leeds. Long term the French could have their own SL and play the English sides in a Heineken Cup style comp, which would be a real money spinner. (But even if they didn't we'd still have two big clubs in Southern France giving RL players from that region something to aim for and providing a base for a solid French RL international side, which would be a real boost for the international game). That's the kind of ambition I'd like to see from the RL authorities. But I'm not holding my breath.

Catalan is a special case. Established RL territory. The French National team's best players plus a sprinkling of top quality Aussies. If you sent those same Aussies to Cumbria (or Leigh or Featherstone) plus Sinfield, Roby, Peacock, Tomkins and Eastmond I would imagine that would be quite successful too.



For me, this is why expansion in Toulouse will have more chance than in Wales.



Also, I don't necessarily agree with all this "they've had a 100 years to get it right" rubbish whan discussing heartland clubs. What should be remembered is that RL has been sufficiently strong in these areas to survive for the last 100 yrs. You could just as easily view it as a sucess rather than a failure.

Thats the thing, that RL area of south France have been going for decades upon decades. Fans turning up season after season. Toulouse>Crusaders.

The thing that convinces me is Warrington. I think there are a few clubs who could do what warrington have done.

Got to say I agree. Catalans could be a massive club once they get their new stadium and get more fans in. Throw in Toulouse a few years down the line and we could have 2 genuine big clubs outside the country. There is also possibility of a big team in Paris.

But they don't show any signs of doing it one season to the next and in any case Warrington have never exactly been a badly supported club or one who were ever mentioned in the same bracket as the like of Cas and Wakey.



Dave