title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: By early February 2015, a sequel to "Neighbors" was in development, with Nicholas Stoller set to return to direct. Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien returned to write the film, along with Stoller, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg. Goldberg said he read a list of feminist essays as part of research for the script. Two female comedians, Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci, were brought on board to punch up the jokes, but director Stoller explained they were ultimately not given writer's credits because of Writers Guild stipulations. The film follows Mac and Kelly joining forces with Delta Psi frat leader Teddy to take on the sorority girls who move in next door. Rogen, Rose Byrne, and Zac Efron returned to star. The film was initially scheduled to begin principal photography in mid-2015.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: In July 2015, Chloë Grace Moretz joined the cast, and the title was revealed to be "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising". On August 4, 2015, it was confirmed that Carla Gallo and Ike Barinholtz would be returning for the sequel. On August 7, 2015, Beanie Feldstein and Kiersey Clemons were added to the cast to play Moretz's character's sorority sisters. On August 13, 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that Dave Franco would return for the sequel. Selena Gomez was seen filming on set. Lisa Kudrow was also spotted filming, along with other cast. By September 24, 2015, Billy Eichner had joined the cast of the film. The same month, it was revealed that Hannibal Buress and Jerrod Carmichael had been cast in the film, reprising their roles from the first film. Clara Mamet and Awkwafina also joined the cast. On November 18, 2015, it was announced that Cameron Dallas had joined the cast. In December 2015, it was revealed that Abbi Jacobson had also joined the cast, followed by Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Liz Cackowski, and Brian Huskey, all reprising their roles from the first film.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: During post-production, Lena Dunham, LL Cool J, and Cameron Dallas's scenes were all cut from the film. In her cut scene, Dunham played Joan of Arc. LL Cool J played Beth's father.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: On February 6, 2015, Universal Pictures scheduled the film for release on May 13, 2016. However, on July 27, 2015, the film was pushed back one week to May 20, 2016.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" grossed $55.4 million in North America and $55.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $108.8 million, against a budget of $35 million.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: In North America, "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" opened alongside "The Angry Birds Movie" and "The Nice Guys", and was projected to gross $35–40 million from 3,384 theaters in its opening weekend. The film grossed $8.7 million on its first day, including $1.7 million from Thursday night previews (lower than the original's $2.5 million). In its opening weekend the film grossed $21.8 million, less than half both the previous film's opening ($49 million) and projections, and finished third at the box office behind "The Angry Birds Movie" ($38.2 million) and "" ($32.9 million). The film dropped 57% to $9.4 million in its second weekend, including $11.4 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, finishing fifth.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: Internationally, where it is known as "Bad Neighbours 2", the film was released in a total of 56 countries. It was released in 16 markets on May 6, 2016, where it earned $8 million in its opening weekend. The United Kingdom and Ireland posted the top opening for the film with $2.4 million, followed by Australia with $1.8 million and $1.5 million in Germany.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 64% based on 204 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" may not be strictly necessary, but it still wrings a surprising amount of humor from a recycled premise with a distaff twist." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor, while PostTrak reported audiences gave the film a 67% overall positive score and a 45% "definite recommend".


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: Mike Ryan of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, writing, "In a world in which so many comedy sequels fail, here comes a comedy sequel that isn't just 'as good as the first movie,' it's even better." "The Guardian" awarded it two stars out of five, saying, "This pretty routine follow-up has some decent material and amiable bad taste, heavily diluted with gallons of very ordinary sequel product: more of the same."


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: In addition, critics praised the movie for its depiction of a gay relationship and positive support from friends in a bromance that avoids gay panic, instead embracing acceptance. The film was also commended for its purported feminist message and for engaging in issues of gender equality, but has also inspired debate about its degree of progressivism.


title: Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising

text: On May 16, 2016, Seth Rogen uploaded a short film sequel to "Sorority Rising" to his Twitter account, titled "Neighbors 3: Zombies Rising", in which he and Zac Efron reprise their roles as Mac and Teddy. The film follows the pair as they argue over how to deal with a tied up zombie, with matters becoming complicated when Teddy realizes the zombie was once part of his fraternity, Delta Psi Beta. The short ends after the pair accidentally kill the zombie, with Rogen and Efron themselves discussing what a great idea it would be for a third feature-length "Neighbors" film.


title: Red Hot Chili Peppers 2022 Global Stadium Tour

text: The Global Stadium Tour is an ongoing concert tour by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of the band's twelfth and thirteenth studio albums, "Unlimited Love" and "Return of the Dream Canteen", which were released on April 1, 2022 and October 14, 2022, respectively. The tour is the band's first in five years and their first in fifteen years with guitarist John Frusciante, who returned to the band in 2019. The tour began in Seville, Spain and is tentatively scheduled to conclude in July 2023 in Glasgow; however more dates are expected.


text: On September 24, 2021, the band announced that they would embark on a world tour in 2022, their first with John Frusciante since 2007 and that it would be in support of their as yet to be announced twelfth studio album. The band made the announcement in a YouTube video where they dressed as newscasters for a fictional news channel called KHOT News. Anthony Kiedis played a character called Johnson Hammerswaddle, Flea played Todd the Squirrel while Chad Smith played weatherman Randy Raindrops. John Frusciante appeared as himself being interviewed by the other three band members. On October 7, 2021, the band released another KHOT News video where they confirmed the first 32 dates for their Global Stadium Tour which would see the band performing their first North American headlining stadium shows in their career. Presales for the shows began on October 9.


text: "Can't Stop" and "Around the World" have alternated as the band's opening songs for the first two legs of the tour. "By the Way" is now serving as the band's closing song for their shows. The closing slot was typically held for many years by "Give it Away", which now ends the main set. This tour has seen the band drop "Under the Bridge" from many of their setlists. The song has been written on various setlists but either dropped in favor of another song (typically "I Could Have Lied", "Soul to Squeeze" or "Sir Pyscho Sexy") or not replaced by any song.


text: On April 1, the release date for "Unlimited Love", the Chili Peppers performed a surprise show The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. It marked the band's first show since 2007 with Frusciante


text: (they did perform a three-song set, minus Chad Smith, on February 8, 2020, at a memorial service for a friend). The show saw the live debuts of "Here Ever After", "Aquatic Mouth Dance" and "Not the One" from "Unlimited Love" and George Clinton joined the band for "Give It Away". On the same day, the band appeared in pre-recorded performances (filmed on March 29 and 31) on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" where "Black Summer" made its live debut and on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", where they performed "These Are the Ways" for the first time on the rooftop of The Hollywood Roosevelt hotel where the album cover and photos were shot, On April 5 they appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" where they were interviewed and performed "These Are the Ways" along with two handpicked songs by Howard Stern, "Give It Away" and "Under the Bridge". On April 7 they gave a special four song performance (with Frusciante on acoustic guitar) at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, CA. The performance included a cover of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" which was last performed by the band in 2016. The band gave a surprise invite-only performance on April 14 at the Yaamava' Theater in Highland, CA for the opening of the Yaamava' Resort & Casino. They were the first to ever perform at the theater. This performance saw the live debut of "Whatchu Thinkin'". On May 1 the band performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, replacing the Foo Fighters who cancelled their appearance following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. The band closed the show with "By the Way" marking the first time the song closed a show since 2007. While the band was scheduled to perform at the Billboard Music Awards on May 15, it was later announced on May 11 that due to “unseen circumstances” the band was forced to cancel their appearance at the awards show.


text: SiriusXM launched the "Whole Lotta Red Hot" channel on April 1 and it was announced that an exclusive concert for subscribers would air on the channel later in the year.


text: The band kicked off their Global Stadium Tour in Seville on June 4, 2022. It marked the band's first tour with Frusciante since their Stadium Arcadium World Tour in 2006-07 and their first ever show in Seville. The setlist consists of 17 songs with the shows lasting under two hours, which has been common for the band throughout their career. On June 7, 2022, the band performed in Barcelona where the setlist saw a drastic change from the first night. "The Heavy Wing" from "Unlimited Love" made its live debut, while songs including "Around the World" "Dani California", "I Could Have Lied" and "Right on Time" were performed with Frusicante for the first time in over 15 years. At the band's June 10 show in the Netherlands, "One Way Traffic" from "Unlimited Love" made its live debut while "Hard to Concentrate" from 2006's "Stadium Arcadium" was performed for the first time with Frusciante and "I Like Dirt" from 1999's "Californication" was performed for the first time since 2004 with Frusciante. On June 12, the band performed in Bratislava, Slovakia at the Lovestream Festival where "She's a Lover" and "White Braids & Pillow Chair" from "Unlimited Love" made their live debut along with "Me and My Friends" making its tour debut. "Thirty Dirty Birds", a short spoken word song from 1985's "Freaky Styley", was recited by Flea during the show. It marked the first time since 1991 it had been performed. At their June 15 show in Budapest, "It's Only Natural" from "Unlimited Love" made its live debut while "Don't Forget Me" made its tour debut. "Universally Speaking" was performed for the first time since 2004 with Frusciante at the band's June 22 show in Manchester. Under the Bridge finally made its return on June 25 in London after being dropped from previous shows. That same show, "Emit Remmus" also made its tour debut. On June 29 in Dublin, "If You Have to Ask", "Sir Psycho Sexy" and "They're Red Hot" from their 1991 album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" made their tour debuts. The band announced that they had to cancel their July 1 show in Glasgow due to an illness and said they are working on ways to reschedule the show.


