I think given the fact it will be mid to late November at the earliest, there is a lack of time for a Part Time Side to transition to SL..
Let us not forget, we had 10 months in 2011-12 and made a mess of it!
If we don't apply, I get it, but I think it will be helpful if the club made a reiteration of its ambitions: some people will take not applying as the club lacking ambition.
Presumably the promoted team will take on quite a few Toronto players anyway.
10 weeks preperation is'nt feasible for any championship club to make the step up and the SL clubs know this.It gives them almost guaranteed 99 % safety from relegation.
The only reason I’d like Widnes to apply would be to take the £1M and stuff it in the bank for our future!
my thinking is that whoever goes up will get a to king and come back down, so we could go up, keep the squad as is and treat it as a learning experience for the year! Stuff them and their spectacle! Then 2022 we come back to Championship with money in the bank and a stable future to look to build for promotion.
Can't see beyond Toulouse tbh.Satisfies the expansion need as well as making a French Derby game.
Waste of time, it will be awarded to London or Toulouse.Widnes are nowhere near ready. Besides, you would have to rush to assemble a squad in time for February and get by on 700K less than the others.That means likely hammerings every week,bottom of the league without a win,disheartened fans,low crowds and immediate relegation back.Leave it to some other mugs to chase the fools gold.
Sound familiar lol
The only reason I’d like Widnes to apply would be to take the £1M and stuff it in the bank for our future! my thinking is that whoever goes up will get a to king and come back down, so we could go up, keep the squad as is and treat it as a learning experience for the year! Stuff them and their spectacle! Then 2022 we come back to Championship with money in the bank and a stable future to look to build for promotion.
Getting a pasting every week doesn’t do a set of players any good. IMO, the last squad we had in SL was good enough to beat London Broncos, Toulouse and Toronto but a season of hammerings and unrest destroyed our confidence.
I’ll watch my team play when the chips are down every time - but it doesn’t mean I enjoy it. A part time squad against a full time SL squad with a more organised preseason and a full season under their belt from 2020 doesn’t fill me with confidence. After the toxic atmosphere towards the end of 2018, I’m not so sure the novelty of just being in SL will last very long.
Despite knowing we couldn’t get relegated and apart from the win against Wigan and some wins here and there, our first season back in SL in 2012 was largely disappointing.
If we were to achieve promotion next season or any season after that as a result of winning the comp, of course I’d take it as it would mean we had a squad with a season of confidence under the belt who won promotion on merit.
I’m not being defeatist, cynical or negative. Just very realistic.
In response to some other people, I’m not even sure we need to apply for the 12th spot to show our ambition. Surely a letter to SL clubs or a club initiated interview in RL publications stating our aspirations would probably go down better and gain more respect than the club putting together a hasty application that would prob be weaker at this stage than other clubs.
I’d love to see us back in SL but I think we’ve learnt that we need to be ready.
Whether it is true or not, I have heard a rumour that the new team in SL next season may get immunity from relegation, but if the other teams would agree is a different matter.
As far as Widnes and SL, at least we have a spine that should be able to hold its own, but without significant investment in the pack, we would struggle badly. As has been mentioned, on our first season in the promised land last time, it was no fun watching us get hammered every week.
<p style="text-align: left;">I can't see Hull KR agreeing to no relegation, they are skint. What we don't want is them saying no promotion from the Championship for a year to allow things to settle after covid thats the worry. Its also a joke to not give the new side the full SL funds when they are already at a major disadvantage recruitment wise. Its because Toronto got no funds and they don't want to distribute it between 12 teams. If its 12 teams its got to be an equal 12 way share!</p>
Leigh and Tolouse have both made a number of SL standard signings in the last couple of weeks, however I think one of them will be in SL so we will only have to compete against one.
I would favour Tolouse to go up. Other than Leigh we have no one to worry about in my opinion. Featherstone have lost the Leeds dual reg, Fax have released loads, Bradford are average. London are a good side but haven't really strengthened as yet. I think if Tolouse get the spot Leigh have to be favourites, although they have been before, but we could finish about 3rd and have a tilt at the play offs.
Would affect us medium to long term if we went up for a year. Looking for quick fixes that affects the squad we're trying to build and the young lads we're getting through. Also - there are players we currently have that might not want to be full time (Tomkins being one).
If Bradford get back to Odsal they are a shoe in IMO
especially when you consider Elstones statement after the TWP refusal
Been thinking about this for a while, not enough information really - rumours about extra club being exempt from relegation, I doubt that but if true deffo apply.
funding then becomes less of a problem but you need to put a team out that has a chance of winning games as crowds would soon become the same as londons and to start the next season on a low fan base would be a disaster, this is assuming crowds are allowed of course
with regard to Brad fraud, aren’t the RFL the owners of the lease at odsal ? Which throws a curved ball in there
I reckon it’s London or Toulouse, I hope London so I can go to Toulouse again
What is it with Bradford Bulls. They had average attendances of 4300 in 2019 and last attracted any decent crowds over 5 years ago; they are sharing a ground and talk of going back to Odsal, which was a disgrace in the 60's and not had any money spent on it; I have lost counted of the number of times that they have been in Administration since the early 60s and the club went into liquidation in 2017. Are they likely to get the crowds back if they went back into SL? Are they a financially stable club - more so than TWP?
If the RFL/SL are still pursuing the "big city" league, where does Warrington fit into this, as well as Castleford, Salford, Featherstone, Leigh? Maybe Newcastle should be the banker - expansion outside the RFL heartland - even though average crowds of around 1200 at best or even Coventry.
Surely Bradford has no greater claim to SL status than Widnes.
Bradford only averaged more than us last season because of the huge crowd last game at Odsal.
That being said, it did show a depth of support.
Got to be Toulouse. London as the nearest challenger.
If it is based on financial prowess, Leigh and Fev had a game at the end of the season 2/3 years ago where they were begging for players and Bradford have been all over the place for years. Our current board have done well but not had a long enough period of time to prove themselves to the powers that be.
If Bradford get back to Odsal they are a shoe in IMO especially when you consider Elstones statement after the TWP refusal
If Bradford get back to Odsal, they will need to spend a not insignificant fortune just to make it safe enough (and I mean Health & Safety certificate wise) to allow standing spectators in. Bradford left Odsal as the costs involved in just making it barely safe enough each year was just too much, let alone refurbishing it.
Surely an average of 4300 in the second division is a plus point not a minus.And Bradford do have the potential of home gates of 10 000 compared to our 6000.There's no way they will be returning to Odsal though, they would need to spend the majority of the £1m on the up keep of the place.