I backed out of discussion on the 9's because it was pretty clear we weren;t going to agree (and it was a pure opinion thing anyway), and I was actually engaged in discussion with Pepe at the time.



I struggle to understand the stadium issue at Leigh I really do. I often read the Leigh board, so am awar of some of the issues, but it looks a lovely stadium, and whoever owns it shouldn't b the over-riding factor IMO, however that is one for your club to overcome.



In terms of lcubs moving forward, I think there has been good progress from the likes of Halifax, Widnes, Barrow, Featherstone, Toulouse and Gateshead have had some highs this year, although it is a fair point that every team is finding things more difficult in the current climate, which is the case for all teams, whichever division.

The issue quite simply is that unless the club are in SL the cost of playing in the stadium is too much



So the ' ownership or running ' of it is the over riding factor



As for the 9's yes it is opinion just the same as everything else



Just answer one then



How do you think the SL clubs would react to being told to play 1 st team squads in a 9 's competition right now ?



Go on , one simple question , treat yourself

Championship clubs aren't being told "right now" though are they? They've known this for months. How much of a bind do you think it is? Anyone can take a full strength squad - it's what you do with it that counts. Most will just have a half-d run about. It won't be blood and thunder hit ups and heart-attack inducing sprints. I'm sure most will just treat it as a training session. No worries.

I don;t doubt that there would be many people complaining, however that doesn;t mean that me as a fan would toe the line and go with whatever my club thought.



Personally I think our seasons are at risk of becoming a bit stale, and I am a fan of new initiatives. I went to Edinburgh where people complained, and loved it, I also went to Barcelona to watch Wire. Without these couple of things these year I feel that the season would have been quite boring, and I have felt this for the past couple of years.



Events like the Magic Weekend, the World Cup have kept me interested in the game, and I am a fan of a 9's festival in the middle of the summer, although I do understand why people have concerns about the logistics of it.



With regards to the costs of your stadium, why is that an issue to the bog standard fan? I know that this may cause issues for the club, but as fans surely that isn't a massive concern that keeps people away from the stadium.

small things amuse small minds.............................

a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush

and also the lack of a supporters bar which has totally changed the matchday experience



That and the lack of belief that we will ever get the chance to move up the ladder combined has made this season like just a series of freindleys



Our team seem to be feeling the same and dont seem to be able to raise their game at home resulting in us now being probably favourite to be relegated



The club is in a downward spiral at the moment and it is unlikely we will get out of it



So we need another pointless competition like a hole in the head

Yeah, I have read threads on the lack of bar issue. I haven;t been to the new ground yet, and don;t know Leigh that well, do you have plenty of bars around the ground?



I remember at Warrington there was uproar at first due to no supporters bar, however I think this was soon forgotten when fans realised that there were so many pubs in the area that we didn;t really need one.



I assume that won;t happen at Leigh?

personally i am getting bored of hearing about the franchise.



Celtic and Salford got in whether people think it was right or not.



i dont know why we are talking about franchise at the start of the first year of it to start with there is at least 1 year before this topic should be coming up.



i would love for Fax and Widnes to get the next franchise but at the same time i am pretty sure we dont stand much of a chance unless we are uprooting the club to Spain or Cumbria.



I will put a prediction down right now for the next franchise seen as though we are on the subject.



Toulouse will get a place because of obvious reasons.

Barrow will get a place subject to them making improvements on the growd, for obvious reasons once more.



as much as we might not like it Hearland clubs and clubs with a historic rugby past will probaly end up getting shafted at the next franchise for teams that dont have much going for them apart from location.

Leighton Samuel has stated that he has had to put in £1.7 Million just to keep Celtic going for half a season. You’re probably looking at a shortfall, by the end of the season of over two £2 million.



There has been an increase in the TV money SL clubs now get – what is it - £1.2/£1.4 Million? I'm sure each of the other SL clubs could release £100, 000k of that to support the Licence/expansion policy which they voted on to introduce?



This would leave Celtic with a more acceptable shortfall of around £700,000k, which may be helped by the RFL taskforce finding corporate funding for them. It is clear that Dekor (Leighton Samuel’s company) is not in a position to fund CC’s current deficit. In recent years it has barely run on breaking even and they have only made a pre-tax profit of just over £300,000k. That is nowhere near enough to sustain CC’s losses.



If there are clubs, which cannot afford to lose the £100,000k over the next two years, then this should be a major tick against their financial area of the 2011 Licence bid.



It would be wrong to use RFL money that is earmarked for areas outside SL (god knows that’s little enough) to keep CC in SL. No Sport England monies should be used either. So that just leaves one place it can come from. They will have until next season to budget for this, so there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. SL clubs wanted the new licence/expansion system, so they either pay for it or….





Leighton Samuel has plenty of experience in running a rugby club. I think it is quite clear that Celtic are in severe financial trouble. The revelations that have been shown to be true over the last few days are a testament to that. The fact that LS has already admitted to having to pump £1.7 Million of his own money in, just half way through the season is yet another indication of the financial situation down in Bridgend. .

That just shows what a totally worthless competition it is then. All the RFL bullsh*t about the NRC final being sold out was just that too. Widnes fans have being buying x9's tickets from Leigh's allocation and the RFL have now given Widnes more tickets to sell. Hence the new threads on the TIW board about fans desperately trying to get on coaches that are fully booked.



I fully agree with what José Starbug is saying. No matter when it may be announced, SL clubs would go mad if they did this to them and these boards would turn into the wailing wall.



RFL couldn't run a up in a brewery field.

I haven't seen the figure of £1.7m quoted anywhere, I saw a figure of just over £700k of his own money (which is still a massive amount).

The £1.7m figure just wouldn't make any sense, as on top of the £1.2m from Sky that would be enough to run a lower SL club anyway. This is without any gate receipts or sponsorship money too, so the £1.7m seems high to me.