text: The band kicked off the North American leg of their tour on July 23, 2022 in Denver, CO. During the show, the band announced that their 13th studio album, "Return of the Dream Canteen", would be released on October 14, 2022. The band's July 29, 2022 show in Santa Clara saw the tour debut of the rarely-performed "She's Only 18", which was last performed in 2017, and on the August 6, 2022 in Las Vegas saw the tour debut of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik". "Strip My Mind" made its tour debut in Nashville on August 12. The band performed "Black Summer" and "Can't Stop" the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28 where received the Global Icon Award, presented to them by Cheech & Chong, and also won the award for Best Rock Video for "Black Summer". The band performed a special show at The Apollo Theater in New York on September 13, 2022 as part of the SiriusXM Small Stage Series. The show was broadcast live on the band's SiriusXM channel "Whole Lotta Red Hot" and fans could win tickets by listening to the channel. The band's show on September 15, 2022 in Orlando was delayed for over an hour due to a rain storm. During the show, John Frusciante performed "I Remember You" by the Ramones to pay tribute to his late friend Johnny Ramone who passed away 18 years earlier on that date. The North American leg of the stadium tour wrapped up on September 18, 2022 in Arlington, TX. Festival performances will conclude the remainder of the North America dates in 2022. On October 9, "Eddie" made its live debut at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It was the first performance of a song from "Return of the Dream Canteen". On October 12, the band made a surprise appearance at Hoopa Valley High School in Hoopa, CA where they performed tweleve songs for the students during the school's Indigenous Peoples' Day assembly.The band performed their final show of 2022 at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music on October 29. The show was dedicated to the band's former drummer D.H. Peligro who passed away the previous day. The band will perform their first show of 2023 on January 24 at the iHeartRadio ALTer Ego music festival in Inglewood, CA.


text: Following the conclusion of the North American dates on October 16, 2022, the tour is scheduled to resume on January 21, 2023 with eight dates in New Zealand and Australia with Post Malone serving as the opening act.


text: The band will perform their first shows on the tour in Asia with three dates scheduled for February 16, 19 and 21, 2023 in Singapore and Japan.


text: A second North American leg of the tour is currently scheduled for eleven shows and will begin in March 2023 in Mexico City and will conclude on May 29, 2023 in Houston. City and Colour, The Mars Volta, The Strokes, Thundercat, St. Vincent, and King Princess will serve as opening acts.


text: A thirteen date second European leg will begin on June 18, 2023 in the Netherlands and will wrap up on July 23 in Glasgow. Iggy Pop, The Roots and King Princess will serve as the opening acts. The leg will also consist of seven festival dates.


The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:


title: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

text: The Ninth Circuit also has appellate jurisdiction over the territorial courts for the District of Guam and the District of the Northern Mariana Islands. Additionally, it sometimes handles appeals that originate from American Samoa, which has no district court and partially relies on the District of Hawaii for its federal cases.


text: Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the Ninth Circuit is by far the largest of the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals, covering a total of nine states and two territories and with 29 active judgeships. The court's regular meeting places are Seattle at the William Kenzo Nakamura United States Courthouse, Portland at the Pioneer Courthouse, San Francisco at the James R. Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building, and Pasadena at the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals.


text: Panels of the court occasionally travel to hear cases in other locations within the circuit. Although the judges travel around the circuit, the court arranges its hearings so that cases from the northern region of the circuit are heard in Seattle or Portland, cases from southern California and Arizona are heard in Pasadena, and cases from northern California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific territories are heard in San Francisco. Additionally, the court holds yearly sittings in Anchorage and Honolulu. For lawyers who must come and present their cases to the court in person, this administrative grouping of cases helps to reduce the time and cost of travel. Ninth Circuit judges are also appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior to serve as temporary acting Associate Justices for non-federal appellate sessions at the High Court of American Samoa in Fagatogo.


text: The Ninth Circuit's large size is due to the dramatic increases in both the population of the western states and the court's geographic jurisdiction that have occurred since the U.S. Congress created the Ninth Circuit in 1891. The court was originally granted appellate jurisdiction over federal district courts in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. As new states and territories were added to the federal judicial hierarchy in the twentieth century, many of those in the West were placed in the Ninth Circuit: the newly acquired Territory of Hawaii in 1900, Arizona upon its admission to the Union in 1912, the Territory of Alaska in 1948, Guam in 1951, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in 1977.


text: The Ninth Circuit also had jurisdiction over certain American interests in China, in that it had jurisdiction over appeals from the United States Court for China during the existence of that court from 1906 through 1943.


text: However, the Philippines was never under the Ninth Circuit's jurisdiction. Congress never created a federal district court in the Philippines from which the Ninth Circuit could hear appeals. Instead, appeals from the Supreme Court of the Philippines were taken directly to the Supreme Court of the United States.


text: In 1979, the Ninth Circuit became the first federal judicial circuit to set up a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel as authorized by the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.


text: The cultural and political jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit is just as varied as the land within its geographical borders. In a dissenting opinion in a rights of publicity case involving the "Wheel of Fortune" star Vanna White, Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski sardonically noted that "[f]or better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit." Judges from more remote parts of the circuit note the contrast between legal issues confronted by populous states such as California and those confronted by rural states such as Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.


text: Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld, who maintains his judicial chambers in Fairbanks, Alaska, wrote in a letter in 1998: "Much federal law is not national in scope...It is easy to make a mistake construing these laws when unfamiliar with them, as we often are, or not interpreting them regularly, as we never do."


text: From 1999 to 2008, of the Ninth Circuit Court rulings that were reviewed by the Supreme Court, 20% were affirmed, 19% were vacated, and 61% were reversed; the median reversal rate for all federal appellate courts was 68.29% for the same period. From 2010 to 2015, of the cases it accepted to review, the Supreme Court reversed around 79% of the cases from the Ninth Circuit, ranking its reversal rate third among the circuits; the median reversal rate for all federal circuits for the same time period was around 70 percent.


text: Some argue the court's high percentage of reversals is illusory, resulting from the circuit hearing more cases than the other circuits. This results in the Supreme Court reviewing a smaller proportion of its cases, letting stand the vast majority of its cases.


text: However, a detailed study in 2018 reported by Brian T. Fitzpatrick, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, looked at how often a federal circuit court was reversed for every thousand cases it terminated on the merits between 1994 and 2015. The study found that the Ninth Circuit's decisions were reversed at a rate of 2.50 cases per thousand, which was by far the highest rate in the country, with the Sixth Circuit second as 1.73 cases per thousand. Fitzgerald also noted that the 9th Circuit was unanimously reversed more than three times as often as the least reversed circuits and over 20% more often than the next closest circuit.


text: Many commentators have argued that the Ninth Circuit faces several adverse consequences of its large size, such as "unwieldly size, procedural inefficiencies, jurisprudential unpredictability, and unusual "en banc" process."


text: Chief among these is the Ninth Circuit's unique rules concerning the composition of an "en banc" court. In other circuits, "en banc" courts are composed of all active circuit judges, plus (depending on the rules of the particular court) any senior judges who took part in the original panel decision. By contrast, in the Ninth Circuit it is impractical for 29 or more judges to take part in a single oral argument and deliberate on a decision en masse. The court thus provides for a limited "en banc" review by the Chief Judge and a panel of 10 randomly selected judges. This means that "en banc" reviews may not actually reflect the views of the majority of the court and indeed may not include any of the three judges involved in the decision being reviewed in the first place. The result, according to detractors, is a high risk of "intracircuit" conflicts of law where different groupings of judges end up delivering contradictory opinions. That is said to cause uncertainty in the district courts and within the bar. However, "en banc" review is a relatively rare occurrence in all circuits and Ninth Circuit rules provide for full "en banc" review in limited circumstances.


text: All recently proposed splits would leave at least one circuit with 21 judges, only two fewer than the 23 that the Ninth Circuit had when the limited "en banc" procedure was first adopted. In other words, after a split at least one of the circuits would still be using limited "en banc" courts.


text: In March 2007, Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee that the consensus among the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States was that the Ninth Circuit was too large and unwieldy and should be split.


text: Congressional officials, legislative commissions, and interest groups have all submitted proposals to divide the Ninth Circuit such as:


text: The more recent proposals have aimed to redefine the Ninth Circuit to cover California, Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and to create a new Twelfth Circuit to cover Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.


title: James Gosling

text: James Gosling (born May 19, 1955) is a Canadian computer scientist, best known as the founder and lead designer behind the Java programming language.


title: James Gosling

text: Gosling was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 for the conception and development of the architecture for the Java programming language and for contributions to window systems.


title: James Gosling

text: Gosling attended William Aberhart High School in Calgary, Alberta. While in high school, he wrote some of the software to analyze data from the ISIS 2 satellite, working for the University of Calgary physics department. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Calgary and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, all in computer science. He wrote a version of Emacs called Gosling Emacs (Gosmacs) while working toward his doctorate. He built a multi-processor version of Unix for a 16-way computer system while at Carnegie Mellon University, before joining Sun Microsystems. He also developed several compilers and mail systems there.


title: James Gosling

text: Gosling was with Sun Microsystems between 1984 and 2010 (26 years). At Sun he invented an early Unix windowing system called NeWS, which became a lesser-used alternative to the still used X Window, because Sun did not give it an open source license.


