2012–14 Super League licences
Encyclopedia
Super League
Super League is the top-level professional rugby league football club competition in Europe. As a result of sponsorship from engage Mutual Assurance the competition is currently officially known as the engage Super League. The League features fourteen teams: thirteen from England and one from...
rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
competition. Successful applicants were given a three-year licence to compete in Super League, the premier rugby league competition in Europe.
Application eligibility
Applications for licences were accepted from existing Super League clubs. Clubs competing in the Co-operative Championship, the division below Super League, could apply if:- they competed in the 2009 or 2010 Grand Finals, or won the Northern Rail Cup
- they had a stadium with a capacity of over 10,000
- they had not been insolvent at any point since 2008
- they had a turnover of at least £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1 million in 2009 or 2010 - they had an average attendance of over 2500 in 2009 or 2010
Applications were made in 2011, and the Rugby Football League
Rugby Football League
The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league football in England. Based at Red Hall in Leeds, it administers the England national rugby league team, the Challenge Cup, Super League and the Rugby League Championships...
, operators of Super League, announced that at least one applicant from the Co-operative Championship would be accepted.
Eligible applicants from the Co-operative Championship, based on the first criterion, were: Halifax
Halifax RLFC
Halifax RLFC is one of the most historic rugby league clubs in the game, formed over a century ago, in 1873 in the Yorkshire town of Halifax. Known as 'Fax', the official club colours are blue and white hoops, blue shorts and blue socks . They share The Shay stadium with football club FC Halifax Town...
, Barrow Raiders
Barrow Raiders
Barrow Raiders are an English professional rugby league team from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who are coached by Dave Clark. Formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club, the club is the oldest of the current professional sports teams in Cumbria....
, Featherstone Rovers
Featherstone Rovers
Featherstone Rovers are a semi-professional rugby league club, based in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. They currently play in the Championship. The Rovers are one of the last vestiges of "small town teams" that were once common in rugby league during the early twentieth century...
, Widnes Vikings
Widnes Vikings
Widnes Vikings RLFC are an English professional rugby league club based in Widnes, Cheshire. They currently play in the Engage Super League, the top tier of European rugby league, after being awarded a license to compete in the top-flight Super League from 2012 onward...
and Batley Bulldogs
Batley Bulldogs
Batley Bulldogs are an English professional rugby league club from Batley, West Yorkshire. They currently play in the Co-operative Championship. Batley is one of the original twenty-two rugby football clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895...
. Of these, only Halifax and Widnes met the second criterion; they were also the only two clubs who met the fifth criterion.
On 31 March 2011, Widnes were granted a licence for the 2012-2014 Super League seasons. Halifax had also met the requirements for a licence, but were not awarded one. Barrow had failed with their License bid.
2009–11 commitments
Talking about the progress of some clubs towards fulfilling their commitments to either upgrade their stadium facilities and move to new ones during the 2009–11 three year licence period, Gary Tasker warned of "the potential implications [of] any failure to do so may have on their next application. Clubs need to be aware that we are raising the bar for the next licence period." "Showcasing Super League in high quality stadium facilities remains a key objective," he said.Castleford, Celtic Crusaders, Wakefield, St Helens and Salford were the focus of attention and were warned in July 2009 that their continued presence in Super League after the next round of licensing was in jeopardy. An RFL statement said, "[They] have been informed that if plans to build new stadiums or significantly improve their home venues are not sufficiently advanced by 2011, they may not satisfy the full criteria for the next period of licensing”.
Number of licences
No upper limit on the number of Super League licences awarded had initially been set by the RFL, the option remained open to expand again in the future. Increasing the number of teams in the competition without changing the competition's format would be at odds with recent RFL and Super League decisions and reports. The RFL's plan for international success, which was the result of an inquiry into EnglandEngland national rugby league team
The England national rugby league team represent England in international rugby league football tournaments. The team has now seen a revival, having largely formed from the Great Britain team, who also represented Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The team is run under the auspices of the Rugby Football...
's poor performance at the 2008 World Cup
2008 Rugby League World Cup
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since the inauguration of the tournament in 1954, and the first since the 2000 event...
, states an intention to work with clubs to limit the number of games top players can take part in. The Magic Weekend
Magic Weekend
The Magic Weekend, previously Millennium Magic, is a concept by the Rugby Football League to stage an entire round of Super League matches in prestigious and exciting cities to showcase the sport....
event has allowed for a reduction in the number of games each club plays to 27, from 28; although a reason for the desire to reduce games in this case was to reduce the number of times Super League sides played each other more than twice in the regular season.
RFL Chief Executive Nigel Wood said, "The best performing [Championship] club will be guaranteed admission to Super League, either at the expense of the worst performing club or by expanding the competition," he said.
