Second phase is 7 games, with the championship teams getting 4 home fixtures; a small advantage perhaps on the field, but definitely on the income stream.

As far as I understand it all???

Two by 12s comprise SL or tier 1.... Championship or tier 2...each will play 22 home and away plus a magic weekend event ie 23 games in the league.
After the 23 games the league will split into three 8s with the second or middle 8 comprising the bottom 4 super league teams and the top 4 championship teams.

This middle 8 will be for qualifying for the P&R only and the play off games will be 7 games with the 4 championship teams initially,having home advantage, the teams finishing 1 to 3 are re admitted to SL. the 4th and 5th teams will play a one off P&R game to decide who goes up or back into SL and who is relegated or goes back to championship? So 30 in total.

But it could have changed, because it's from the policy review doc. completed in SEPT>2013, and assumed by Nigel as being in tablets of stone?



The third 8 hopefully we wont need to know!

TBH I wouldn't be at all surprised if we are in third eight next year. We're going to have to assemble virtually a complete new team from scratch and most of better championship players will already have deals sorted for next year already. By time we start recruiting we'll be signing the scraps. Won't be til next season that we can recruit when better players are available for 2016 season. Think people are kidding themselves thinking we'll bounce straight back up.

I would seriousley hope that we have been at least been preparing for life in the Championship well at least since the points deduction. To leave it till we are relagated would be up there in the top teir of incomptrance of recent years.

Maybe not. There'll be 50 less SL playing contracts available. That's a lot of excess players causing a glut in the market. We should be able to offer one of the better packages outside of SL. Not just wage.

Remind me of the reasons for a 12 team SL again? A smaller playing pool for the England coach to choose from?

I used to think the champ teams would have no hope of gaining promotion through the proposed playoff system, but having watched Leigh in the cup game against Rhinos the other week I'm not so sure any more.
I reckon they would have beaten us and Wakey comfortably that night, so there's no reason why they can't replicate that kind of performance in a promotion dogfight.

Whatever happens next year we will be getting a significant increase in central funding. If we can keep a support base of around 2k and convince Provident to remain as sponsor then we should be spending up to the championship cap without too much of a problem.
It will take some careful management of figures and salaries, but if done right we can remain full time next year imo. Top four in SL2 should be a realistic target.

One of the first things we should be doing is convincing Leon to come home, he would go great in SL2.

I'm sure we're preparing buts there's only so far we can go until we know for sure which league were in. We can only provisionally offer contracts, both to our existing player in event we stay up and championship level players if we go down. If in meantime another club offers same players a definite contract then they would be silly to refuse it. In that sense it would be better for us long term to reach point where it's mathematically impossible to stay up sooner rather than later then we can start signing deals.

How are they going to sell season tickets? I assume for just the first half of the season? The whole thing is a minefield.

First half? It's a little more than that. We will play 11 home games in the regular season, only 2 less than this year.
The playoff system will only result in another 4 home games at most. I'm sure they will offer a package deal for the extra home games if we qualify for the playoff.

Even if we don't qualify for middle eight playoff there's a playoff in bottom eight too. So still 4 extra home games after initial 11. I'd guess they'd offer a season ticket with and without the playoff series. Then offer a 4 match mini season ticket once they know which set of eight were in. But price it such that its cheaper to buy full season ticket at start of season, when you dont know which eight we'll finish in, than it is to buy cut down season ticket plus mini one.

What a mess from whatever angle it is going to be difficult solve this mess and sell Season Tickets. Supporters will just turn off.

I agree with that

If we're going down, it makes a lot of sense to be put out of our misery sooner rather than later

Surely the first question is where will we be playing? I cannot see how we can afford to play at Odsal under the current arrangement, paying market rate rent to the RFL and being responsible for the upkeep of the ground, if we are in the Championship.

We could not afford paying token rent and the upkeep before the deal with RFL over the lease with SL funding and attendances. Unless something has changed on that front, how can we afford Odsal if we go down?

It will come as no surprise whatsoever if, however it is dressed up, we end up not being able to afford Odsal, and Odsal ends up being developed as whatever. So far as I am concerned Odsal is a goner.