title: James Gosling

text: He is known as the father of the Java programming language. He got the idea for the Java VM while writing a program to port software from a PERQ by translating Perq Q-Code to VAX assembler and emulating the hardware. He is generally credited with having invented the Java programming language in 1994.


title: James Gosling

text: He created the original design of Java and implemented the language's original compiler and virtual machine. Gosling traces the origins of the approach to his early graduate student days, when he created a p-code virtual machine for the lab's DEC VAX computer, so that his professor could run programs written in UCSD Pascal. In the work leading to Java at Sun, he saw that architecture-neutral execution for widely distributed programs could be achieved by implementing a similar philosophy: always program for the same virtual machine. Another contribution of Gosling's was co-writing the "bundle" program, known as "shar", a utility thoroughly detailed in Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike's book "The Unix Programming Environment".


title: James Gosling

text: He left Sun Microsystems on April 2, 2010, after it was acquired by the Oracle Corporation, citing reductions in pay, status, and decision-making ability, along with change of role and ethical challenges. He has since taken a very critical stance towards Oracle in interviews, noting that "during the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle, where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer's eyes sparkle." He clarified his position during the "Oracle v. Google" trial over Android: "While I have differences with Oracle, in this case they are in the right. Google totally slimed Sun. We were all really disturbed, even Jonathan [Schwartz]: he just decided to put on a happy face and tried to turn lemons into lemonade, which annoyed a lot of folks at Sun." However, he approved of the court's ruling that APIs should not be copyrightable.


title: James Gosling

text: In March 2011, Gosling joined Google. Six months later, he followed his colleague Bill Vass and joined a startup called Liquid Robotics. In late 2016, Liquid Robotics was acquired by Boeing. Following the acquisition, Gosling left Liquid Robotics to work at Amazon Web Services as Distinguished Engineer in May 2017.


title: James Gosling

text: He is an advisor at the Scala company Lightbend, Independent Director at Jelastic, and Strategic Advisor for Eucalyptus, and is a board member of DIRTT Environmental Solutions.


title: James Gosling

text: For his achievement, the National Academy of Engineering in the United States elected him as a Foreign Associate member.


title: Super League

text: The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of which eleven are from Northern England, reflecting the sport's geographic heartland within the UK, and one from southern France.


title: Super League

text: The Super League began in 1996, replacing the existing First Division and, significantly, switching from a traditional winter season to a summer season.


title: Super League

text: Each team plays 27 games between February and September: 11 home games, 11 away games, Magic Weekend and an additional 4 'loop fixtures' decided by league positions. The top six then enter the play-off series leading to the Grand Final which determines the champions. The bottom team is relegated to the Championship.


title: Super League

text: In a recent tradition, the Super League champions play the National Rugby League champions from Australasia in the World Club Challenge at the start of the following season.


title: Super League

text: During the 1950s, British rugby league experienced a boom in popularity. However the twenty years that followed saw attendances and popularity decline. A ‘Super League’ was first suggested as far back as the 1970s as a way to address the decline. By the early 1990s the sport was still struggling with dwindling attendances, poor facilities and was dominated by one club Wigan who were the only full time professional team.


title: Super League

text: By 1992 then Chief Executive of the Rugby Football League, Maurice Lindsay brought up a serious idea for a Super League. He wanted the new league to break the stereotype of rugby league being a sport only played in Northern England and had a vision for clubs to play out of new facilities under a set of minimum standards in an unpublished document he called ‘Framing the Future’.


title: Super League

text: Lindsay’s Super League was given a boost during the mid 90s Australian Super League war. A Rupert Murdoch backed Super League in Australia was trying to gain broadcasting supremacy over the Australian Rugby League. In an attempt to gain the upper hand, Murdoch, whose broadcasting company bSkyb already had the rights to the First Division, approached the RFL.


title: Super League

text: A £77 million offer and an £87 million payment aided the decision. It was agreed a 14 team Super League would take place in 1996, switching the sport from winter to summer and making every team full time.


title: Super League

text: As part of the agreement, Super League would be a European competition to break free from its Northern stereotype. Rugby league held a traditional heartland in the South of France and so Toulouse Olympique were invited. A second club from the French leagues was also planned to be invited but the French government refused their backing unless there was a team from Paris, thus Paris Saint Germain were founded as the second French club playing under the same name and colours as the football club.


title: Super League

text: The proposal to merge neighbouring clubs, many who were local rivals and had been part of communities for a hundred year proved unpopular. On Good Friday 1995 it was announced Toulouse had pulled out and Widnes had their own place alongside Warrington, this as well as anti merger campaigns and debates in parliament effectively killing any change of mergers happening.


title: Super League

text: The first major change before the Super League happened in the 1994-95 season. It was decided the teams finishing in the top ten of the First Division would be in the Super League. Teams finishing 11-15 would be relegated to the Second Division while the bottom team would be relegated to the new Third Division. In the current Second Division the top 7 teams would remain while the rest would make up the Third Division.


title: Super League

text: Controversy occurred at the end of 1994-95 when Keighley won the Second Division but were denied promotion due to fourth placed London Broncos being fast tracked to the First Division as Lindsay wanted Super League to have a more national coverage. This resulted in a legal challenge from Keighley and Widnes who were both denied a place in Super League.


title: Super League

text: The 1995-96 season would be the last to be played in winter and fittingly was the sports centenary year. The season was kept short, starting in August and finishing in January while the 1995 World Cup taking place in October.


title: Super League

text: Along with the new league, new rules were introduced. Squad numbers were adopted, a video referee was at every televised game and the salary cap was introduced to stop clubs overspending and to allow for a more level playing field. Super League was also more Americanised with clubs adopting nicknames and the league seasons copying the NFL Super Bowl by being known as a Roman numeral rather than year (e.g. Super League 1996 was known as Super League I).


title: Super League

text: The first game was on 29 March which saw PSG beat Sheffield 30-24 in front of 17,873 people at Charlety Stadium. The inaugural Super League title was won by St Helens, breaking Wigans stronghold for the first time since 1989 while Workington were relegated.


title: Super League

text: St Helens we’re unable to defend their title as Super Leagues second season was won by the Bradford Bulls with London Broncos justifying the decision to be fast tracked into Super League by finishing second. Oldham we’re relegated and PSG, who had finished 11th for the second consecutive time were dissolved after it was discovered some of their overseas players had tourist visas to avoid paying French tax.


title: Super League

text: Due to Oldham being relegated and PSG folding, two teams, Hull Sharks and Huddersfield Giants, were promoted. It was also announced ahead of the 1998 season that there would be no relegation as the league planned to expand to 14 teams from 1999.


title: Super League

text: The other major change was that a playoff would decide the Champions. This was not new to rugby league as a playoff system had been in use for most of the sports existence although one hadn’t been used since 1973. Confusingly a playoff did take place at the end of the season but was separate from the official league season and thus didn’t count towards anything. Old Trafford the venue for the old Premiership Playoff Final would be used to host the new Grand Final in which the top five Super League teams would contest.


title: Super League

text: The first Grand Final took place at Old Trafford in front of a sellout crowd of 40,000 who watched Wigan defeat Leeds 12-8, their first league title since the old First Division.


title: Super League

text: Ahead of the expansion to 14 clubs Wakefield Trinity were promoted from the Second Division and a new club, Gateshead Thunder were awarded a place in Super League in 1999, which was won by St Helens who beat Bradford in the Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: Gateshead had a successful debut season on the field finishing tow points off the playoffs however off the field the club was suffering financial difficulties. By the end of the season Gateshead announced they would merge with Hull Sharks who were to revert to being known as Hull FC. Gateshead weren’t the only club struggling, Sheffield announced they could no longer continue and merged with Huddersfield and would be known as Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants. Due to these two clubs resigning from the league it was agreed Super League would revert to 12 teams after just one season.


title: Super League

text: Relegation was reintroduced in 2001 with one team going down each year. The only major change to the league was in 2002 when the playoffs were expanded to six teams. The League Leaders Shield was introduced in 2003 to reward the team who finished top at the end of the regular season.


title: Super League

text: In 2005 it was announced a franchise was to be awarded to a French club, with Toulouse, Villeneuve and Catalans Dragons all applying. In the end Catalans, who were only founded in 2000 after a merger between two Perpignan based clubs, were chosen. Their debut season would be in 2006 and they would be exempt from relegation for the first three years. Their inclusion in Super League meant two clubs would be relegated in 2005. Bottom team Leigh were relegated with 11th placed Widnes.


title: Super League

text: By the mid 2000s Super League hadn’t exactly become what people hoped it would. Standards on the field had improved and attendances increased but many clubs still played out of crumbling stadiums and most of the sport was still played in the North of England. There was also the emergence of the ‘Big Four’ (Bradford, Leeds, Wigan & St Helens) who were dominating the league during its first 10 seasons.


title: Super League

text: In May 2005 to try and combat the issues facing Super League, the RFL announced licences were announced as the new determinant of the Super League competition's participants from 2009 with relegation scrapped, two new teams would expand the league to 14. The licences were awarded after consideration of more factors than simply the on-the-field performance of a club. After 2007 automatic promotion and relegation was suspended for Super League with new teams to be admitted on a licence basis with the term of the licence to start in 2009.