In July 2009, the RFL was reported to have warned Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds
Salford City Reds are an English rugby league club based in Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1873, they currently play in the Super League. They have won six Rugby Football League Championships and one Challenge Cup...
, Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club based in Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. They participate in the professional European competition Super League. They are sometimes known as 'Cas', 'Cas Tigers', 'Classy Cas' or the 'Black & Amber'...
and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats are a professional rugby league club that plays in the European Super League and is based in Wakefield. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as Wakey, Trinity, Wildcats, or historically The Dreadnoughts...
, of which none had started construction on a new stadium, that progress must be made in order to avoid jeopardising their chances of obtaining a second Super League licence. St Helens RLFC and Celtic Crusaders (now Crusaders Rugby League) were also warned, but were reported to have a likely chance of having a new stadium by 2012. The news came just over a week after Widnes Vikings
Widnes Vikings
Widnes Vikings RLFC are an English professional rugby league club based in Widnes, Cheshire. They currently play in the Engage Super League, the top tier of European rugby league, after being awarded a license to compete in the top-flight Super League from 2012 onward...
, who already had a new stadium
Halton Stadium
The Stobart Stadium Halton is a rugby league stadium in Widnes, England. The Widnes Vikings play their home games there as do Everton Reserves...
, won their Northern Rail Cup final against Barrow Raiders
Barrow Raiders
Barrow Raiders are an English professional rugby league team from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who are coached by Dave Clark. Formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club, the club is the oldest of the current professional sports teams in Cumbria....
; a key criterion for non-Super League clubs to obtain a first licence. Following this report, all of the named Super League teams made moves to address stadium concerns:
- Salford City originally planned to move into the new City of Salford StadiumCity of Salford StadiumThe Salford City Stadium is the future home of Salford City Reds in Barton-upon-Irwell in Salford, Greater Manchester England. Salford City Council formed a joint venture company with Peel Holdings to develop and deliver the £16 million stadium, which will form part of the a £26m development close...
for the 2011 season, but construction delays pushed back the date to 2012. - Castleford are also building a new stadiumNew Castleford StadiumThe New Castleford Stadium is a description of a proposed rugby league stadium which would be built in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, and will replace The Jungle as the home stadium of Castleford Tigers...
. As in the case of Salford City, they originally planned to move in for 2011 but have been delayed to 2012. - Wakefield had plans to build a new stadiumNewmarket StadiumNewmarket Stadium is the proposed home for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in Stanley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It will replace Belle Vue which has been home to the rugby league club for over 100 years....
in StanleyStanley, West YorkshireStanley is an area in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is about north-east of Wakefield city centre.Stanley was an Urban District in the West Riding of Yorkshire prior to 1974, being made up the four electoral wards of Lake Lock, Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe...
, hoping to move in no later than the 2012 season. After the plans fell through, they announced that they will extensively renovate their existing Belle VueBelle Vue (Wakefield)Belle Vue is a rugby league stadium in Wakefield, England. It is the home stadium of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. It is located beside the A638 Doncaster Road, approximately one mile south of Wakefield City Centre.- Description :Currently, the East stand has a covered stand with seating, with some...
ground to meet new stadium requirements. - St Helens are building a new stadiumNew St Helens StadiumLangtree Park is a rugby league stadium in St Helens. It has a projected capacity of 18,000. It is the home ground of St Helens RLFC, and St Helens Town F.C.. The stadium was granted full planning permission on 20 May 2008. On 11 July 2008 the go-ahead was given without the need for a public...
that was initially expected to open sometime in 2011. They agreed to groundshare with Widnes in 2011, presumably as a hedge against construction delays. - Crusaders (who dropped "Celtic" from their name after the 2009 season) moved to the larger Racecourse GroundRacecourse GroundThe Glyndŵr University Racecourse Stadium AKA The Racecourse Ground is a stadium located in Wrexham, North Wales. It is the home of Wrexham F.C. and, since 2010, the Crusaders Rugby League team who play in the engage Super League...
in Wrexham, the largest town in North WalesNorth WalesNorth Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
(an area that did not have a professional team in either rugby code). It is also close to the M62 corridor that has been the traditional heartland of league in England.
On 4 August 2010, the RFL announced that the number of licences would remain at 14. Once Widnes were granted a licence, the RFL's decision meant that at least one existing Super League club would be left out of the competition.
The final Super League lineup for the 2012–14 period was set on 26 July 2011, when Crusaders announced that they had withdrawn their application for a licence, believing that they were not financially able to sustain themselves in Super League in the near future. The club had gone into administration
Administration (British football)
Sports clubs in the United Kingdom, most often in football, sometimes choose to enter administration when they are unable to pay off outstanding debts. Under the Insolvency Act 1986 a business will face a winding up order bringing them to court and if it is shown that a business cannot pay debts as...
after the 2010 season
Super League XV
The 2010 Super League season was the fifteenth season of rugby league football since the Super League format was introduced in 1996. Fourteen teams competed for the League Leader's Shield over 27 rounds . All clubs also participated in the 2010 Challenge Cup tournament...
