What ever our opinions either us Wakey fans or any clubs fans, we all know London will never be dropped from SL.



Expansion?

Fulham/Quins/London, Nottingham, Mansfield, Southend/Kent, Wales (Nth & Sth), Cardiff (??? did I dream that), Gateshead, Paris - and that's only the ones I can quickly think of.



It'll never work.

Even in the ‘million pound game’ season’ where the gods conspired to create a nigh on perfect storm of two near neighbours in the heartlands playing each other in the final game with the winner staying up, a situation that is about as good as relegation can provide, Bar that one game, attendances were uniformly awful. Crowds may go to one or two relegation deciders, but they don’t attend the rest of the year. The lower SL teams didn’t grow by being in a relegation battle, they fell.

I don't often agree with Smokey but, he's right on this one.

If the bottom 2 clubs look doomed halfway through the season their crowds wont grow, they start to drift away.

The only time that there is added interest is when there are a number of clubs in the relegation mix and then there is some added interest.

Plus, the downside of getting relegated, is that crowds absolutely plummet, which has happened to every club that has gone down, with the exception of Cas who, tbf to them, were hard done by when they were relegated from next to bottom.

I gave up on reading his posts after the most ridiculous statement I've ever seen that said that if something has never happened before it is reasonable to assume it never will.

The rolling eyes and yawn were more to do with the fact that he is still here rather than what he was saying.

It's OK advocating keeping London in SL at all costs when your club isn't one of the ones that would be at risk if they did that. Clubs should be in the top division on merit. To me that is promotion/relegation with no clubs falsely protected just because of their location.

Have to say Fordy, it's hard to argue with that but how should the game try and expand.

Should Toulouse be invited in, if they have the backing that many posters on the VT talk about ?

Do you go outside everyday preparing for pasta to rain down from the Sky? Do you check under the bed for Lions? Do you worry that sometimes your car might change in to a hippopotamus? Do you suddenly stop mid-step just in case a T-Rex has come back from the dead? Do you check that your television hasn’t turned in to cheese? Or that water has suddenly developed the ability to talk? Have you prepared an escape plan for the possibility that one day the floor may actually be made of lava?



Or do you feel comfortable that on the basis that because these things have never happened before, they aren’t likely to happen any time soon? Or do you not learn from experience?





If clubs were in the top league purely on merit we wouldn’t have a salary cap (disadvantaging some clubs to benefit others) or a quota (massively advantages a heartland club with a thriving amateur game on its doorstep compared to an expansion club which is building one) If we get rid of these things, the first club to go pop probably wont be the one in a major city with a wealthy benefactor.

Phew! I thought I was the only one who checked under the bed for Lions!

I see smokey is still winning arguments by boring people into submission!!

Your contribution of course being a rich and interesting addition to the debate.



Good work Chomsky.

Regardless of whether or not the crowds present at the games themselves increase , Superleague is primarily a TV Show on sky sports.

At the moment it is a tv show with no plot, nobody really cares who finishes top of the league or bottom of it because it really counts for very little. Promotion and relegation creates interest in the game and actually gives some purpose to the regular season.



At the moment sky seem to have to rely on stevo and eddy constantly reminding people what a "great product" the game is. I don't hear the same things being said in other sports.



The competition itself should be the great product but unfortunately it is little more than a roadshow of exhibition games.