title: Super League

text: The RFL stated that clubs applying to compete in Super League would be assessed by criteria in four areas (stadium facilities, finance and business performance, commercial and marketing and playing strength, including junior production and development) with the final evaluations and decisions being taken by the RFL board of directors.


title: Super League

text: Successful applicants were licensed for three years of Super League competition and three-yearly reviews of Super League membership took place to ensure ambitious clubs lower down the leagues can still be successful.


title: Super League

text: Points attained by each club's application are translated into licence grades A, B or C. Clubs who achieved an A or B Licence would be automatically awarded a place in the Super League, while those who achieved a C Licence underwent further scrutiny before the RFL decided who made the final cut.


title: Super League

text: In June 2008, the RFL confirmed that the Super League would be expanded from 12 teams to 14 in 2009 with the playoffs also expanding to 8 teams, and on 22 July 2008 the RFL confirmed the teams awarded licences. The teams announced were the 12 existing Super League teams along with National League 1 teams, Celtic Crusaders and Salford. Celtic Crusaders becoming the first Welsh team to play in Super League and the only team to be awarded a licence who had never played in the Super League previously.


title: Super League

text: Featherstone Rovers, Halifax, Leigh and Widnes all failed to attain a licence. Leigh and Widnes, especially, were disappointed with their exclusions with Leigh's chairman being extremely critical of the RFL.


title: Super League

text: By the end of the 2008 season, Salford and Celtic Crusaders finished 13th and 14th respectively and the Grand Final was won by the League Leaders, Leeds Rhinos for a fourth time. The following season Crusaders made the playoffs but were knocked out in the first round. League Leaders Wigan won the Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: By 2011 the Crusaders were suffering financial difficulties and entered administration and were deducted four points. Salford on the other hand despite never making the playoffs in the three years since they were promoted were in a much better financial position.


title: Super League

text: During this period the league was being dominated by Leeds and St Helens with Leeds winning 3 titles and St Helens appearing in every Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: For the 2012–14 seasons Championship sides Batley, Barrow, Featherstone Rovers, Halifax and Widnes all met the on-field criteria needed to submit an application, but despite this only Barrow, Halifax and Widnes decided to submit an application. On 31 March 2011 Widnes were awarded a Super League licence; Barrow, did not meet the criteria and were refused a licence; and Halifax's application was to be further considered alongside the other Super League clubs.


title: Super League

text: The Rugby Football League's final decision was announced on 26 July 2011, Widnes would be joining thirteen existing Super League teams with Crusaders having withdrawn their application and Halifax being refused a license. Crusaders CEO Rod Findlay stated that the club's finances were not in a good enough condition to justify their place in Super League. Halifax chairman Mark Steele was critical of the decision to award Wakefield a licence over themselves, saying "If you compare Belle Vue with the Shay, it's no contest; if you compare playing records, it's no contest; and if you compare the financial position, we have kept our head above water and they haven't." Wakefield had been favourites to lose their licence before Crusaders' withdrawal.


title: Super League

text: After two licensing periods the system started to fall out of favour. Some highlighted the failure of clubs such as Wakefield and Castleford to build new stadiums but were twice awarded licenses over Championship clubs who many thought would be better suited to Super League. There was also unrest in the Championship with clubs feeling their success on the pitch should be rewarded.


title: Super League

text: At the 2013 Annual General Meeting in Bradford, the Super League clubs agreed to reduce the number of clubs to 12 from 2015, and also for a return of Promotion and Relegation with a 12 club Championship.


title: Super League

text: A radical new league structure was proposed. The 12 Super League and 12 Championship clubs would play each other home and away over 22 rounds, plus a Magic Weekend for both divisions, making a 23-game regular season. Following the conclusion of their regular league seasons, the 24 clubs then competed in a play-off series where they split into 3 leagues of 8 based upon league position:


title: Super League

text: In preparation for the new structure, two clubs would be relegated from Super League in 2014 to reduce the league to 12. By the end of the season London Broncos and four time Champions Bradford Bulls were relegated to the Championship.


title: Super League

text: In June 2015 8 of the 12 Super League clubs voted to allow a Marquee Player that could exceed a club's salary cap as long as they can afford their wages. The marquee player rule came into force for the 2016 Super League season.


title: Super League

text: The first Super 8s season was won by the Leeds Rhinos, with all four Super League clubs surviving the Qualifiers. The following year Hull KR were relegated when they lost to Salford in the Million Pound Game with Leigh being promoted.


title: Super League

text: 2017 saw Castleford finish top of the league for the first time in their history although they eventually lost the Grand Final to Leeds who claimed their 8th title.


title: Super League

text: By 2018 there were question marks over how successful the Super 8s were. Attendances after the split dropped and there was more interest in relegation than there was in the Super League 8s and playoffs.


title: Super League

text: On 14 September 2018, an EGM was called to discuss the future of the sport. The Super League clubs were unhappy with the way the RFL was running the sport and wanted more control over future TV deals and sponsorship money. A vote went Super Leagues way and they subsequently split from the RFL while also voting in favour of scrapping the Super 8s in favour of a more traditional league structure with a one up one down system for promotion and relegation.


title: Super League

text: As a result of the split the Super League appointed former Everton CEO Robert Elstone as Chief Executive. Elstone brought in new branding and new rules such as the shot clock to stop time wasting and golden point extra time in favour of draws.


title: Super League

text: After a successful 2019 season Elstone success was short lived due to the 2020 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom . The season was temporarily suspended during the national lockdown in which after Toronto Wolfpack did not return to complete the season. There were calls made from Super League clubs for the two executive bodies – Super League and the RFL – to re-amalgamate following the financial difficulties from the pandemic.


title: Super League

text: As of 14 December 2020, it was decided by unanimous vote that the Leigh Centurions would take the 12th spot in the 26th Super League season, replacing the Toronto Wolfpack who withdrew from the league as a result of financial difficulties caused by the pandemic. This came after the RFL cancelled the Championship 2020 season in response to the pandemic.


title: Super League

text: In February 2021 Elstone announced he was to resign as Chief Executive of Super League, citing failures to bring outside investment to the league and the effects of the pandemic. Huddersfield's chairman Ken Davy was appointed as temporary Chief Executive until the end of the season. Subsequently the new Sky Sports TV deal for the Super League and lower divisions was cut from £40 million to £25 million per year for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.This again had RFL and Super League officials calling for a realignment of the two governing bodies.


title: Super League

text: On March 22 2022 at a Special General Meeting it was announced the RFL and Super League were to officially realign after a majority of clubs voted in favour. A new company separate from the RFL was also set up to take care of the commercial side of the sport.


title: Super League

text: On the 10 May 2022 the RFL announced it had signed a 12 year deal with sports marketing company IMG to maximise the sports growth.


title: Super League

text: 12 teams compete in the Super League. They play each other twice on a home-and-away basis, interrupted by the Magic Weekend round in May. The 12 clubs also play 6 loop fixtures to bring the number of games in a season to 27. The team finishing bottom after 27 rounds collects the Wooden Spoon, and is relegated, while the team finishing first is awarded the League Leaders Shield. The top 6 teams at the end of the season enter the playoffs.


title: Super League

text: Super League adopted Golden point during regular season for the first time in 2019, bringing it in line with the NRL which had been using the system since 2003.


title: Super League

text: In an attempt to expand out of the traditional rugby league "heartlands", and promote the game to a wider audience, the RFL has staged games in large stadiums in places without an existing rugby league presence. The "Magic Weekend" concept, which involves staging an entire round of Super League matches over a weekend in a single stadium, was first staged in Cardiff in 2007. Dubbed "Millennium Magic", and played in the Millennium Stadium, it proved popular with spectators and the concept was held in Cardiff again in 2008. In 2009 and 2010, the event was held in Edinburgh at the Scottish national rugby union stadium, Murrayfield, giving rise to the name changing to "Murrayfield Magic". Generally held during the May Day bank holiday weekend, 2011 saw the Magic Weekend return to Cardiff, and was this time held during the weekend 12–13 February 2011 and served as the season's opening week. From 2014 to 2018, the event was held at St James' Park in Newcastle.


title: Super League

text: In 2019, the event was held at Anfield in Liverpool, before returning to Newcastle for the 2020 season.


title: Super League

text: The play-offs have had various formats. St. Helens are the only team to take part in every play-off series since the inaugural series in 1998.


title: Super League

text: For 2021 Super League XXVI will use the same six team format used in 2020; comprising three rounds. In round one, the elimination finals, the teams finishing 3rd to 6th play each other with the winners progressing to round two. Round two, the semi-finals, sees the teams finishing 1st and 2nd playing the winners of the two elimination finals. The two winners of the semi-finals meet in the Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: The Grand Final is the championship-deciding game and showpiece event of the Super League season. It is held annually at Old Trafford, with the exception of 2020 when it was hosted at KCOM Stadium in Hull in front of no supporters due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Super League

text: The Challenge Cup is a separate cup competition, involving clubs from Super League and all levels of rugby league in Britain. It has been held annually since 1896 and has been expanded to teams in Canada, Serbia, Ireland, Russia, France, Scotland and Wales can take part. The cup runs throughout the season, and the final is usually played on the August bank holiday at Wembley Stadium. Before Super League began in 1996, the final used to take place at Wembley Stadium at the end of April or the start of May, usually 2 weeks after the regular season ended.


