Finally some sense. Good post

The RFL made a rod for their own back saying they would promote a championship club this time round. Are any of them really gonna be better than the club they replace?

They finished in a relegation spot. They knew going into the 2005 competition that two teams would be relegated. They agreed to that. They weren't treated shabbily.

Aside from the satdium do Widnes offer anything that Wakefield don't?

well, we wont know the answer to that for 3-6 years. if not longer. thats the point of franchising (if your not a conspiracy theorist that is) did wakefield or Cas really ad anything to the league in the first year or two when they were promoted? did catalans? crusaders? the answer to all is the same, NO. frankly its insane to expect a newly promoted team to 'offer' anything in terms of being competitive, not at first anyway.



that being so, widnes can offer what will without a doubt be huge away support at the likes of wigan, warrington and st helens and all the great rivalries that come with it. they can offer a chairman with drive and importantly, the means to get this club where he wants it to be.

they can offer the biggest support of any club in the championship and showed last time in superleague that many more will come to watch them play in superleague.

a sponsorship portfolio many chairmen would jizz over, a first class academy system.

so i believe the answer to your question is No, not initially on the pitch but that will come, and Yes in terms of everything else they can offer. its certainly no worse than many in superdooperleague.

Solvency?

3 years of financial probity.

A scoreboard

Radiation

no nuclear power stations, heavy metal mines or nuclear weapons silos around here. i believe the background radiation levels in widnes are much the same as leigh

I was offering you a far less embarrassing reason for the multitude of six-fingered hands in Widnes!

so whats your towns excuse for all those women with beards then?