Could get some live games next year as Freeview sports launches tomorrow with championship rugby on its schedule.Great unless it means a return to Thursday nights...

Playing devils advocate - but do championship clubs bring that many away fans? Do we take many fans away?

What is most worrying to me is that the North American clubs will be fast tracked at the expense of existing clubs - should they go pop or, with luck, start their own successful league. What will be left to replace them?

Sneer at Bradford, if you wish, but most clubs will miss the Bulls in Div 2 next year.

Rervers, Fax, Fev bring significant numbers. The rest - nowhere.

It's measured in hundreds, but with several away games this year, we've matched or bettered the home team support numbers. For some clubs, that's very welcome revenue.

It's a spin off from Premier Sports, for 'championship', replace with 'Toronto'.

We'll probably find Newtown are going to be in the Championship next year.

Along with a team from Pluto.

...or some other Mickey Mouse club.

we'll help out - could be heading you way

Or you could have Cats

We're not reliant on away support, although it's good to get a few more pennies into the bank when the likes of Bradford or HKR come to town. The main problem for the likes of Fax next year is having (possibly/probably) 3 games in another country (Toulouse, Catalans and Toronto), plus a trip down to London. Tough on players who have other jobs, tough on supporters who like to go to every game, and probably tough from a financial perspective unless the RFL are covering all the expenses for those away games.

...other than that, games against teams with next to zero away support can be a bit of a damp squib. Unless the home team really puts on a performance, the lack of an away team support to generate some atmosphere can result in games feeling very flat. We've played fantastic against some teams, put 40 points past them, but walked out of the ground feeling deflated - for sport to be enjoyable you need a good opponent, and either a massive home crowd or less numbers but with some friendly and noisy rivalry between them.

I find crowds distracting.