title: Super League

text: In 2014 and 2015 Super League clubs were unhappy with the Dual registration system and wanted to form an under-23 reserve leagues between the under-19s and first teams. Wigan, Warrington and St Helens were the first teams to propose the return of the reserve league where players could move from the under 19s and play with professional players before playing in the first team. A reserve league was set up in 2016 with a mixture of Super League, Championship and League 1 teams.


title: Super League

text: Dual registration refers to an arrangement between clubs whereby a player continues to be registered to his current Super League club and is also registered to play for a club in the Championship. The system is aimed at young Super League players who are thought to be not quite ready to make the step up to 'week in, week out' Super League first team duties but for whom first team match experience is likely to be beneficial for their development.


title: Super League

text: For the first two Super League seasons, Champions were decided by a round robin system. The league format changed in 1998 with a play-off series used to determine the Super League champions for the first since 1972–73.


title: Super League

text: The League Leaders' Shield is awarded to the team finishing the regular season top of Super League; this is also known as a minor premiership. The League Leader's Shield was introduced only in 2003, previously no prize was awarded to the team finishing top following the introduction of the Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: In rugby league, the term 'the Double' refers to the achievement of a club that wins both the top division and the Challenge Cup in the same season. To date, this has been achieved by ten different clubs in total, six of which occasions have been during the Super League era.


title: Super League

text: The "Treble" refers to the team who wins all three domestic honours on offer during the season; Grand Final, League Leaders' Shield and Challenge Cup. To date seven teams have won the treble, only Bradford Bulls, St. Helens and Leeds Rhinos have won the treble in the Super League era.


title: Super League

text: The Quadruple refers to winning the Super League, League Leaders' Shield, Challenge Cup and World Club Challenge in one season.


title: Super League

text: The winner of the Grand Final is given the Super League Trophy as Super League Champions. This is considered more prestigious than the minor premiership. Each year, the year of a champion team's triumph, team name and team Rugby league football captain are engraved.


title: Super League

text: The record for most Super League titles won is held by St Helens with nine titles. Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield currently holds the record for captaining the most Super League title winning sides after captaining Leeds to their first 7 grand final successes. St. Helens contested the final 6 years in a row (from 2006 until 2011) during which time they succeeded only once in lifting the trophy against Hull F.C. in 2006; after which they suffered consecutive defeats against Leeds in 2007, 2008, 2009, Wigan in 2010 and Leeds once again in 2011. However, St. Helens made a victorious return in 2014, defeating rivals, Wigan 14–6 and have since won a further three grand finals, defeating Salford in 2019, Wigan in 2020 and Catalans Dragons in 2021.


title: Super League

text: Following their 2020 defeat to St. Helens, Wigan have now broken St Helens' record of losing five Grand Finals, losing a total of six. Hull F.C. (2006), Warrington (2012, 2013, 2016, and 2018), Castleford (2017), Salford (2019), and Catalans (2021) have all appeared in the Grand Final but never won.


title: Super League

text: The Man of Steel Award is an annual award for the best player of the season in Super League. It has continued from pre-Super League times, with the first such award given in 1977. It was renamed in honour of Steve Prescott in 2014.


title: Super League

text: The Albert Goldthorpe Medal is an award voted for be members of the press who cast a vote after every game of the regular season. The three players who, in the opinion of the reporter, have been the three 'best and fairest' players in the game will receive three points, two points and one point respectively. To be eligible for a vote, a player must not have been suspended from the competition at any stage during the season.


title: Super League

text: Each season a "Dream Team" is also named. The best thirteen players in their respective positions are voted for by members of the sports press. The 2022 dream team is as follows:


title: Super League

text: The Super League has been won by 15 coaches, 10 from Australia, 4 from England and 1 from New Zealand.


title: Super League

text: The Super League has had three official logos. The first was used from the inaugural season in 1996 until 2016. The logo had the Super League S with Super above it and League below it. The title sponsors name would appear above the logo until 2014 when title sponsors First Utility used their own personalised logos that appeared on player shirts and in the media. The reigning champions had a ribbon around the logo with champions on it until 2011.


title: Super League

text: The second official logo was introduced in 2017 as part of a radical rebrand across British rugby league. The design was deliberately similar to new Rugby Football League (RFL) and England team logos, in order to maintain a ubiquity of public message. It had a rectangular backdrop representing the George Hotel in Huddersfield (where rugby league was originally founded), thirteen lines representing thirteen players, a chevron (a traditional design feature on many rugby league shirts) and the S which represented the ball and the Super League. The reigning champions had the right to wear a gold version of the logo on their shirts.


title: Super League

text: Ahead of the 2020 Super League season, a brand new logo was revealed. This was designed by the same company who had recently redesigned the Premier League logo and was more simplistic than previous iterations.


title: Super League

text: The title sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. There have been seven title sponsors since the league's formation:


title: Super League

text: As well as title sponsorship, Super League has a number of official partners and suppliers. For the 2017 season these include Kingstone Press Cider, Dacia, Foxy Bingo, Batchelors and Specsavers.


title: Super League

text: An overseas quota restricting the maximum number of foreign players at each club has existed since the inception of the Super League in 1996. However, overseas players that hold a European Union passport or come under the Kolpak ruling do not count towards the quota. This resulted in the number of non-British players at some clubs greatly exceeding the quota.


title: Super League

text: In response to concerns over the growing number of foreign players in the league, in 2007, the RFL announced plans to introduce a "homegrown player" rule to encourage clubs to develop their own players. As of 2017, Super League clubs are permitted to register no more than five overseas players. Additionally, squads are also limited to a maximum of seven non-Federation trained players.


title: Super League

text: A salary cap was first introduced to the Super League in 1998, with clubs being allowed to spend up to 50 percent of their income on player wages. From the 2002 season onwards, the cap became a fixed ceiling of £1.8 million in order to increase parity within the league.


title: Super League

text: The Super League operates under a real-time salary cap system that will calculate a club's salary cap position at the start of and throughout the season:


title: Super League

text: In 2017, Super League clubs approved proposals to increase the salary cap over the next three seasons, eventually rising to £2.1 million by 2020. Clubs will also be allowed to sign a second marquee player.


title: Super League

text: Before each Super League fixture, each club must announce the squad of 19 players it will choose from by 2:00pm on the second day before the match day.


title: Super League

text: All Super League matches are governed by the laws set out by the RFL; these laws are enforced by match officials. Former Super League and International Referee Steve Ganson is the current Head of Match Officials and Technical Director. Former Hull F.C. player and Huddersfield Head Coach Jon Sharp was the previous Head of Match Officials. Sharp was sacked in July 2015 and took up the role of Head Coach at Featherstone Rovers. He assumed his role at the RFL following Stuart Cummings' departure in March 2013 having previously held the role of Match Officials Coach & Technical Director.


title: Super League

text: Since its formation in 1996 only four teams have won the Super League (Bradford Bulls, Leeds Rhinos, St. Helens and Wigan Warriors). Also, only nine teams have taken part in the Grand Final (Hull FC, Castleford Tigers, Warrington Wolves, Salford Red Devils, and Catalans Dragons being the other five). Eight teams have been the league leaders, however only one of these (Huddersfield Giants) in 2013, is a different team to those that have appeared in the grand final, meaning that only nine different teams in total have been involved in the grand final or topped the regular season table, however, 23 teams have taken part in Super League since its inception. The last grand final to feature two sides other than Wigan, Leeds, St Helens or Bradford occurred in 1991 when Hull F.C. defeated Widnes 14–4. This had led to the criticism that Super League is effectively uncompetitive, by perpetuating success in the hands of a small number of wealthy clubs.


title: Super League

text: In comparison, during the same period, 12 different teams have won the Australasian National Rugby League competition and 15 different teams have appeared in the Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: Between 2009 and 2014 teams had to apply for a licence to play in Super League, which was partly awarded based on a club's financial viability; this also meant there was no longer automatic promotion from the Championship into Super League. This was highly unpopular with Championship clubs, because there was no way for them to win promotion to the higher level based purely on sporting success. Consequently, the Super League came to be seen as a closed shop for its existing members, with entry based primarily on financial capability.


title: Super League

text: Attendances in the lower divisions dropped as a result of this system, because it was felt that there was little appeal in these leagues when there was no incentive for the clubs to win the Championship. Additionally, the only time that lower division clubs got the chance to play illustrious Super League opposition was in the early rounds of the Challenge Cup. With no simple route in to the Super League, teams were further unable to compete with top division opposition because there was no way those clubs could attract good quality talent when they could not offer young players the prospect of playing at the highest level.


title: Super League

text: Most of the teams that have competed in Super League have been in the traditional English rugby league heartlands of the so-called 'M62 Corridor' between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Catalans Dragons are the only team currently playing in Super League who play outside this area. Since their arrival in 2006, The Dragons have enjoyed a sustainable and competitive period in Super League which has seen them become the first non-English team to win the Challenge Cup in 2018, the League Leaders Shield in 2021, and reach the Super League Grand Final, also in 2021.


