Quote ="Donnyman"
[u5. You don't "see" anything, it's just a poor bit of trolling...[/u you answered nothing mate...'"
Why on earth would I be trolling - I'm presuming you think I'm an alt account for another poster (or posters), but I can tell you I am genuinely not. I believe expansion is an opportunity, but it's one that will take decades to pay off.
You assume I want expansion at the cost of traditional clubs, and you couldn't be further from the truth - If it's done right, with the right amount of investment and commitment long term, it will be good for the sport as a whole. My view is that I'd like to see the whole professional structure of rugby league grow - super league should eventually be 16 teams, play each other home/away, no loop fixtures (apart from play-offs), but the long term aim should be that a number of these 16 clubs are non-heartland. And the long, long term aim should be to have more than 1 full-time professional league - the Championship should be full time, and ideally, these call all be English clubs, because America and France would be strong enough to have the same - appreciate that is all pie in the sky at the moment, but you've got to start somewhere, and why not with expansion of Super League?
Yes, in the short term expansion clubs will have to rely on players from heartlands, mercenaries, poached talent (call it whatever you want), yes it will nark off some of the traditional clubs who are rightfully only interested in their own survival, but I believe it's good for the long term health of the game. I'm also willing to accept I might be wrong, but I think the potential benefits are worth the risk (which I see as negligible).
Genuinely not trolling - they way I see it, if we don't do expansion, we will struggle to get better than what we have currently - there are plenty of Super League clubs who live hand to mouth, and there's a whole different argument about what those clubs could/should be doing to improve their fanbase and commerciality, most of the clubs below Super League (bar a couple) rely heavily on being propped up by fan funding or other short term schemes to survive.
The money just isn't in the game currently to enable it to reach it's potential, expansion offers an opportunity, but will also rely on some very rich benefactors. In my mind, the super rich are more likely to want to invest in expansion areas where the markets are potentially huge (such as Toronto, New York etc) than any small town or even City in Northern England. These people know they're going to have to throw plenty of money at the project, so if they ever want a return on that money, they'll need that bigger market. And if they're just doing it as a plaything, then again with no disrespect to any traditional club (including Leeds, my own club), they're probably going to want to be somewhere a bit more exciting than most Northern UK cities, and I'm guessing will want them near their other business enterprises.
I get that some will see this as a dig at traditional clubs, areas etc (and presumably that's why you think I'm trolling), but it's not - the heartland clubs are vital to the game, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't look to expand our footprint.
In terms of what concessions should they get, I'd like to see them given bigger allowances for overseas players and an increased salary cap that starts with a fairly substantial increase and gradually reduces over say a 5 or 10 year period (this would probably also mean needing to scrap relegation all together and have licencing). I get this potentially creates an uneven playing field, but as you stated, they will have to pay 'overs' for players to attract them in the short term, and ultimately, I want them to be successful, as if they're successful, there's more chance the locals will buy in and become rusted on fans, then their families and kids etc become fans, then kids might want to play the game etc etc, but it takes a lot of time and money. If some rich sugar daddy is willing to put in that time and money, then what has everyone else got to lose?
