Exactly, in my opinion we aint got expansion we've got fragmentation.. I care more about the national game more than any other because this is the gateway for revenue streams.
OK we can accept Great Britain breaking up to get the funding from Sporting England, but the RFL will not be satisfied until they see 2 french clubs and 2 welsh teams in superleague, they have also back pedalled on the overseas quota and currently by my estimate there are 140+ overseas palyers in Superleague.
This "expansion model" is not sustainable as this drastically reduces the no of English players available for national selection.

So for me Nige and Rickys "expansion" means fragmentation, shrinkage of national selection and possible future lower attendances in superleague.

So why does he use "everything" to refer to just 20 odd clubs out of the hundreds playing the sport?

So now, by "everything" you actually just mean the England team?
then add a bit of guess work about what the RFL want SLE to do?

yet the amateur game is better funded than it has EVER been. Richard lewis has just sourced £30m funding which goes SOLELY to the amateur game. To say the grass roots of the sport have been ignored is absolute nonsense, They are thriving,

there is RL being player where RL was never played before, outstanding grass roots development in the midlands, south and london. The Amateur game is thriving now nationwide.

The championships dont represent the grass-roots of the sport, they represent themselves, a group of private businesses running RL clubs of a higher level than the amateur game and a lower level than SL.

maybe the championships will start to thrive when some clubs management and some clubs fans realise the game owes them nothing and that what they achieve and their sustainability is down to their hard work, their innovation, their skills and the magic silver bullet of SL money is just a distraction.

If a championship club is wants to and is capable of being an SL club, they will be. Meeting 'criteria' isnt an issue, its a distraction for those who dont really understand the process. A capable and well run championship club will become an SL club because if they are capable and well run they will achieve what they need to achieve as a by-product of being capable and well run

and IF the rules for the last franchise round had been applied fairly neither would Saints (lost yet another bucket of cash AGAIN) nor others have been in SL either!!!

If ONLY!!!!!

Watch the number of amateur leagues in the coming season. See how many teams

a) Fold
b) Get points deducted for not fulfilling fixtures due to player shortages.

Read the BARLA website and all the local league news you can. You think there is infighting at the pro level

If there is £30 mill up for grabs you can bet your life that somehow, someway the Hetheringtons of this sport will get a slice, maybe not directly but they will.

I agree that that the game is expanding and that can only be good news but the game still has major faults and papering over the cracks dosn't mean the foundations are solid.

if you understood the rules, even a little, you would know this not to be true

Average Championship attendances:

I have no doubt that if there is a way to politicise an issue, cause a ruckus, the f@ck it up Barla would be more than capable of doing so.

The game does have faults, sadly those faults are the same faults that were in evidence ten years ago, and ten years before that. However slowly but surely the old stagers are losing their grip on the sport and we are fixing these problems

As there are a lot of indifferences on this debate, can I suggest we submit our own individual proposals to make the game more stable, stronger and attractive to sponsors etc. etc. etc.