title: Super League

text: Expansion of the sport was a key policy of the Rugby Football League when Super League was created, and has consistently been considered important for the future well-being of rugby league. However, with the exception of the Catalans Dragons and the comparative long-term stability of the London Broncos, expansion clubs have not generally proved viable at the highest level. Paris Saint-Germain RL competed from the beginning of the competition but disbanded after just two seasons due to a lack of interest and investment, Gateshead Thunder had poor attendance figures and were merged with Hull after only one year in 1999, despite a strong season that saw them narrowly miss the playoffs, Celtic Crusaders joined Super League in 2009 while in Bridgend, South Wales before moving close to the M62 corridor to Wrexham, North Wales in 2010 and renamed as Crusaders RL. They reached the playoffs in 2010, but struggled on and off the pitch in 2011 before withdrawing their application for a 2012-14 licence at the 11th hour and folding at the end of the season, only lasting 3 seasons in Super League. In addition, Toronto Wolfpack lasted less than a full season in Super League, their financial problems exacerbated by international travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 as they pulled out before the resumption of the 2020 season in August 2020 before being expelled from the competition later that year. Toulouse Olympique gained promotion to Super League for the 2022 season, after a victory over Featherstone Rovers on 10 October 2021 in the Million Pound Game, becoming the third French team to play in Super League and the fourth non-British team to play in the competition, as well as ensuring there would be a French derby in Super League for the first time. Toulouse only stayed in Super League for one season, finishing bottom with just 5 wins all season.


title: Super League

text: Sky Sports have been the primary broadcast partner of Super League since its inaugural season in 1996. The current deal lasts between 2022 until 2023 and covers 66 matches per season, plus gives Channel 4 the right to broadcast a further 10 (eight regular season plus two play-off games). Sky Sports broadcasts live Super League games in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Broadcasting slots occur on Thursdays and Fridays at 19:30 (20:00 kick off), and varying times on weekend afternoon, however only two or three are used per week.


title: Super League

text: In addition to Sky Sports' live coverage, BBC Sport broadcast a weekly highlights programme called the Super League Show, usually presented by Tanya Arnold. This is broadcast to the North West, Yorkshire, North East & Cumbria, and East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire regions on BBC One on Monday nights (after 11pm) and is repeated nationally on BBC Two on Tuesday afternoons. A national repeat was first broadcast overnight during the week since February 2008 when the then BBC Director of Sport, Roger Mosey, commented that this move was in response to the growing popularity and awareness of the sport, and the large number of requests from people who want to watch it elsewhere in the UK. The end of season play-off series is shown nationwide in a highlights package. The Super League Show is also available for streaming or download using the BBC iPlayer in the UK.


title: Super League

text: Talksport is an official broadcaster of Super League, broadcasting commentaries and magazine programming on Talksport 2. BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra covers more than 70 Super League games through 5 Live Rugby League each Thursday and Friday night. Each 3 hour programme is presented by Dave Woods with a guest summariser (usually a Super League player or coach) and in addition to live commentary also includes interviews and debate. A 5 Live Rugby League podcast is available to download each week from the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtxd/episodes/downloads.


title: Super League

text: All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.


title: Super League

text: ESPN3, formerly ESPN360, has had worldwide broadband rights since 2007 when they broadcast the 2007 Grand Final.


title: Super League

text: Since 9 April 2009, all of the matches shown on Sky Sports have also been available live online via Livestation everywhere in the world excluding the US, Puerto Rico, UK, Ireland, France, Monaco, Australia and New Zealand. In 2016 Livestation shut down, however these matches are also available online for UK users only through Sky Go and Now TV.


title: Super League

text: In the United Kingdom, a number of commercial radio stations, along with BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and the local BBC radio stations simulcast commentary of Super League games on the internet. Additionally, the 5 Live Rugby League podcast is available to download each week from the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtxd/episodes/downloads.


title: Guild

text: A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes depended on grants of letters patent from a monarch or other ruler to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials, but were mostly regulated by the city government. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the guildhalls constructed and used as guild meeting-places. Guild members found guilty of cheating the public would be fined or banned from the guild.


title: Guild

text: Typically the key "privilege" was that only guild members were allowed to sell their goods or practice their skill within the city. There might be controls on minimum or maximum prices, hours of trading, numbers of apprentices, and many other things. These rules reduced free competition, but sometimes maintained a good quality of work.


title: Guild

text: An important result of the guild framework was the emergence of universities at Bologna (established in 1088), Oxford (at least since 1096) and Paris (); they originated as guilds of students (as at Bologna) or of masters (as at Paris).


title: Guild

text: Following the unification of the city-states in Assyria and Sumer by Sargon of Akkad into a single empire ruled from his home city circa 2334 BC, common Mesopotamian standards for length, area, volume, weight, and time used by artisan guilds in each city were promulgated by Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254–2218 BC), Sargon's grandson, including for shekels. Code of Hammurabi Law 234 (c. 1755–1750 BC) stipulated a 2-shekel prevailing wage for each 60-gur (300-bushel) vessel constructed in an employment contract between a shipbuilder and a ship-owner. Law 275 stipulated a ferry rate of 3-gerah per day on a charterparty between a ship charterer and a shipmaster. Law 276 stipulated a 2-gerah per day freight rate on a contract of affreightment between a charterer and shipmaster, while Law 277 stipulated a -shekel per day freight rate for a 60-gur vessel.


title: Guild

text: A type of guild was known in Roman times. Known as "collegium", "collegia" or "corpus", these were organised groups of merchants who specialised in a particular craft and whose membership of the group was voluntary. One such example is the "corpus naviculariorum", a collegium of merchant mariners based at Rome's La Ostia port. The Roman guilds failed to survive the collapse of the Roman Empire.


title: Guild

text: A "collegium" was any association that acted as a legal entity. In 1816, an archeological excavation in Minya, Egypt (under an Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire) produced a Nerva–Antonine dynasty-era tablet from the ruins of the Temple of Antinous in Antinoöpolis, Aegyptus that prescribed the rules and membership dues of a burial society "collegium" established in Lanuvium, Italia in approximately 133 AD during the reign of Hadrian (117–138) of the Roman Empire. Following the passage of the "Lex Julia" during the reign of Julius Caesar as Consul and Dictator of the Roman Republic (49–44 BC), and their reaffirmation during the reign of Caesar Augustus as "Princeps senatus" and Imperator of the Roman Army (27 BC–14 AD), "collegia" required the approval of the Roman Senate or the Emperor in order to be authorized as legal bodies. Ruins at Lambaesis date the formation of burial societies among Roman Army soldiers and Roman Navy mariners to the reign of Septimius Severus (193–211) in 198 AD. In September 2011, archeological investigations done at the site of the artificial harbor Portus in Rome revealed inscriptions in a shipyard constructed during the reign of Trajan (98–117) indicating the existence of a shipbuilders guild. "Collegium" also included fraternities of Roman priests overseeing ritual sacrifices, practicing augury, keeping scriptures, arranging festivals, and maintaining specific religious cults.


title: Guild

text: There were several types of guilds, including the two main categories of merchant guilds and craft guilds but also the frith guild and religious guild. Guilds arose beginning in the High Middle Ages as craftsmen united to protect their common interests. In the German city of Augsburg craft guilds are mentioned in the Towncharter of 1156.


title: Guild

text: The continental system of guilds and merchants arrived in England after the Norman Conquest, with incorporated societies of merchants in each town or city holding exclusive rights of doing business there. In many cases they became the governing body of a town. For example, London's Guildhall became the seat of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation, the world's oldest continuously elected local government, whose members to this day must be Freemen of the city. The Freedom of the City, effective from the Middle Ages until 1835, gave the right to trade, and was only bestowed upon members of a Guild or Livery.


title: Guild

text: Early egalitarian communities called "guilds" were denounced by Catholic clergy for their "conjurations" — the binding oaths sworn among the members to support one another in adversity, kill specific enemies, and back one another in feuds or in business ventures. The occasion for these oaths were drunken banquets held on December 26. In 858, West Francian Bishop Hincmar sought vainly to Christianise the guilds.


title: Guild

text: In the Early Middle Ages, most of the Roman craft organisations, originally formed as religious confraternities, had disappeared, with the apparent exceptions of stonecutters and perhaps glassmakers, mostly the people that had local skills. Gregory of Tours tells a miraculous tale of a builder whose art and techniques suddenly left him, but were restored by an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a dream. Michel Rouche remarks that the story speaks for the importance of practically transmitted journeymanship.


title: Guild

text: In France, guilds were called "corps de métiers". According to Viktor Ivanovich Rutenburg, "Within the guild itself there was very little division of labour, which tended to operate rather between the guilds. Thus, according to Étienne Boileau's Book of Handicrafts, by the mid-13th century there were no less than 100 guilds in Paris, a figure which by the 14th century had risen to 350." There were different guilds of metal-workers: the farriers, knife-makers, locksmiths, chain-forgers, nail-makers, often formed separate and distinct corporations; the armourers were divided into helmet-makers, escutcheon-makers, harness-makers, harness-polishers, etc. In Catalan towns, especially at Barcelona, guilds or "gremis" were a basic agent in the society: a shoemakers' guild is recorded in 1208.


title: Guild

text: In England, specifically in the City of London Corporation, more than 110 guilds, referred to as livery companies, survive today, with the oldest years old. Other groups, such as the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers, have been formed far more recently. Membership in a livery company is expected for individuals participating in the governance of "The City", as the Lord Mayor and the Remembrancer.


title: Guild

text: The guild system reached a mature state in Germany and held on in German cities into the 19th century, with some special privileges for certain occupations remaining today. In the 15th century, Hamburg had 100 guilds, Cologne 80, and Lübeck 70. The latest guilds to develop in Western Europe were the "" of Spain: e.g., Valencia (1332) or Toledo (1426).


