Re: Mike smith - league express : Mon May 14, 2012 10:29 am
The franchise system is now totally discredited. How can the RFL argue otherwise when The Crusaders were to be given a frachise when the RFL knew full well that they were bust. How can Bradford get a grade B licence when they were in financial trouble. As part of the franchise criteria the fianacial stability of the clubs are reviewed by a top 6 company. I do not believe that the financial issues with these two clubs were not brought to the attention of the RFL. It is now the fans that are footing the bill for these 2 clubs financial mismanagement. How can a side finishing 5th then get a franchise. The SL is now having a joke fixture nearly every week when Widnes come into town. Widnes did not start from a solid base as the players they had were average Championship players not the best team that the league could provide. My point to the RFL would be what is the point of having a ground with 10,000 when your average gate is 2,000 going up to 5,000 when 4 or 5 team come to town. It saddles the club with overheads that are unsustainable for all but 4/5 games a season. See Darlington's precedent in football.
The recent televised game between London Broncos v Wakefield was an embarrassment as all you saw were rows of empty seats when the camera's panned through the stadium.
What Mike's article does not highlight is that the impact of the franchise system on the lower clubs in SL is dead fixtures. London v Widnes is just a dead rubber even this early in the season! Who's going to turn up!
The reason for the franchise system being brought in was to promote youth in the team and stop knee jerk sacking of coaches. The top teams still only promote youth in an injury crisis, see St Helens and Wigan. St Helens still sacked their coach early in the season even though there was no threat of relegation. So in the two main criteria that the Franchise system was brought in to achieve it has glaringly failed.
Come on RFL. Admit the franchise system has failed and do what is best for the game as a whole and go back to promotion and relegation.