Agree 100%

But how to do that is the sticky issue - none of the options are without drawbacks.

We need something root and branch rather than each of us just blaming solely our own bete noire.

But on the narrow issue of the cap, however you juggle it or even if you drop it, the problem comes down to money and simply not having enough big enough clubs.
Mergers won't work due to fan resistance, a very uncompetitive domestic league isn't attractive or helpful in developing players, a tiny league of 8 or 10 teams narrows the sport's base, appeal and opportunities for players and the cap means we lose players (or more than we otherwise might, at least).
It's not an easy balancing act and there really are no silver bullets.

Like most ' rules ' introduced by the RFL , they are so badly thought out ' if at all ' that they are easily abused, hence why they need constant adjustement, about time they got a few ' poachers turned gamekeepers ' in to highlight the frailties before they implement them

Remember when Hull FC won all 26 league games in 78/79 and won promotion? - Their backers spent big on Knocker Norton, Sammy Lloyd etc. Remember Ernie Clay at Fulham spending big on a top team around Reggie Bowden and won promotion in their first year 1980/81?

I know there are still serious potential financial backers out there. With serious money to spend and with the clear understanding that you don't put money into sport to make a profit. I know one who is really enthused having found Rugby League (a bit like Bradley Wiggins has described is own experience).

What such a backer wants is to start a new club probably based on a big RU club - so the infrastructure is there along with a hard core potential existing support to build on. What they want above all is to have a winning team from the off. They would be happy to enter the league at Championship 1 level. They want to know they can 'buy a team that will the league' and earn promotion. Then add higher level players and do the same again the next season and then aim to win promotion to super league.

In the first two years, if all goes to plan, yes - the competion will be uneven if they do win every match - but it's a big pay day for home clubs when the new club plays away and takes supporters to swell the crowd. There's nothing like winning every match to get a new club off the ground - even if initailly at Championship 1 level.

These financial backers who could spread the game to new areas by creating new clubs backed by big money won't emerge though until the stucture of the game in this country is changed. Why?

The Salary Cap and no automatic promotion and relegation between the leagues means they have no chance of doing a Hull or a Fulham. So they don't bother. They don't want their success or failure to be decided by a handful of officials in a room at Red Hall, Leeds.

It is well known that the structure for RL in this country that I advocate includes scrapping the salary cap and having automatic one-up, one-down promotion and relegation between the leagues. I don't really want to get into details until/unless the high level structure is changed. But in terms of who gets promoted - how about a club only getting promoted if it both finishes top of the league AND wins the play-offs Grand Final in the same season?

I think you just made that up. I doubt you have any contact with any potential backers.

It's quite different from my own experience of new clubs entering or not entering pro RL. Actual experience that is, not just something made up about massively wealthy individuals who want to buy their way to sporting success and are hiding in secret anonymity just waiting for the RFL to abandon the salary cap

the salary what?

Scrapping the salary cap is needed (in conjunction with automatic one-up, one-down promotion and relegation betwen the leagues and penalties for insolvency events including relegation to the bottom league if a club goes into liquidation).

On the question of who goes up; concensus seems to favour the team finishing the season top of the league, rather than the grand final winner (or there could be a requirement to win both in the same season in order to win promotion).

Even where a club wins the right to promotion, it would be open to the directors of that club to opt to stay in the division they are in - in which case the bottom club in the league above would not need to be relegated.