title: Guild

text: Not all city economies were controlled by guilds; some cities were "free." Where guilds were in control, they shaped labor, production and trade; they had strong controls over instructional capital, and the modern concepts of a lifetime progression of apprentice to craftsman, and then from journeyman eventually to widely recognized master and grandmaster began to emerge. In order to become a master, a journeyman would have to go on a three-year voyage called journeyman years. The practice of the journeyman years still exists in Germany and France.


title: Guild

text: As production became more specialized, trade guilds were divided and subdivided, eliciting the squabbles over jurisdiction that produced the paperwork by which economic historians trace their development: The metalworking guilds of Nuremberg were divided among dozens of independent trades in the boom economy of the 13th century, and there were 101 trades in Paris by 1260. In Ghent, as in Florence, the woolen textile industry developed as a congeries of specialized guilds. The appearance of the European guilds was tied to the emergent money economy, and to urbanization. Before this time it was not possible to run a money-driven organization, as commodity money was the normal way of doing business.


title: Guild

text: The guild was at the center of European handicraft organization into the 16th century. In France, a resurgence of the guilds in the second half of the 17th century is symptomatic of Louis XIV and Jean Baptiste Colbert's administration's concerns to impose unity, control production, and reap the benefits of transparent structure in the shape of efficient taxation.


title: Guild

text: The guilds were identified with organizations enjoying certain privileges (letters patent), usually issued by the king or state and overseen by local town business authorities (some kind of chamber of commerce). These were the predecessors of the modern patent and trademark system. The guilds also maintained funds in order to support infirm or elderly members, as well as widows and orphans of guild members, funeral benefits, and a 'tramping' allowance for those needing to travel to find work. As the guild system of the City of London declined during the 17th century, the Livery Companies transformed into mutual assistance fraternities along such lines.


title: Guild

text: European guilds imposed long standardized periods of apprenticeship, and made it difficult for those lacking the capital to set up for themselves or without the approval of their peers to gain access to materials or knowledge, or to sell into certain markets, an area that equally dominated the guilds' concerns. These are defining characteristics of mercantilism in economics, which dominated most European thinking about political economy until the rise of classical economics.


title: Guild

text: The guild system survived the emergence of early capitalists, which began to divide guild members into "haves" and dependent "have-nots". The civil struggles that characterize the 14th-century towns and cities were struggles in part between the greater guilds and the lesser artisanal guilds, which depended on piecework. "In Florence, they were openly distinguished: the "Arti maggiori" and the "Arti minori"—already there was a "popolo grasso" and a "popolo magro"". Fiercer struggles were those between essentially conservative guilds and the merchant class, which increasingly came to control the means of production and the capital that could be ventured in expansive schemes, often under the rules of guilds of their own. German social historians trace the "Zunftrevolution", the urban revolution of guildmembers against a controlling urban patriciate, sometimes reading into them, however, perceived foretastes of the class struggles of the 19th century.


title: Guild

text: In the countryside, where guild rules did not operate, there was freedom for the entrepreneur with capital to organize cottage industry, a network of cottagers who spun and wove in their own premises on his account, provided with their raw materials, perhaps even their looms, by the capitalist who took a share of the profits. Such a dispersed system could not so easily be controlled where there was a vigorous local market for the raw materials: wool was easily available in sheep-rearing regions, whereas silk was not.


title: Guild

text: In Florence, Italy, there were seven to twelve "greater guilds" and fourteen "lesser guilds" the most important of the greater guilds was that for judges and notaries, who handled the legal business of all the other guilds and often served as an arbitrator of disputes. Other greater guilds include the wool, silk, and the money changers' guilds. They prided themselves on a reputation for very high-quality work, which was rewarded with premium prices. The guilds fined members who deviated from standards. Other greater guilds included those of doctors, druggists, and furriers. Among the lesser guilds, were those for bakers, saddle makers, ironworkers and other artisans. They had a sizable membership, but lacked the political and social standing necessary to influence city affairs.


title: Guild

text: The guild was made up by experienced and confirmed experts in their field of handicraft. They were called master craftsmen. Before a new employee could rise to the level of mastery, he had to go through a schooling period during which he was first called an apprenticeship. After this period he could rise to the level of journeyman. Apprentices would typically not learn more than the most basic techniques until they were trusted by their peers to keep the guild's or company's secrets.


title: Guild

text: Like "journey", the distance that could be travelled in a day, the title 'journeyman' derives from the French words for 'day' ("jour" and "journée") from which came the middle English word "journei". Journeymen were able to work for other masters, unlike apprentices, and generally paid by the day and were thus day labourers. After being employed by a master for several years, and after producing a qualifying piece of work, the apprentice was granted the rank of journeyman and was given documents (letters or certificates from his master and/or the guild itself) which certified him as a journeyman and entitled him to travel to other towns and countries to learn the art from other masters. These journeys could span large parts of Europe and were an unofficial way of communicating new methods and techniques, though by no means all journeymen made such travels — they were most common in Germany and Italy, and in other countries journeymen from small cities would often visit the capital.


title: Guild

text: After this journey and several years of experience, a journeyman could be received as master craftsman, though in some guilds this step could be made straight from apprentice. This would typically require the approval of all masters of a guild, a donation of money and other goods (often omitted for sons of existing members), and the production of a so-called "masterpiece", which would illustrate the abilities of the aspiring master craftsman; this was often retained by the guild.


title: Guild

text: The medieval guild was established by charters or letters patent or similar authority by the city or the ruler and normally held a monopoly on trade in its craft within the city in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild. Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called 'handicraft associations'.


title: Guild

text: The town authorities might be represented in the guild meetings and thus had a means of controlling the handicraft activities. This was important since towns very often depended on a good reputation for export of a narrow range of products, on which not only the guild's, but the town's, reputation depended. Controls on the association of physical locations to well-known exported products, e.g. wine from the Champagne and Bordeaux regions of France, tin-glazed earthenwares from certain cities in Holland, lace from Chantilly, etc., helped to establish a town's place in global commerce — this led to modern trademarks.


title: Guild

text: In many German and Italian cities, the more powerful guilds often had considerable political influence, and sometimes attempted to control the city authorities. In the 14th century, this led to numerous bloody uprisings, during which the guilds dissolved town councils and detained patricians in an attempt to increase their influence. In fourteenth-century north-east Germany, people of Wendish, i.e. Slavic, origin were not allowed to join some guilds. According to Wilhelm Raabe, ""down into the eighteenth century no German guild accepted a Wend.""


title: Guild

text: Ogilvie (2004) argues that guilds negatively affected quality, skills, and innovation. Through what economists now call "rent-seeking" they imposed deadweight losses on the economy. Ogilvie argues they generated limited positive externalities and notes that industry began to flourish only after the guilds faded away. Guilds persisted over the centuries because they redistributed resources to politically powerful merchants. On the other hand, Ogilvie agrees, guilds created "social capital" of shared norms, common information, mutual sanctions, and collective political action. This social capital benefited guild members, even as it arguably hurt outsiders.


title: Guild

text: The guild system became a target of much criticism towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Critics argued that they hindered free trade and technological innovation, technology transfer and business development. According to several accounts of this time, guilds became increasingly involved in simple territorial struggles against each other and against free practitioners of their arts.


title: Guild

text: Two of the most outspoken critics of the guild system were Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith, and all over Europe a tendency to oppose government control over trades in favour of laissez-faire free market systems grew rapidly and made its way into the political and legal systems. Many people who participated in the French Revolution saw guilds as a last remnant of feudalism. The d'Allarde Law of 2 March 1791 suppressed the guilds in France. In 1803 the Napoleonic Code banned any coalition of workmen whatsoever. Smith wrote in "The Wealth of Nations" (Book I, Chapter X, paragraph 72):


title: Guild

text: Karl Marx in his "Communist Manifesto" also criticized the guild system for its rigid gradation of social rank and the relation of oppressor/oppressed entailed by this system. It was the 18th and 19th centuries that saw the beginning of the low regard in which some people hold the guilds to this day. In part due to their own inability to control unruly corporate behavior, the tide of public opinion turned against the guilds.


title: Guild

text: Because of industrialization and modernization of the trade and industry, and the rise of powerful nation-states that could directly issue patent and copyright protections — often revealing the trade secrets — the guilds' power faded. After the French Revolution they gradually fell in most European nations over the course of the 19th century, as the guild system was disbanded and replaced by laws that promoted free trade. As a consequence of the decline of guilds, many former handicraft workers were forced to seek employment in the emerging manufacturing industries, using not closely guarded techniques formerly protected by guilds, but rather the standardized methods controlled by corporations.


title: Guild

text: Interest in the medieval guild system was revived during the late 19th century, among far-right circles. Fascism in Italy (among other countries) implemented corporatism, operating at the national rather than city level, to try to imitate the corporatism of the Middle Ages.


title: Guild

text: Guilds are sometimes said to be the precursors of modern cartels. Guilds, however, can also be seen as a set of self-employed skilled craftsmen with ownership and control over the materials and tools they needed to produce their goods. Some argue that guilds operated more like cartels than they were like trade unions (Olson 1982). However, the journeymen organizations, which were at the time illegal, may have been influential.