, This decision provided a reprieve for Wakefield Trinity, who had been expected to be denied a licence after also going into administration in the 2010–11 close season. Crusaders' former place in Super League will be filled by Widnes.
Licence grading
A summary of licence applications was released with a grading of each clubs application by the RFL on 8 September 2011. Clubs were graded as follows:| License grading | Clubs |
|---|---|
| A licence | Hull FC Hull FC Hull Football Club, commonly referred to as Hull or Hull FC, is a professional rugby league football club established in 1865 and based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The club plays in the Super League competition... , Leeds Rhinos Leeds Rhinos Leeds Rhinos is an English professional rugby league football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The club won the 2011 Super League and became the most successful club in the Super League era, beating St Helens 32-16 on 8th October 2011. Formed in 1890, Leeds competes in Europe's Super League... , Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league football club based in Warrington, England that competes in Super League. They play at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2003.... , Wigan Warriors Wigan Warriors Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011.... |
| B licence | Bradford Bulls Bradford Bulls Bradford Bulls is a professional rugby league club based in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. They play in the European Super League and are currently joint 10th in the league.... , Catalan Dragons, Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are a professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire who play in the European Super League competition. They play their home games at the Galpharm Stadium which is shared with Huddersfield Town F.C.... , Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers or Hull KR is an English professional rugby league football club based in Hull, England. The club formed in 1882 and currently competes in Super League, having won promotion from National League One in 2006... , St Helens RLFC |
| C licence | Castleford Tigers Castleford Tigers Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club based in Castleford in West Yorkshire, England. They participate in the professional European competition Super League. They are sometimes known as 'Cas', 'Cas Tigers', 'Classy Cas' or the 'Black & Amber'... , Halifax RLFC Halifax RLFC Halifax RLFC is one of the most historic rugby league clubs in the game, formed over a century ago, in 1873 in the Yorkshire town of Halifax. Known as 'Fax', the official club colours are blue and white hoops, blue shorts and blue socks . They share The Shay stadium with football club FC Halifax Town... (not awarded licence), Harlequins RL, Salford City Reds Salford City Reds Salford City Reds are an English rugby league club based in Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1873, they currently play in the Super League. They have won six Rugby Football League Championships and one Challenge Cup... , Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity Wildcats are a professional rugby league club that plays in the European Super League and is based in Wakefield. They achieved promotion in 1999 and have remained in the League since. They are known to their fans as Wakey, Trinity, Wildcats, or historically The Dreadnoughts... , Widnes Vikings Widnes Vikings Widnes Vikings RLFC are an English professional rugby league club based in Widnes, Cheshire. They currently play in the Engage Super League, the top tier of European rugby league, after being awarded a license to compete in the top-flight Super League from 2012 onward... |
| Not Graded | Barrow Raiders Barrow Raiders Barrow Raiders are an English professional rugby league team from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who are coached by Dave Clark. Formed in 1875 as Barrow Football Club, the club is the oldest of the current professional sports teams in Cumbria.... (did not meet criteria), Crusaders Rugby League (withdrew application) |
Using the RFL criteria, there has been an increase in the standard of Super League clubs on the previous licencing period.Wigan Warriors
Wigan Warriors
Wigan Warriors is an English rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club's first team squad competes in the engage Super League and the team are the current Challenge Cup holders as of the 27th August 2011....
improved from a B to an A licence. Catalan Dragons, Hull KR
Hull Kingston Rovers
Hull Kingston Rovers or Hull KR is an English professional rugby league football club based in Hull, England. The club formed in 1882 and currently competes in Super League, having won promotion from National League One in 2006...
and Huddersfield Giants
Huddersfield Giants
Huddersfield Giants are a professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire who play in the European Super League competition. They play their home games at the Galpharm Stadium which is shared with Huddersfield Town F.C....
improved from a C to a B licence. There were three additional aplications, with only one not meeting minimum requirements.
The future: 2015–17 licences
Planning for the next licence period, 2015–17, began in 2009. The RFL is working with its members in Super League and the Championship to agree minimum standards in Business Management, Facilities, Finance, Commercial/Marketing/Community and Playing Strength/Performance.Gary Tasker, the RFL's Director of Development, reiterated: "Clubs need to be aware that we are raising the bar for the next licence period and showcasing the Super League competition in high quality, 21st Century stadium facilities remains a key strategic objective."