title: Guild

text: The exclusive privilege of a guild to produce certain goods or provide certain services was similar in spirit and character to the original patent systems that surfaced in England in 1624. These systems played a role in ending the guilds' dominance, as trade secret methods were superseded by modern firms directly revealing their techniques, and counting on the state to enforce their legal monopoly.


title: Guild

text: Some guild traditions still remain in a few handicrafts, in Europe especially among shoemakers and barbers. These are, however, not very important economically except as reminders of the responsibilities of some trades toward the public.


title: Guild

text: Modern antitrust law could be said to derive in some ways from the original statutes by which the guilds were abolished in Europe.


title: Guild

text: The economic consequences of guilds have led to heated debates among economic historians. On the one side, scholars say that since merchant guilds persisted over long periods they must have been efficient institutions (since inefficient institutions die out). Others say they persisted not because they benefited the entire economy but because they benefited the owners, who used political power to protect them. Ogilvie (2011) says they regulated trade for their own benefit, were monopolies, distorted markets, fixed prices, and restricted entrance into the guild. Ogilvie (2008) argues that their long apprenticeships were unnecessary to acquire skills, and their conservatism reduced the rate of innovation and made the society poorer. She says their main goal was rent seeking, that is, to shift money to the membership at the expense of the entire economy.


title: Guild

text: Epstein and Prak's book (2008) rejects Ogilvie's conclusions. Specifically, Epstein argues that guilds were cost-sharing rather than rent-seeking institutions. They located and matched masters and likely apprentices through monitored learning. Whereas the acquisition of craft skills required experience-based learning, he argues that this process necessitated many years in apprenticeship.


title: Guild

text: For the most part, medieval guilds limited women's participation, and usually only the widows and daughters of known masters were allowed in. Even if a woman entered a guild, she was excluded from guild offices. It's important to note that while this was the overarching practice, there were guilds and professions that did allow women's participation, and that the Medieval era was an ever-changing, mutable society—especially considering that it spanned hundreds of years and many different cultures. There were multiple accounts of women's participation in guilds in England and the Continent. In a study of London silkwomen of the 15th century by Marian K. Dale, she notes that medieval women could inherit property, belong to guilds, manage estates, and run the family business if widowed. The "Livre des métiers de Paris (Book of Trades of Paris)" was compiled by Étienne Boileau, the Grand Provost of Paris under King Louis IX. It documents that 5 out of 110 Parisian guilds were female monopolies, and that only a few guilds systematically excluded women. Boileau notes that some professions were also open to women: surgeons, glass-blowers, chain-mail forgers. Entertainment guilds also had a significant number of women members. John, Duke of Berry documents payments to female musicians from Le Puy, Lyons, and Paris.


title: Guild

text: Women did have problems with entering healers' guilds, as opposed to their relative freedom in trade or craft guilds. Their status in healers' guilds were often challenged. The idea that medicine should only be practiced by men was supported by some religious and secular authorities at the time. It is believed that the Inquisition and witch hunts throughout the ages contributed to the lack of women in medical guilds.


title: Guild

text: Professional organizations replicate guild structure and operation. Professions such as architecture, engineering, geology, and land surveying require varying lengths of apprenticeships before one can gain a "professional" certification. These certifications hold great legal weight: most states make them a prerequisite to practising there.


title: Guild

text: Though most guilds died off by the middle of the nineteenth century, quasi-guilds persist today, primarily in the fields of law, medicine, engineering, and academia. Paralleling or soon after the fall of guilds in Britain and in the United States professional associations began to form. In America a number of interested parties sought to emulate the model of apprenticeship which European guilds of the Middle Ages had honed to achieve their ends of establishing exclusivity in trades as well as the English concept of a gentleman which had come to be associated with higher income and craftsmanship


title: Guild

text: Licensing and accreditation practices which typically result from the lobbying of professional associations constitute the modern equivalent of a 'guild-privelge', albeit in contrast to guilds of the Middle Ages which held a letters patent which explicitly granted them monopolies on the provision of services, today's quasi-guild privileges are subtler, more complex, and less "directly" restrictive to consumers in their nature.


title: Guild

text: Nevertheless, it can be argued quasi-guild privileges are in many cases designed not just to serve some notion of public good, but to facilitate the establishing and maintaining of exclusivity in a field of work.


title: Guild

text: There are often subtle dichotomies present in attempting to answer the question of whether modern licensing and accreditation practices are intended to serve the public good, however it be defined. For medieval guilds this dichotomy is exemplified by differing explanations of the same phenomena; of limiting work hours among guild members. Sheilagh Ogilvie argues that this was intended to mitigate competition among guild members, while Dorothy Terry argues this was to prevent guild members from working late into the night while tired and when lighting is poor and therefore producing low quality work. In modern times, while licensing practices are usually argued to in some way protect members of the public (e.g. by ensuring quality standards), it usually can also be argued that these practices have been engineered to limit the number of 'outsiders' who gain entrance to a given field.


title: Guild

text: As argued by Paull starr and Ronald Hamowy, both of whose focus is on the development of medicine in America, the tying of medical licensing practices to universities was a process intended to do more than protect the public from 'quackery', but was engineered to be unnecessarily prolonged, inefficient, and a costly process so as to deter 'outsiders' from getting into the field, thereby enhancing the prestige and earning power of medical professionals.


title: Guild

text: The university system in general continues to serve as a basis upon which modern quasi-guilds operate in the form of professionalism. 'Universitas' in the Middle Ages meant a society of masters who had the capacity for self-governance, and this term was adopted by students and teachers who came together in the twelfth century to form scholars guilds. Though guilds mostly died off by the middle of the nineteenth century, the scholars guild persisted due to its peripheral nature to an industrialized economy. In the words of Elliot Krause,"The university and scholars' guilds held onto their power over membership, training, and workplace because early capitalism was not interested in it (there was no product that the capitalist wished to produce)...the cultural prestige of knowledge itself helped keep the scholars' guild and the university alive while all other guilds failed."


title: Guild

text: - Elliot Krause, "The Death of Guilds" (1996)Though in theory anyone can start a college, the 'privilege' in this case is the linking of federal aid to accreditation. While accreditation of a university is entirely optional, attending an accredited university is a prerequisite to receiving federal aid, and this has a powerful influence on limiting consumer options in the field of education as it provides a mechanism to limit entrepreneurial 'outsiders' from entering the field of education. George Leef and Roxana Burris study the accreditation system for which they observe is 'highly collegial' and potentially bias in the fact that accreditation review is performed by members of schools who will in turn be reviewed by many of the same people who they have reviewed. They further question the effectiveness of the methods involved in accreditation,"Although accreditation is usually justified as a means of giving students and parents an assurance of educational quality, it is important to note that the accreditors do not endeavor to assess the quality of individual programs or departments... The accreditation system is not based on an evaluation of the results of an institution, but rather upon an evaluation of its inputs and processes. If the inputs and processes look good, acceptable educational quality is assumed. It is as if an organization decided which automobiles would be allowed to be sold by checking to make sure that each car model had tires, doors, an engine and so forth and had been assembled by workers with proper training—but without actually driving any cars"


title: Guild

text: - George C. Leef and Roxana D. Burris, "Can College Accreditation Live Up To Its Promise?"Taken in the context of guilds, it can be argued that the purpose of accreditation is to provide a mechanism for members of the scholars guild to protect itself, both by limiting outsiders from entering the field and by enforcing established norms onto one another. Contriving means to limit the number of outsiders who gain an entrance to a field (exclusivity) and to enforce work norms among members were both distinguishing feature of guilds in the Middle Ages.


title: Guild

text: In 1998, Thomas W. Malone championed a modern variant of the guild structure for independent contractors and remote workers. Insurance including any professional legal liability, intellectual capital protections, an ethical code perhaps enforced by peer pressure and software, and other benefits of a strong association of producers of knowledge, benefit from economies of scale, and may prevent cut-throat competition that leads to inferior services undercutting prices. As with historical guilds, such a structure will resist foreign competition.


title: Guild

text: The open-source-software movement has from time to time explored a guild-like structure to unite against competition from Microsoft, e.g. Advogato assigns journeyer and master ranks to those committing to work only or mostly on free software.


title: Guild

text: Patents loosely serve as a form of guild privilege in that they restrict potential newcomers to a field of service. The idea of a patent being applied to intangibles (e.g. intellectual patents) has been called to question by various authors. In "Capital and Ideology" (2000) Thomas Picketty questions the validity of patents being granted to agricultural corporations who claim to have 'invented' certain GMO seeds. According to Picketty, the falsity of such claims is that the specific breakthrough which allowed for the development of these GMO seeds was in fact only the end outcome of generations of "public" investment in education and research.


title: Guild

text: In many European countries, guilds have experienced a revival as local trade organizations for craftsmen, primarily in traditional skills. They may function as forums for developing competence and are often the local units of a national employer's organisation.


title: Guild

text: In the City of London, the ancient guilds survive as livery companies, all of which play a ceremonial role in the city's many customs. The City of London livery companies maintain strong links with their respective trade, craft or profession, some still retain regulatory, inspection or enforcement roles. The senior members of the City of London Livery Companies (known as liverymen) elect the sheriffs and approve the candidates for the office of Lord Mayor of London. Guilds also survive in many other towns and cities the UK including in Preston, Lancashire, as the Preston Guild Merchant where among other celebrations descendants of burgesses are still admitted into membership. With the City of London livery companies, the UK has over 300 extant guilds and growing.